Shrub-like, sprawling or erect, 0.8 – 1.5 (-2) m tall, branched from the base. Segments low spreading, 7 - 12 (-25) cm long, 7 – 20 cm wide, ellipticm – obovate to oblong - elliptic, dull green or bluish green, compressed, persistent, glabrous. Areoles 2- 9 (-12) mm in diameter, not lanate or brownish – lanate, distantly present. Spines yellow – brown, somewhat mottled, subulate, basally flattened, 0 – 11 per areole, 1 – 4 (-6) cm long, spreading, pungent, largest spine rigid, firm, smaller one thin. Glochidia 3 – 5 mm long, numerous, inconspicuous in crescent at adaxial edge of areoles, yellow - reddish brown. Leaves 3 – 4 (-6) mm long, subulate, stout. Flowers (5)  6 – 7 cm across, yellow. Perianth rotate. Outer tepals sepaloids green, with pale border, deltoid – obovate, entire - crisped, mucronate. Inner tepals petaloid, lobes spreading, bright yellow. Filaments and anthers yellow. Style and stigmatic lobes yellowish. Fruit 4 – 6 cm long, 2.5 – 4 cm wide, purplish throughout, stipitate, ellipsoid or barrel shaped or obovoid, more or less depressed umbilicus, juicy, spineless. Seeds 4-5 mm long, suborbicular pale brown.

Two varieties are generally recognized.