Opuntia polyacantha grows up to 10–30 centimetres (4–12in) tall. It forms low mats of pads which may be 2–3m (6+1⁄2–9+7⁄8ft) wide.[3] Its succulent green pads are oval or circular and reach 27 by 18cm (10+5⁄8 by 7+1⁄8in) wide. Its areoles are tipped with woolly brown fibers and glochids. Many of the areoles have spines which are quite variable in size and shape. They may be 0.4 to 18.5cm (1⁄8 to 7+1⁄4in) in length, stout or thin, straight or curling, and any of a variety of colors.
Flowers grow from spine-covered stem segments which are shaped like semi-flattened pears.[8] The flowers are 2.5 to 4cm (1 to 1+5⁄8in) long and may be yellow, magenta,[5] or red in color (tending to turn pink or orange with age).[8] The fruit is cylindrical, brownish, dry and spiny.[5] The cactus reproduces by seed, by layering, and by resprouting from detached segments.[3] In its natural range it survives throughout an immense range of temperatures, ranging from −46°C (−50°F) in the Yukon Territory, Canada,[9] to well above 38°C (100°F) in places like Chihuahua, Mexico.
There are many expressions of O. polyacantha and variation is common. Multiple varieties have been proposed. Some are accepted by modern authorities and some require further study.[10]
Uses
Native Americans used it as a medicinal plant, with different parts treating various symptoms.[11]
This pricklypear provides food for many types of animals. It provides over half the winter food for the black-tailed prairie dog in one area. Pronghorn antelope eat it, especially after the spines are burned off in wildfires. Ranchers intentionally burn stands of the plant to make it palatable for livestock when little other food is available. It will also grow in waste areas where good forage will not take hold. In fact, an abundance of the cactus indicates land that is poor in quality.[3]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Johnson, K. A. 2000. Opuntia polyacantha. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Retrieved May 11, 2011.
↑ Niering, William A.; Olmstead, Nancy C. (1985) [1979]. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region. Knopf. p.437. ISBN0-394-50432-1.
A cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word cactus derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek word κάκτος (káktos), a name originally used by Theophrastus for a spiny plant whose identity is now not certain. Cacti occur in a wide range of shapes and sizes. They are native to the Americas, ranging from Patagonia in the south to parts of western Canada in the north, with the exception of Rhipsalis baccifera, which is also found in Africa and Sri Lanka. Cacti are adapted to live in very dry environments, including the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. Because of this, cacti show many adaptations to conserve water. For example, almost all cacti are succulents, meaning they have thickened, fleshy parts adapted to store water. Unlike many other succulents, the stem is the only part of most cacti where this vital process takes place. Most species of cacti have lost true leaves, retaining only spines, which are highly modified leaves. As well as defending against herbivores, spines help prevent water loss by reducing air flow close to the cactus and providing some shade. In the absence of true leaves, cacti's enlarged stems carry out photosynthesis.
Cylindropuntia fulgida, the jumping cholla, also known as the hanging chain cholla, is a cholla cactus native to Sonora and the Southwestern United States.
Opuntia ficus-indica, the Indian fig opuntia, fig opuntia, or prickly pear, is a species of cactus that has long been a domesticated crop plant grown in agricultural economies throughout arid and semiarid parts of the world. O. ficus-indica is the most widespread and most commercially important cactus. It is grown primarily as a fruit crop, and also for the vegetable nopales and other uses. Cacti are good crops for dry areas because they efficiently convert water into biomass. O. ficus-indica, as the most widespread of the long-domesticated cactuses, is as economically important as maize and blue agave in Mexico. Opuntia species hybridize easily, but the wild origin of O. ficus-indica is likely to have been in central Mexico, where its closest genetic relatives are found.
Opuntia engelmannii is a prickly pear common across the south-central and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It goes by a variety of common names, including desert prickly pear, discus prickly pear, Engelmann's prickly pear in the US, and nopal, abrojo, joconostle, and vela de coyote in Mexico.
Opuntia gosseliniana, commonly known as the violet pricklypear, is a species of cactus that is native to Pima County, Arizona in the United States and Baja California, Chihuahua, and Sonora in Mexico.
Opuntia phaeacantha is a species of prickly pear cactus known by the common names brown-spine prickly pear, tulip prickly pear, and desert prickly pear found across the southwestern United States, lower Great Plains, and northern Mexico. The plant forms dense but localized thickets. Several varieties of this particular species occur, and it may hybridize with other prickly pears, making identification sometimes tricky.
Opuntia basilaris, the beavertail cactus or beavertail pricklypear, is a cactus species found in the southwest United States. It occurs mostly in the Mojave, Anza-Borrego, and Colorado Deserts, as well as in the Colorado Plateau and northwest Mexico. It is also found throughout the Grand Canyon and Colorado River region as well as into southern Utah and Nevada, and in the western Arizona regions along the Lower Colorado River Valley.
