It has 10 ribs that are bulbous to cone-shaped, up to 2 centimeters high and in diameter, with thick, fleshy warts that have many edges.

Additionally, it has 1 to 3 central spines that are up to 4 centimeters long, straight or curved, and whitish to horn-colored with a dark tip.

Their color varies from silvery white to delicate pink, with a carmine red central stripe.

[2] Thelocactus tulensis is native to the limestone hills in the Chihuahuan Desert in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, and San Luis Potosí, Mexico at elevations of 1200 to 1900 meters.

[3] First described as Echinocactus tulensis in 1853 by Heinrich Poselger, the species was later placed in the genus Thelocactus by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose in 1923.