Opuntia humifusa |
Opuntia ficus-indica |
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devil's-tongue, eastern prickly-pear |
barbary fig, Indian-fig pricklypear, mission prickly-pear, nopal de castilla, tuna, tuna cactus |
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Habit | Shrubs, forming clumps or often prostrate, usually only 1 or 2 stem segments tall, to 0.5 m (except in Florida where they may be erect and reach to 2+ m with short trunk), flattened to obovoid, sometimes from tuberlike rootstocks. | Trees, 3–6 m; trunk to 30–45 cm diam. | ||||
Stem | segments not disarticulating, dark or bright shiny green, wrinkling when stressed, circular to broadly oblong to obovate, 5–17.5 × 4–12 cm, fleshy, usually tuberculate, glabrous; areoles 4–6 per diagonal row across midstem segment, oval to circular, 2–4 mm diam., not raised, sometimes somewhat sunken; wool tan to brown. |
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. |
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Spines | often absent or 1–2(–3) per areole, spreading, whitish to brownish, terete, straight, and usually stout, 25–60 mm; occasionally also 1 deflexed spine present. |
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. |
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Glochids | in dense crescent of adaxial edge of areole and in dense tuft overtopping crescent in age, yellow to red-brown, to 4 mm. |
along adaxial margin of areole and small, inconspicuous tuft, yellowish, aging brown, less than 2 mm. |
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Flowers | inner tepals pale to bright yellow throughout, 20–30 mm diam.; filaments yellow to orange; anthers pale yellow to cream; style and stigma lobes white. |
inner tepals yellow to orange throughout, 25–50 mm; filaments and anthers yellow; style bright red; stigma lobes yellow. |
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Fruits | greenish, tardily becoming apricot to brownish red, elongate, 30–50 × 12–20 mm, fleshy, tapering at base; pulp green and sour, becoming reddish and sweet under ideal conditions; areoles 10–18. |
yellow to orange to purple, 50–100 × 40–90 mm, fleshy to ± juicy, glabrous, usually spineless; areoles 45–60, evenly distributed on fruit. |
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Seeds | tan, 3.5–4.5 mm diam., thickish; girdle protruding to 1 mm. |
pale tan, subcircular, 4–5 mm diam., warped; girdle protruding to 1 mm. |
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2n | = 88. |
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Opuntia humifusa |
Opuntia ficus-indica |
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Phenology | Flowering spring (Apr). | |||||
Habitat | Coastal chaparral, sage scrub, arid uplands, washes, canyons, disturbed sites | |||||
Elevation | 0-300 m (0-1000 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; WI; WV; ON
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AZ; CA; Mexico [Introduced in North America]
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 130. | FNA vol. 4, p. 142. | ||||
Parent taxa | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Cactus humifusus | Cactus ficus-indica, Cactus opuntia, O. compressa, O. vulgaris | ||||
Name authority | (Rafinesque) Rafinesque: Med. Fl. 2: 247. (1830) | (Linnaeus) Miller: Gard. Dict. ed. 8, Opuntia no. 2. (1768) | ||||
Web links |
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