This South American beauty has a orangish-purple tinged body and nice white flowers with a purple throat.
 

Description: Solitary or slowly clustering,
Stem: 10-15 (25) cm in diameter, 10 cm tall, pale green that turns to an orangish purple in full sun. The epidermis has a velvety appearance.  The apex is slightly depressed and woolly.
Ribs: 10 to 12 thick, divided into polygonal rounded (not chinned) tubercles, separated by arched furrows.
Roots: Fibrous
Areoles: Large, oval, 10x14mm, yellowish then blackish, dismantling with time.
Spines: Strong, bent, initially blackish with a brown base then becoming grey-pinkish with black point.
Radial spines: 7-9 (5), up to 25mm long.
Central spines: one or two central spines of the same length.
Flowers: Infundibuliform near the apex, diameter and height 45-50 mm.  Pericarpell: dull green and very short.  External tepals are spatulate, slightly bent outward, white with brownish green midribs.  The inner tepals are narrower, spatulate and slightly denticulate, white with a carmine_pink, purplish throat. Styles are carmine with carmine pink 10-12 lobes.  Pollen is yellow.
Fruit: Subspheric, approximately 2 cm in diameter, becoming red carmine with maturity.  Pulp is intense cherry-red.
Seeds: Microsemineum type, section pirisemineum, very small (0.6 X 0.4mm), testa reddish, shining and smooth.
 

Cultivation: Gymnocalyciums are very gratifying plants.  They are easy to cultivate, and their  flowering is abundant if we give them a well drained relatively rich substrate (if possible, not limestone).   Water regularly in summer (but do not over-water).  Keep rather dry in winter.  It needs frequent repottings and a very luminous exposure, but avoid direct exposure to the sun's rays. This species is particularly easy and accommodating, and seldom suffers from cryptogamic diseases.  Feed with a high potassium fertilizer  in summer.   Hardy as low as   -5° C (or less) if  kept dry.

Propagation: By direct sowing after last frost, or by offsets.  Grafting is useless (excluding the cultivars deprived of chlorophyll).  It does not bring anything concrete

Photo of conspecific taxa, varieties, forms and cultivars of Gymnoclycium pfanzii:

• Gymnocalycium pflanzii
• Gymnocalycium pflanzii var. albipulpa

Conservation status: Listed in CITES appendix 2.
 

Scientific name:  Gymnocalycium pflanzii (Vaupel) Werdermann 1935

Origin:  South-east of Bolivia, North-West of Paraguay and North of Argentina (Provinces of Salta and Jujuy)

Etymology: Named in the honour of K Pflanz.
 

• Gymnocalycium marquezii,
• Gymnocalycium milaresii,
• Gymnocalycium izozogsii,
• Gymnocalycium chuquisacanum,
• Gymnocalycium comaparense,
• Gymnocalycium riograndense,
• Gymnocalycium pflanzii var. lagunillasense,
• Gymnocalycium lagunillasense,
• Echinocactus pflanzii,
• Gymnocalycium zegarrae