Plant: tree or shrub, 0.5-1.5 m tall, with trunks to 20 cm long. PADS gray-green to yellow-green, glabrous, circular to broadly obovate, sometimes wider than long, 12-22 cm long, 12.5-20 cm broad. AREOLES 6-9 in a row diagonal across midpad, circular to elliptic, 4-7 mm long, 3-7 mm wide; wool tan to brown, aging gray Leaves: SPINES in most areoles, reddish yellow to red-brown, the distal ones often yellow, the basal ones sometimes whitish; major spines stiff, (0-)4-8(-9), mostly deflexed but sometimes spreading, particularly on pad margins, subterete to flattened, even channelled adaxially, sometimes twisted and curved, the largest 4-6 cm long. GLOCHIDS 1-6(-12) mm long, yellow to yellow-brown, crowded in an extended marginal apical crescent nearly encircling the areole plus a less dense subapical tuft obscured by the long dense wool Flowers: inner tepals yellow sometimes with a faint basal reddish blush, broadly obovate, apiculate, 2.2-3.5 cm long; filaments yellow; style white; fresh stigmas greenish white Fruit: FRUITS dull red with green flesh, ovate to obovate, spineless, 3.2-5.0 cm long, 1.5-3 cm in diameter, the umbilicus 4-6 mm deep; areoles 28-46. SEEDS yellowish, reniform to subcircular, the flat sides smooth; girdle protruding 0.5-0.8 mm Misc: Sandy to gravelly flats or slopes, desert grassland to oak and/or juniper woodlands; 1000-1500 m (3200-5000 ft); Apr-Jul REFERENCES: Pinkava, Donald J. Cactaceae. 2003. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 35(2).