Description: Usually solitary globose or cylindrical, up to 18 cm tall, 9 cm wide.
Habit: Usually solitary globose or cylindrical, up to 18 cm tall, 9 cm wide.
Flowers: Blood red diameter 2,5-4cm. Filaments of the stamens carmine to brownish-cinnabar. Stylus reddish to pale yellowish; Stigma light-yellow to nearly white.
Cultivation and Propagation: It is relatively easy to grow on its own roots and quite resistant to cultivation. The only things that can kill this plant are cold and overwatering.
Soil: Use an open and free draining mineral compost with little organic matter (peat, humus) that allows therefore roots to breath (as it is rot prone). Outdoors a well-draining rocky or sandy soil is ideal.
Pots: It needs a relatively shallow pot to accommodate its fibrous roots and provide a very good drainage. It may stay in the same pot for many years.
Watering: Needs regular water in summer. Keep rather dry in winter, tends to lose its roots in winter.
Hardiness: Keep dry at 5- 10° C in winter but can tolerate sporadic light frost if kept on the dry side prior to, and during, cold weather.
Exposition: The plant tolerates very bright situations, if kept too dark they may become overly lush and greener and could be prone to rotting due to over watering.
Propagation: By seeds
Some of the information in this description has been found at desert-tropicals.com, llifle.com and cactus-art.biz
