Description: Tiny globular succulent plants, usually solitary (Slowly clumping in cultivation)
Stems: Depressed-globose to globose, soft, dark green, usually not more than 2,5 cm in diameter and height (but in cultivation it can slowly grow up to 4,5 cm in diameter). Without latex.
Roots: Somewhat fleshy, thickened root
Tubercles: Pyramidal with short white wool in the axil.
Radial spines: 17 - 25, white, cream coloured or tan, radiating, somewhat pectinate and curved backwards, not interlacing, 1.2 - 2.2 mm long.
Central spines: Absent.
Flowers: Cherry red to fuschia-red (or occasionally white) with a paler throat, relatively large in relation to the stems size, up to 20 mm long, 2,5 cm large. The flowers are diurnal and close at night.
Blooming season: A characteristic of this species is that, at least when cultivated northern Europe and US, the flowers appears during Autumn and Winter, and often fails to develop properly due to cold, damp, and lack of light in a temperate climate. A sufficiently sunny October day is needed to prompt them to open.
Fruits: Remains embedded in the stem.
Seeds: Large, black.