Opuntia basilaris |
Opuntia polyacantha |
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beavertail, beavertail cactus, beavertail pricklypear |
hair-spine prickly pear, panhandle prickly pear, plains prickly pear, starvation prickly-pear |
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Habit | Shrubs, forming clumps, 1–2(–3) segments tall, to 7–40 cm. | Shrubs, low, 10–25 cm, with ± prostrate branches. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stem | segments not disarticulating, blue- to yellow-green, sometimes tinged maroon-purple, flattened, spatulate to broadly obovate or subcircular, thick, 5–22(–35) × 2–13.5(–16) cm, nearly smooth, papillose to puberulent (rarely glabrous); areoles 4–16(–19) per diagonal row across midstem segment, circular to elliptic, 3–5 × 3 mm; wool white to tan, aging gray. |
segments not easily detached, green, elliptic to narrowly to broadly obovate to circular, 4–27 × 2–18 cm, low tuberculate; areoles 4–14 per diagonal row across midstem segment, subcircular, 3–6 mm; wool tan to brown. |
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Spines | 0(–8) per areole, when present, usually in distal areoles, spreading, yellow, straight, acicular, 5–25 mm. |
at all or only distal areoles of stem segment, terete to flattened, stout to acicular to bristlelike, straight to curling, of 1 or 2 kinds; if 1 kind: 0–18 per areole, spreading and curling in various directions, sometimes straight, erect, ascending to deflexed, yellow to dark brown to black, turning gray, pink-gray to gray-brown, longest (35–)40–90(–185) mm; if ± 2 kinds: major spines (0–)1–5, reflexed to porrect, yellow-brown to brown to gray, longest 20–150 mm; minor spines (0–)5–11, deflexed, white to white-gray, longest 4–16 mm. |
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Glochids | numerous, nearly filling areoles, yellow to red-brown or dark brown, to 3 mm. |
inconspicuous, in narrow, tidy crescent at adaxial edge of areole or in broad, brushy crescent and tuft, yellow to reddish, aging brown, to 10 mm. |
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Flowers | inner tepals pink to magenta throughout (rarely white), 25–40 mm; filaments red-magenta (rarely pale); anthers yellowish; style white to pink; stigma lobes white to cream. |
inner tepals yellow to magenta throughout, 25–40 mm; filaments white, yellow, or red to magenta (flowers may superficially appear bicolored); anthers yellow; style white to pale pink; stigma lobes green. |
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Fruits | maturing tan, 20–40 × 15–23 mm, dry at maturity, puberulent, spineless (except in var. treleasei); umbilicus 5–12 mm deep; areoles 24–76. |
tan to brown, ± cylindric, 15–45 × 12–25 mm, dry at maturity, glabrous, sometimes burlike; areoles 10–33, each or only distal areoles bearing 3–16 spines, 4–20 mm. |
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Seeds | yellowish to tan, ± subspheric but angular, thick, 6.5–9 × 6.5–7 mm, sides smooth or bearing 1–3 depressions; girdle protruding to 1 mm. |
tan to gray, flattened, warped, oblong to subcircular, 3–7 × 2–4 mm; girdle protruding 1–2 mm. |
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Opuntia basilaris |
Opuntia polyacantha |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; UT; n Mexico
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; SD; TX; UT; WY; AB; SK; n Mexico
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Discussion | Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 5 (5 in the flora). Populations of Opuntia polyacantha with spines few or absent (especially var. hystricina) were the basis for several names including O. juniperina, O. utahensis, and O. rhodantha. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 144. | FNA vol. 4. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Cactus ferox, Tunas polyacantha | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Engelmann & J. M. Bigelow: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 3: 298. (1856) | Haworth: Suppl. Pl. Succ., 82. (1819) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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