Plants erect, branched or unbranched, not deep-seated in substrate. Roots diffuse. Stems unsegmented, gray-green to yellowish or bronze-tinted green, spheric to short cylindric, 5-10(-24) × (1.8-)2.5-6.5(-8) cm, usually white woolly at apex; tubercles prominent, not confluent into ribs, tightly packed in vertical, sprialing rows as if tuberculate ribs, compressed conic, 7-12 × 4-7 mm, 8-18 mm diam. at base; areoles adaxially elongated into long, narrow, conspicuous grooves extending into axils of tubercles, usually short woolly; areolar glands absent; cortex and pith not mucilaginous; specialized, yellow, sticky layer beneath old bark. Spines 9-17[-26] per areole, white, gray, brown, or black, acicular, straight; radial spines 9-15[-25] per areole, with bulbous bases, 6-17 mm; central spines [0-]6(-8) per areole, terete with bulbous bases. Flowers diurnal, at stem apex, at axillary end of areolar groove, showy, short funnelform, 2.5-3.2 × 3-5.5 cm; outer tepals whitish or magenta to purplish, to 25 × 10 mm, margins entire (sometimes irregularly, minutely denticulate); inner tepals bright rose-pink or magenta, 15-32 × 5-11 mm, margins entire; ovary smooth, spineless; stigma lobes 4-7, white to cream, 2-4 mm. Fruits dehiscent along vertical slits or indehiscent, green to white (slightly pinkish near base), becoming tan or greenish brown, spheric, 4-10 × 4-8 mm, dry and papery, smooth, spineless; pulp absent; floral remnant deciduous. Seeds black to gray, obovoid or pyriform, 1.1-1.6 × 0.8-1.2 mm, papillate; testa cells strongly convex. x = 11.
SELECTED REFERENCE
Anderson, E. F. 1986. A revision of the genus Neolloydia B. & R. (Cactaceae). Bradleya 4: 1-28.
| Name | Language | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Greek neos, new, and the genus name Lloydia, for Francis Ernest Lloyd, 1868-1947 , Canadian botanist] |
|
