Opuntia polyacantha |
Opuntia cubensis |
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hair-spine prickly pear, panhandle prickly pear, plains prickly pear, starvation prickly-pear |
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Habit | Shrubs, low, 10–25 cm, with ± prostrate branches. | Shrubs, dense, erect, to 1 m. Stem segments dark green, flattened, elliptic, (4–)10–17.5 × (3–)5–7 cm, moderately tuberculate, making margins appear scalloped, glabrous; areoles 3–5 per diagonal row across midstem segment, elliptic to subcircular, 4–6 × 2.5–3 mm; wool pale tan to white, loose. | ||||||||||||||||
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. |
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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. |
2–3(–5) per areole, spreading, yellowish, aging gray-white; major ones straight, stout, slightly flattened, commonly spirally twisted, longest to 25–60 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. |
dense in crescent at adaxial edge of areole, sparser along sides of areole, yellow, turning red to brown, to 5 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, to 30 mm; filaments and anthers pale yellow; style pale greenish yellow; stigma lobes pale cream. |
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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. |
reddish at maturity, obovoid, 40 × 25 mm, fleshy, glabrous; areoles 17–21, bearing few spines to 9 mm. |
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Seeds | tan to gray, flattened, warped, oblong to subcircular, 3–7 × 2–4 mm; girdle protruding 1–2 mm. |
tan, subcircular, ± 3 mm diam.; girdle to 0.3 mm. |
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2n | = 22 (Puerto Rico). |
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Opuntia polyacantha |
Opuntia cubensis |
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Phenology | Flowering year-round. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Brushlands, coastal sands, ocean bluffs, disturbed areas | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0 m (0 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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FL; West Indies |
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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 cubensis is known in the flora only on Big Pine Key, Florida. (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, p. 130. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia | ||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Cactus ferox, Tunas polyacantha | O. antillana, O. ochrocentra | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Haworth: Suppl. Pl. Succ., 82. (1819) | Britton & Rose: Torreya 12: 14. (1912) | ||||||||||||||||
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