[2] Lobivia pentlandii usually grows in groups with spherical to ovoid, bright green and often glaucous shoots that reach a diameter of up to around 12 centimeters.

There are twelve to 15 high ribs that are deeply notched and divided into long, hatchet-shaped, sharp-edged cusps.

[3] Lobivia pentlandii is widespread in the Peruvian regions of Cusco and Puno and the Bolivian departments of La Paz, Oruro, Cochabamba and Potosí in the high altitudes of the Andes.

[4] The specific epithet pentlandii honors the Irish geographer and naturalist Joseph Barclay Pentland.

Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose placed the species in the genus Lobivia in 1922.