Opuntia ficus-indica
Opuntia tortispina
barbary fig, Indian-fig pricklypear, mission prickly-pear, nopal de castilla, tuna, tuna cactus
plains pricklypear
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.
segments not easily detached, pale green to deep green, graying with age, wrinkled when stressed, flattened, broadly obovate to ovate, 6.5–15 × 4–10 cm, tuberculate, glossy, glabrous;
areoles 6–9 per diagonal row across midstem segment, oval, obovate, or subcircular, 2.5–5 × 1.5–4 mm;
wool tan, aging 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.
1–9 on most areoles to only on distal 1/2 of stem segment, white to gray with pale brown tips and bases, sometimes brown throughout;
central spines 1–3, all deflexed or 1–2 porrect or ascending, terete or flattened, occasionally spirally twisted, 25–70 mm; small spines (2–)3–6(–8) strongly deflexed, usually slender, even bristlelike, 5–15 mm.
along adaxial margin of areole and small, inconspicuous tuft, yellowish, aging brown, less than 2 mm.
forming a well developed adaxial tuft, yellow to brownish white, to 6 mm.
inner tepals yellow to orange throughout, 25–50 mm;
filaments and anthers yellow;
style bright red;
stigma lobes yellow.
inner tepals yellow to gold, commonly darker to red near base, broadly spatulate, 30–40 mm, apiculate;
filaments usually pale yellow;
anthers yellow;
style whitish to pale green;
stigma lobes greenish.
yellow to orange to purple, 50–100 × 40–90 mm, fleshy to ± juicy, glabrous, usually spineless;
areoles 45–60, evenly distributed on fruit.
purple-red, oval to broadly ovate, subspheric or short ovoid, bases not narrowed, 30 × 20–25 mm, fleshy, base not narrowed, glabrous, spineless or nearly so;
umbilicus deep;
areoles 18–30.
pale tan, subcircular, 4–5 mm diam., warped;
girdle protruding to 1 mm.
whitish to tan, irregularly shaped, flattened, 4–6 × 3–4 mm;
girdle protruding 1–2 mm.
= 88.
= 44, 66.
Opuntia ficus-indica
Opuntia tortispina
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.)
Opuntia tortispina is apparently of hybrid origin. It has intermediate character states from its putative parents, O. macrorhiza (fleshy and spineless fruits) and O. polyacantha (areoles with basal deflexed spines and barrel-shaped fruits). The spirally twisted spines, which the specific epithet implies, are not at all characteristic for this species. When O. tortispina and O. cymochila are considered conspecific, the former has priority, as first selected by N. L. Britton and J. N. Rose (1919–1923, vol. 1).
One favored hypothesis as to the origins is that the O. humifusa-O. macrorhiza-O. pottsii complex spread across the United States from the east coast to Arizona. Opuntia polyacantha originated in north-central Mexico and spread northward. Tetraploid O. macrorhiza came into contact with the east flank of O. polyacantha and hybridized (probably repeatedly, even at present), producing the highly variable taxon referred to here as O. tortispina, which then spread eastward onto the plains. Opuntia tortispina has hexaploid members, presumably from unions of reduced and unreduced gametes. Those hexaploids apparently hybridize with hexaploid O. phaeacantha and add further to variation of O. tortispina. Many of these variations have been formally named or since treated as synonyms of O. macrorhiza.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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