Flower to 5 inches (12.5 cm) across. Petals relatively few, obovate, flat with entire margins, rust-orange. Throat-circle yellow. Throat green. Filaments mostly dark red, contrasting to petals. Stigma light green. Stem semicolumnar, to about 3¼ inches (8 cm) in diameter, with light-colored, stout, essentially straight central spines to 1⅛ inches (28 mm) in length. ISI 2002-51; HBG 87026, Schick 1320-3. (1320-3). Flower simple-appearing, to 5 inches (12½ cm) across. Petals relatively few, neat in appearance, inners moderate in width, margins entire, flat when flower fully opened, rust-orange. Filaments mostly dark red, contrasting beautifully to orange of petals. Throat-circle yellow. Stigma light green. Throat green. Stem semicolumnar, to about 3¼ inches (8 cm) in diameter, handsomely adorned with light-colored, essentially straight central spines to 1⅛ inches (28 mm) in length.
Out of the Jungle Book comes ‘Shere Khan’! The plant, that is, not the tiger. Toothless, he would have been envious of the stem’s beautiful long spines. “Wow, if I had canine choppers like those!” he would have thought. But it was only the color of the flower that reminded me of the fictional old feline, not anything about his dentition. HBG 87026. Rooted offsets $9.50.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 74 (2), March - April, 2002