Opuntia ficus-indica
Opuntia phaeacantha
barbary fig, Indian-fig pricklypear, mission prickly-pear, nopal de castilla, tuna, tuna cactus
brown-spine prickly-pear, dark-spine prickly pear, Mojave prickly pear, tulip prickly pear
segments green, broadly oblong to ovate to narrowly elliptic, (20–)4–60 × 2–3+ cm, low tuberculate;
areoles 7–11 per diagonal row across midstem segment, rhombic to subcircular, 2–4(–5) mm diam.;
wool brown.
1–6 per areole, absent or very highly reduced, or in marginal to nearly all areoles, erect to spreading, whitish, tan, or brown, setaceous only or setaceous and subulate, straight to slightly curved, basally angular-flattened, 1–10(–40) mm; 0–2 small bristlelike deflexed spines to 5 mm.
(0–)2–8 per areole, at most areoles to only distal 1/4 of stem segment, or essentially absent, brown to white, straight, curved, or spirally twisted;
major central spines deflexed or spreading, brown to red-brown (to blackish), or partly to wholly gray to tan, subulate, usually flattened near base, 30–80 mm;
abaxial spines usually 1–3, deflexed, white, flattened, shorter, to 20 mm.
along adaxial margin of areole and small, inconspicuous tuft, yellowish, aging brown, less than 2 mm.
dense in crescent at adaxial edge of areole and subapical tuft, tan to red-brown, to 5 mm.
inner tepals yellow to orange throughout, 25–50 mm;
filaments and anthers yellow;
style bright red;
stigma lobes yellow.
inner tepals yellow with red basal portions (rarely entirely pink to red), 30–40 mm;
filaments greenish basally, pale yellow to white distally;
anthers yellow;
style white;
stigma lobes green to yellow-green.
yellow to orange to purple, 50–100 × 40–90 mm, fleshy to ± juicy, glabrous, usually spineless;
areoles 45–60, evenly distributed on fruit.
wine red to purple, with greenish flesh (sometimes reddish and ± juicy), not long stipitate, obovate to barrel-shaped, 30–50 × 20–30 mm, fleshy, glabrous, spineless;
areoles 18–24.
pale tan, subcircular, 4–5 mm diam., warped;
girdle protruding to 1 mm.
tan, subcircular, 4–5 mm diam., evidently notched, warped;
girdle protruding 1 mm.
= 88.
= 66.
Opuntia ficus-indica
Opuntia phaeacantha
R. P. Wunderlin (1998) listed this taxon in Florida, but I have not seen specimens.
Opuntia ficus-indica, cultivated nearly worldwide, is presumed to be a native of Mexico, but is definitely known only from cultivation or escapes from cultivation. The species has been used for cattle feed, ornament, and fuel. As human food, the young stem segments, “nopalitos,” are eaten as salad or pickled as a vegetable, and the large delicious fruits, “tunas,” are enjoyed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.
This species probably originated through selection by native peoples of Mexico for spineless forms of Opuntia streptacantha (also 2n = 88) to ease the culturing and collection of cochineal scale insects for their red dye. Numerous cultivar names are known.
Naturalized Opuntia ficus-indica (octoploid, spiny morphotype) is known to hybridize in central California with O. phaeacantha (hexaploid), forming a heptaploid with usually intermediate morphology.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Much of the material formerly assigned to varieties of Opuntia phaeacantha has been segregated as O. engelmannii. Various combinations of overlapping character states make separation of O. phaeacantha var. major from var. phaeacantha impractical. Presumably var. major comprises sprawling to erect shrubs with obovate stem segments bearing usually few darker colored spines (usually one to three) per areole, in the distal half of the stem segment or less, whereas plants of var. phaeacantha are trailing shrubs with narrowly obovate stem segments bearing more spines (usually three to ten) per areole throughout most to all of the stem segment. Recently some workers have applied O. camanchica Engelmann & Bigelow to those plants with the very dark colored spines and merged vars. major and phaeacantha. Distinctions among taxa are further blurred by hybridization of O. phaeacantha with O. engelmannii, yielding several named and unnamed hybrids, including O. wootonii Griffiths. Morphologic and genetic analyses of the populations are needed before correct names can be assigned to many of these plants with confidence.
Opuntia phaeacantha also hybridizes with O. aureispina (forming O. ×spinosibacca), O. ficus-indica, and O. littoralis (forming O. ×vaseyi), and members of the O. polyacantha complex, particularly near the regions of Grand Canyon and Four Corners.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
KS Wildflowers
SW CO Wildflowers
