This cactus with a generally solitary shape can occasionally turn on the base. It has a stem of light green color tending to olive green with many ribs very wavy and fine with white wooly areoles. From the latter, radial and central spines emerge: the first are thin with a greyish color while the central ones are longer and stiffer, darker and with a flattened shape tending upwards. In its variegated form, this cactus has yellowish shades in the exact points of the epidermis where there is a lack of chlorophyll; these shades will never be identical in plants making each of them unique in its kind. During the flowering period, in summer, E. phyllacanthus f. variegated gives beautiful funnel-shaped flowers of small size with a pale pink color with purple central streaks that bloom at the apex of the plant.