Flora of North America species comparison

diffuse or tuberlike.

segments whorled or subwhorled, gray-green, often drying blackish, ± spiny throughout, terminal ones easily dislodged, 6–16(–23) × 2–3.5 cm;

tubercles salient, broadly oval, 0.8–1.3(–1.9) cm;

areoles obdeltate, 5–7(–10) × 2.5–4 mm;

wool gold to tan, aging gray to black.

segmented throughout or only in ultimate branches, succulent (less noticeably so in some Cylindropuntia), often woody, especially toward base, smooth or tuberculate;

areoles cushionlike, circular or nearly so (to linear), usually bearing conspicuous spines and always bearing glochids.

of brief duration, promptly deciduous, present only during initial growth of stem segments and flowers [persistent], conic or somewhat flattened, succulent.

0–12(–18) per areole, at most areoles to nearly absent, yellowish, sometimes also pale pinkish, aging brown, interlaced or not with spines of adjacent areoles;

abaxial spines erect to deflexed, spreading, flattened basally, the longest to 3.5 cm;

adaxial spines erect or spreading, terete to subterete, longest to 2.5 cm;

sheaths uniformly whitish, yellowish to golden, baggy.

slender to stout (to hairlike), terete to strongly flattened, usually smooth, sometimes barbed or roughened, epidermis intact or partly to wholly separating from body of spine as sheath that hangs onto spine.

in adaxial tuft, sometimes also scattered along areole margins, yellow, 1–3 mm.

inner tepals usually reflexed, pink to magenta, obovate to ligulate, 12–16 mm, apiculate emarginate;

filaments pale pink to magenta;

anthers white to cream;

style pinkish;

stigma lobes whitish to pale yellow.

diurnal (opening late afternoon or night in Cylindropuntia fulgida), bisexual (sometimes functionally staminate or pistillate), solitary in areoles [terminal], radially or bilaterally symmetric (flower curved and/or the ovary flattened), sessile, rotate, cup-shaped, or salverform;

flower tube epigynous, short adnate to extension of stem segment surrounding ovary;

nectary at base of style, open or sometimes covered by outgrowths of proximal portion of style base or of flower tube wall as specialized nectar chamber.

proliferating, forming long, branching, pendent chains, at maturity gray-green, often stipitate, obconic, fleshy, shallowly tuberculate, usually spineless;

basal fruits 32–55 × 23–45 mm;

terminal fruits 2–3.3 × 1.3–2.3 cm;

tubercles becoming obscure;

umbilicus to 8 mm deep;

areoles 18–35.

indehiscent, cylindric, ellipsoid, ovoid, or subspheric, sometimes clavate, fleshy, juicy (bleeding), or quickly drying;

perianth and contained flower parts shriveling and abscising basally as single unit including floral cup, leaving deep to almost flat scar (umbilicus) atop fruit.

pale yellow to brownish, angular to very irregular in outline, warped, 1.9 × 1.5–3.5 mm, sides with 1–2 large depressions, hilum pointed;

girdle smooth.

0 (sterile) or 1–400+, yellowish, tan, gray, or brown, flattened to subspheric, 2–7 mm, each completely enclosed by bony funicular envelope, glabrous or sometimes pubescent, its vascular bundle forming girdle around seed, sometimes enlarged and protruding as ridge or wing.