Morphology Pelecyphora sneedii is a small cactus growing up to about tall, but sometimes revealing just a few centimeters above ground level, the rest of the stem buried. The species may branch profusely, even when small and immature, forming up to 250 branches in some populations. It is coated densely in
areoles of bright white spines; each areole may have nearly 100 spines. There are 25 to 52 radial spines per areole that are more or less appressed or tightly appressed, measuring long. There are 8 to 17 outer central spines per areole, which may be appressed to strongly projecting. There are up to 5 inner central spines per areole, which are typically straight and radiate like spokes, measuring long. Depending on the substrate, the spines may be tinted with yellow, pink, purple, or brown. They may have dark tips and as the cactus ages the spines darken to gray and even black.
P. sneedii typically blooms in spring from March to June, bearing flowers long and wide near the apical part of the stem. The outer
tepals are sparsely to densely fringed at the margins. There are 11 to 26 inner tepals, and vary in color from white, cream, pale tan, greenish white, or pale rose-pink. There are usually well-defined midstripes of various colors (usually darker) on the tepals, or they can sometimes be absent. The inner tepals measure long by wide. The
stamens have low-contrast filaments (often the same color as the tepals) with sulphur yellow or canary yellow anthers atop. The stigma is divided into 2 to 7 pale lobes, long. The fruits, which emerge from May to September, are dimorphic, with "red" (blood-red to magenta) and "green" (greenish-yellow to brown or purple) color phases. The fruits have a cylindric to fusiform or obovoid to narrowly clavate shape, and are up to long. The dried remains of the flower remain persistent on the fruit, and the fruit quickly dries out of its originally juicy and succulent form. The seeds are a brownish color, and are long, with a distinctive pitting on their surface. ==Taxonomy==