Opuntia phaeacantha |
Opuntia chisosensis |
|
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brown-spine prickly-pear, dark-spine prickly pear, Mojave prickly pear, tulip prickly pear |
Chisos Mountain pricklypear |
|
Habit | Shrubs, decumbent to commonly trailing, 0.3–1 m. Stem segments not disarticulating, green to dark green, sometimes reddish under stress, flattened, obovate to circular, 10–25 × 7–20 cm, low tuberculate, glabrous; areoles 5–7 per diagonal row across midstem segment, obovate to elliptic, 3–6 × 2–4 mm; wool tan to brown, aging grayish. | Shrubs, erect, to 1 m. Stem segments not easily detached, bluish to gray-green, flattened, circular to broadly obovate, 15–30 × 12–25 cm, nearly smooth, glabrous; areoles 5–7 per diagonal row across midstem segment, elliptic to obovate, 3–8 × 2–6 mm; wool tan, aging blackish. |
Spines | (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. |
1–5 per areole, spreading, yellow to orange, tipped yellow, darkening with age (at higher elevations), or dark red-brown (lower elevations), ± acicular, longest 20–67 mm, terete to flattened near base, often curved. |
Glochids | dense in crescent at adaxial edge of areole and subapical tuft, tan to red-brown, to 5 mm. |
widely spaced, in crescent at adaxial margin of areole, partially encircling areoles, and in poorly developed subapical tuft, yellow, of irregular lengths, tending to elongate towards bases of areoles, to 4 mm. |
Flowers | 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. |
inner tepals pale yellow to buff throughout, to 25–30 mm; filaments pale green; anthers and style yellow; stigma lobes green. |
Fruits | 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. |
reddish purple, ellipsoid to spheric, barrel-shaped, 33–45 × 40–50 mm, juicy, base not or little tapered, glaucous, spineless; areoles 16–20, mostly near apex. |
Seeds | tan, subcircular, 4–5 mm diam., evidently notched, warped; girdle protruding 1 mm. |
yellow to tan, 3.5–4.5 × 3–4 mm diam.; girdle protruding to 1 mm. |
2n | = 66. |
= 22. |
Opuntia phaeacantha |
Opuntia chisosensis |
|
Phenology | Flowering late spring (Apr–Jul). | Flowering late spring (May). |
Habitat | Deserts, chaparral, surrounding mountains, plains, sandy to rocky soils | Pine-oak and mixed conifer forests, grasslands |
Elevation | 200-2100 m (700-6900 ft) | 1600-2200 m (5200-7200 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; KS; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT; Mexico
|
TX |
Discussion | 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.) |
Opuntia chisosensis is local in the Chisos Mountains in western Texas, and it has been reported from Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico by Ferguson, but this has not been confirmed by the author. It is perhaps related to, or part of, the O. azurea Rose complex in northern Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4. |
Parent taxa | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | O. angustata, O. phaeacantha var. brunnea, O. phaeacantha var. laevis, O. phaeacantha var. major, O. superbospina | O. lindheimeri var. chisosensis |
Name authority | Engelmann: Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 4: 51. (1849) | (M. S. Anthony) D. J. Ferguson: Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 58: 124. (1986) |
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