The Fruit

Green fruit (late summer/fall)	Red fruit (winter)

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Description

"General: Shrubs scraggly and openly branched, 0.5-2 m tall, the stem segments usually alternate but branching divergently. The stems green but sometimes with a purplish-red cast, these 10-30 cm long with obvious and prominent tubercles 12-25 mm long and 3-4.5 mm broad by about 3 mm high. The areoles subcircular to oval, 2.5-3.5 mm by 2-3 mm with wool yellow that ages gray to black.  Spines: The spines distributed uniformly on joint with 1-4 per most areoles, these straight to slightly arched but mostly tending downward and not obscuring stem, yellow to gray, tipped with yellow, 2-3 cm long and slender but broadly elliptic in cross section, the spines are markedly barbed, the sheaths tan and of much greater diameter than spines making them loose, they are early deciduous and the glochids are yellow. Flowers: Flower 3-5 cm diameter with the inner tepals greenish basally to reddish bronze to purple, they are also tinged magenta near the tip, wedge shaped to obovate, 12-20 mm long by 6-9 mm broad, the filaments greenish basally to bronze distally with yellow anthers, a greenish bronze style and stigma lobes that are cream. Fruits: Fruits green but becoming red, they are obovoid to cylindric and 1.5-2 cm long by 1.2-1.5 cm wide, fleshy at maturity but only slightly juicy, often low tuberculate to smooth and spineless. The tubercles are subequal with 16-28 areoles, a shallow apical  Ecology: Found on flats, limestone flats, hills, and along washes in the desert or grasslands from 2,000-4,500 ft (610-1372 m), flowers May-June." (SEINet)