Flora of North America species comparison

diffuse or tuberlike.

segments not disarticulating, green, flattened, elliptic to obovate to rhombic, 15–25(–40) × 6.5–14 cm, ± tuberculate, glabrous, usually glaucous;

areoles 5–7(–8) per diagonal row across midstem segment, prominent, subcircular(-oval), 4–6 × 4–5 mm, enlarging in age;

wool gray.

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.

4–11 per areole, in most areoles, yellow with chalky white coat, to yellow with red-brown basal portions, aging reddish gray;

erect ones terete, stout, straight;

abaxial ones reflexed, shorter, to 12 mm;

adaxial spines spreading, longest spines 20–40 mm.

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.

moderately dense in crescent at adaxial edge of areole, merging with subapical tuft when present, yellow to red-brown, to 5 mm.

inner tepals yellow to dull red throughout, 35–45 mm;

filaments yellow to orange-yellow;

anthers yellow;

style pink to red;

stigma lobes yellow-green to green.

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.

dark red-purple throughout, obovoid, 35–50 × 30–35 mm, juicy, glabrous, spineless;

areoles 22–36.

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.

gray, subcircular, warped, 3–4.5 mm diam.;

girdle protruding 0.5 mm.

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.

= 66.