Opuntia azurea

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Opuntia azurea
Opuntia azurea 3380.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Cactaceae
Genus: Opuntia
Species:
O. azurea
Binomial name
Opuntia azurea
Rose
Close up on a flower of Opuntia azurea in Majorelle's garden. Opuntia azurea flower.jpg
Close up on a flower of Opuntia azurea in Majorelle's garden.
Opuntia azurea in Majorelle's garden. Opuntia azurea.jpg
Opuntia azurea in Majorelle's garden.

Opuntia azurea, the purple prickly pear or coyotillo, is a long-spined prickly pear that is native to a variety of habitats, including desert, mountain grasslands, and slopes in the Big Bend region of Texas and in the states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas in Mexico. [1] It flowers from March to May, with bright yellow flowers with red centres which produce red/purple fruits. [2] Opuntia azurea forms sprawling clusters, two to three feet high. [3]

Its subspecies may include: [4]

However, instead of subspecies, five varieties have been described and ssp. "arueispina" is not recognized.


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nopal</span> Fruit of the Opuntia cactus

Nopal is a common name in Spanish for Opuntia cacti, as well as for its pads.

<i>Opuntia ficus-indica</i> Species of cactus

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.

<i>Cactoblastis cactorum</i> Species of moth

Cactoblastis cactorum, the cactus moth, South American cactus moth or nopal moth, is native to Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil. It is one of five species in the genus Cactoblastis that inhabit South America, where many parasitoids, predators and pathogens control the expansion of the moths' population. This species has been introduced into many areas outside its natural range, including Australia, the Caribbean, and South Africa. In some locations, it has spread uncontrollably and was consequently classified an invasive species. However, in other places such as Australia, it has gained favor for its role in the biological control of cacti from the genus Opuntia, such as prickly pear.

<i>Opuntia engelmannii</i> Species of cactus

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.

<i>Opuntia gosseliniana</i> Species of cactus

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.

<i>Opuntia stricta</i> Species of cactus

Opuntia stricta is a species of large cactus that is endemic to the subtropical and tropical coastal areas of the Americas, especially around the Caribbean. Common names include erect prickly pear and nopal estricto (Spanish). The first description as Cactus strictus was published in 1803 by Adrian Hardy Haworth. In 1812 he moved the species to the genus Opuntia.

<i>Opuntia phaeacantha</i> Species of cactus

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.

<i>Opuntia basilaris</i> Species of cactus

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitaya</span> Fruit of several cactus species

A pitaya or pitahaya is the fruit of several different cactus species indigenous to the region of southern Mexico and along the Pacific coasts of Guatemala, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Pitaya is cultivated in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the United States, the Caribbean, Australia, and throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

<i>Opuntia humifusa</i> Species of cactus

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.

<i>Opuntia</i> Genus of cactus

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, 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).

<i>Opuntia aciculata</i> Species of cactus

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, Tamaulipas.

<i>Opuntia polyacantha</i> Species of cactus

Opuntia polyacantha is a common species of cactus known by the common names plains pricklypear, starvation pricklypear,. and hairspine cactus, panhandle pricklypear. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in Western Canada, the Great Plains, the central and Western United States, and Chihuahua in northern Mexico. In 2018, a disjunct population was discovered in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario, Canada.

<i>Opuntia macrocentra</i> Species of cactus

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.

<i>Dactylopius</i> Bugs, dye source, biocontrols, invasives

Dactylopius is a genus of insect in the superfamily Coccoidea, the scale insects. It is the only genus in the family Dactylopiidae. These insects are known commonly as cochineals, a name that also specifically refers to the best-known species, the cochineal. The cochineal is an insect of economic and historical importance as a main source of the red dye carmine. It has reportedly been used for this purpose in the Americas since the 10th century. Genus Dactylopius is also important because several species have been used as agents of biological pest control, and because several are known as invasive species.

<i>Opuntia rufida</i> Species of cactus

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.

<i>Opuntia lindheimeri</i> Species of cactus

Opuntia lindheimeri or Texas prickly pear is a species of cactus native to North America. It is native to Mexico and the United States, where its populations are primarily in Texas.

Opuntia ammophila, the devil's-tongue, is a species of prickly pear cactus in Florida. Individuals typically occur singly and do not generally form dense thickets. O. ammophila was once considered a variety of O. humifusa; however, it is a distinct species. Among their many differences, O. ammophila has gray-green cladodes rather than green or grass-green.

<i>Opuntia sulphurea</i> Species of cactus

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.

<i>Opuntia austrina</i> Species of cactus

Opuntia austrina, also known as the Florida prickly pear, is a prickly pear cactus species that is endemic to Florida in the United States.

References

  1. Rose, Joseph. "Contributions from the United States National Herbarium" (PDF). Opuntia Web. Joseph Shaw. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  2. A. Michael Powell; James F. Weedin (15 November 2004). Cacti of the Trans-Pecos and Adjacent Areas. Texas Tech University Press. pp. 130–141. ISBN   978-0-89672-531-7 . Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  3. The American South West
  4. Texas Cacti: Purple Prickly Pear
  5. Ferguson, David. "Opuntia azurea". Opuntia Web. Joseph Shaw. Retrieved 17 September 2018.