Opuntia humifusa, commonly known as the devil's-tongue, eastern prickly pear or Indian fig, is a cactus of the genus Opuntia present in parts of the eastern United States, Mississippi and northeastern Mexico.
Opuntia fragilis, known by the common names brittle pricklypear and little prickly pear, is a prickly pear cactus native to much of western North America as well as some midwestern states such as Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. It also occurs in several Canadian provinces. It is known from farther north than any other cactus, occurring at as far as 56°N latitude in British Columbia. There is an isolated and possibly genetically unique population in Eastern Ontario known as the "Kaladar population".
Opuntia, commonly called the prickly pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, many known for their flavorful fruit and showy flowers. Prickly pear alone is more commonly used to refer exclusively to the fruit, but may also be used for the plant itself; in addition, other names given to the plant and its specific parts include tuna (fruit), sabra, sabbar, nopal from the Nahuatl word nōpalli, nostle (fruit) from the Nahuatl word nōchtli, and paddle cactus. The genus is named for the Ancient Greek city of Opus, where, according to Theophrastus, an edible plant grew and could be propagated by rooting its leaves. The most common culinary species is the Indian fig opuntia (O. ficus-indica).
Cylindropuntia echinocarpa is a species of cactus known by the common names silver cholla, golden cholla, and Wiggins' cholla. It was formerly named Opuntia echinocarpa.
Opuntia aciculata, also called Chenille pricklypear, old man's whiskers, and cowboy's red whiskers, is a perennial dicot and an attractive ornamental cactus native to Texas. It belongs to the genus Opuntia. It is also widespread in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.
Sclerocactus glaucus is a rare species of cactus known by the common name Colorado hookless cactus. It is endemic to Colorado in the United States, where it is known only from the area between Grand Junction and Montrose. It is a federally listed threatened species.
Artemisia filifolia, known by common names including sand sagebrush, sand sage and sandhill sage, is a species of flowering plant in the aster family. It is native to North America, where it occurs from Nevada east to South Dakota and from there south to Arizona, Chihuahua, and Texas.
Opuntia macrocentra, the long-spined purplish prickly pear or purple pricklypear, is a cactus found in the lower Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. A member of the prickly pear genus, this species of Opuntia is most notable as one of a few cacti that produce a purple pigmentation in the stem. Other common names for this plant include black-spined pricklypear, long-spine prickly pear, purple pricklypear, and redeye prickly pear.
Opuntia macrorhiza is a common and widespread species of cactus with the common names plains pricklypear or prairie pricklypear or western pricklypear. It is found throughout the Great Plains of the United States, from Texas to Minnesota, and west into the Rocky Mountain states to New Mexico, Utah, and perhaps Idaho, with sporadic populations in the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. It is also reported from northern Mexico in the states of Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Durango, Tamaulipas, and San Luís Potosí., though all Arizona and Mexican records should be considered with caution due to confusion with other similar species. The species is cultivated as an ornamental in other locations.
Opuntia rufida is a species of prickly pear cactus native to southwestern Texas and northern Mexico, where it grows on rocky slopes. The species makes up for its total lack of spines with a profusion of red-brown glochids. The common name blind prickly pear or cow blinder comes from the fact that the glochids may be carried away by the wind and blind animals.
Opuntia arenaria was considered a variety of O. polyacantha by many botanists, and is still treated that way in the Flora of North America. However, O. arenaria is diploid and O. polyacantha is tetraploid. It was described by Engelmann in 1856.
Opuntia sulpurea falls under the Opuntia, or prickly pear, genus within the family Cacataceae named such because of their round shape, green color, and long thick spines. Opuntia sulphurea is the widest spread of the Opuntia that can be found in and around Argentina, occupying mostly arid areas of the region from the plains in the Western portion of Argentina up to much higher altitudes on the Eastern side of the Andes mountain range. As a result of its ability to survive in such a diverse array of environments there are several subspecies of O. sulphurea that are identifiable based on the number of spine per areole, for example. A commonality across the three is a bright yellow flower, often considered to be the color of sulfur, from which the species name is derived. As with several other species of Opuntia, these prickly pears tend to grow in groups, forming clumps that can reach one to two meters in diameter, but while other species within the genus grow upwards as well O. sulphurea tend to stay low to the ground. As a result of its tendency to grow in dry, arid, and rocky areas this cactus has evolved to be very resilient, not even suffering from the effects of agriculture, i.e. cattle grazing, on lower altitude subpopulations.
Opuntia lagunae, commonly known as the Laguna prickly pear or the shrubby prickly pear, is a species of prickly pear cactus in the family Cactaceae. It was described by Edgar Martin Baxter.
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