Erect, tall, succulent shrub with branches spreading forming thickets; stem modified into phylloclades; stem jointed, compressed, ovate-oblong, spinous; areoles with 3-7, strong, divaricate, translucent, yellow mottled or purplish black spines; flowers solitary, brown along margins of phylloclade, yellow soon becoming tinged with purple; calyx tube adnate to ovary, limbs 3 or more, small; petals numerous, free or united at the base; stamens many, purple, half the length of the perianth, filaments filiform; ovary 1-celled, ovules many or parietal placenta, style filiform, stigma 2 or more rayed; berries red, 1-celled, pulpy, marked with areoles but bristles and spines deciduous, top depressed; seeds oblong or reniform, many.