Erect spreading shrub to 1–2 m high, 1–3 m across, much-branched above the cylindric (to c. 15cm diam.), woody trunk. Terminal cladodes cylindric, tuberculate, 10–16(–25) cm long, (1–)1.5–3 cm diam., glabrous, green to slightly grey-green; tubercles prominent, 0.8–1.6 cm long, 3–5 mm wide, 2–5 mm high; areoles 0.5–0.9 cm apart, apical on tubercles, filled with short dense cream to pale yellowish brownish wool and small white or pale tan glochids; spines 6–24 per areole (more numerous on older branches), spreading, (0.4–)0.8–1.5 cm long, 0.2–0.5 mm wide near base, white to pale grey, each covered by a papery, white sheath. Flowers 4–5 cm diam.; sepaloids greenish with reddish purple margins; petaloids spreading, magenta to reddish purple; staminal filaments magenta, anthers pale yellow; style pale magenta, stigma pale yellow to white; hypanthium tuberculate. Fruit obovoid, deeply depressed at apex, 2.5–4 cm long, 2–2.5 cm diam., strongly tuberculate, with few deciduous spines, bright yellow, succulent, solitary, not proliferating. Flowers late spring–summer.
MuM. Also naturalised in SA, Qld., NSW. Native to south-western United States of America (Arizona and New Mexico), and Mexico. In Victoria known from a single collection (2007) from a roadside opposite C.S.I.R.O Merbein South Office.
