Opuntia polyacantha |
Opuntia aurea |
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hair-spine prickly pear, panhandle prickly pear, plains prickly pear, starvation prickly-pear |
golden pricklypear |
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Habit | Shrubs, low, 10–25 cm, with ± prostrate branches. | Shrubs, forming low clumps or with trailing branches, 10–30 cm. | ||||||||||||||||
Stem | segments not easily detached, green, elliptic to narrowly to broadly obovate to circular, 4–27 × 2–18 cm, low tuberculate; areoles 4–14 per diagonal row across midstem segment, subcircular, 3–6 mm; wool tan to brown. |
segments not disarticulating, green to blue-green, flattened, elliptic to obovate, 6–15 × 5–12 cm, low tuberculate, papillate; areoles 7–11 per diagonal row across midstem segment, subcircular to elliptic, 3–5 × 2–4 mm; wool tan. |
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Spines | at all or only distal areoles of stem segment, terete to flattened, stout to acicular to bristlelike, straight to curling, of 1 or 2 kinds; if 1 kind: 0–18 per areole, spreading and curling in various directions, sometimes straight, erect, ascending to deflexed, yellow to dark brown to black, turning gray, pink-gray to gray-brown, longest (35–)40–90(–185) mm; if ± 2 kinds: major spines (0–)1–5, reflexed to porrect, yellow-brown to brown to gray, longest 20–150 mm; minor spines (0–)5–11, deflexed, white to white-gray, longest 4–16 mm. |
absent or only l spine in 1–few distal areoles, deflexed, yellow to gray, straight, terete, to 10 mm. |
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Glochids | inconspicuous, in narrow, tidy crescent at adaxial edge of areole or in broad, brushy crescent and tuft, yellow to reddish, aging brown, to 10 mm. |
in dense crescent at adaxial margin of areole and dense subapical tuft, yellow, to 6 mm. |
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Flowers | inner tepals yellow to magenta throughout, 25–40 mm; filaments white, yellow, or red to magenta (flowers may superficially appear bicolored); anthers yellow; style white to pale pink; stigma lobes green. |
inner tepals yellow throughout (magenta in introgressed plants), 25–30 mm; filaments white to yellow; anthers yellow; style white; stigma lobes green. |
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Fruits | tan to brown, ± cylindric, 15–45 × 12–25 mm, dry at maturity, glabrous, sometimes burlike; areoles 10–33, each or only distal areoles bearing 3–16 spines, 4–20 mm. |
tan to gray, 25–30 × 15–20 mm, dry, spineless; areoles 12–18. |
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Seeds | tan to gray, flattened, warped, oblong to subcircular, 3–7 × 2–4 mm; girdle protruding 1–2 mm. |
tan, subspheric to irregularly shaped, flattened, very large, 9–12 mm diam.; girdle thick, protruding 2.5–3.5 mm. |
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2n | = 66. |
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Opuntia polyacantha |
Opuntia aurea |
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Phenology | Flowering late spring (May–Jun). | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Pinyon-juniper woodlands, red sands | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1500-1800 m (4900-5900 ft) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; SD; TX; UT; WY; AB; SK; n Mexico
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AZ; UT |
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Discussion | Varieties 5 (5 in the flora). Populations of Opuntia polyacantha with spines few or absent (especially var. hystricina) were the basis for several names including O. juniperina, O. utahensis, and O. rhodantha. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Opuntia aurea forms hybrids with O. polyacantha var. erinacea and O. phaeacantha, and forms hybrid swarms with O. pinkavae (B. D. Parfitt 1991). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Cactus ferox, Tunas polyacantha | O. basilaris var. aurea, O. erinacea var. aurea | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Haworth: Suppl. Pl. Succ., 82. (1819) | E. M. Baxter: Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 5: 489, fig. s.n. (p. 489). (1933) | ||||||||||||||||
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