According to J. Borg's "Cacti" 1976, The difference between this variety, "fricii", and the type species is...
The stems are thick...Read Morely furnished with straight long white hairs at the top of the stems.
Whereas the description for the type species says...
...with whitish wool, with 30 or more hair-like, straight, white bristles, about 1.5 cm long, and about 4 pale yellow spines, 2-4 cm long (per areole).
The description for what used to be another variety but is now considered a different species is that of "var. jujuyensis", which is now called Cleistocactus hyalacanthus goes as such: "The 4 central spines are brown, it is the form found growing in Jujuy, Argentina."
If the sun hits the brown spines just right, they tend to be on the reddish-brown coppery side.
According to J. Borg's "Cacti" 1976, The difference between this variety, "fricii", and the type species is...
The stems are thick...Read More