Authors: Phil.  

Botanical Description

Dense hemispherical cushion shrublet 10-50cm tall, with stout, branched spines at branch tips. These pale green spines, bleaching pale brown with age, are shorter and less robust than those of the similar A. erinacea. They present more of a cactus-like aspect and do not arch into scorpioid tangles. There is some degree of glandular-hairiness in the foliage. Leaves 1-2.5cm long, with three to six pairs of quite broad folded obovate leaflets, often emarginate. Flowers 8-10mm long on pedicels of the same length usually produced on the central spines, but also on brief lateral shoots amongst the upper foliage, bright yellow, darker veined, summer. Lomenta bristly-hairy, each with three to eight segments. Chile and Argentina, in the northern central cordilleras, often a dominant of dry alpine steppe sand and stone fields at 2200-4000m.