Opuntia polyacantha |
Opuntia triacantha |
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hair-spine prickly pear, panhandle prickly pear, plains prickly pear, starvation prickly-pear |
Spanish lady |
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Habit | Shrubs, low, 10–25 cm, with ± prostrate branches. | Shrubs, prostrate (to erect), clambering, to 0.6 m. Stem segments easily detached, green, flattened, elliptic, 5–18 × 3–7 cm, slightly tuberculate, glabrous; areoles 3–4 per diagonal row across midstem segment, subcircular, 4 mm diam.; wool whitish. | ||||||||||||||||
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. |
1–3(–4) per areole, ± evenly distributed on stem segment, porrect to spreading, gray to whitish or cream, tipped black, straight, acicular, to 40 mm, barbed. |
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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. |
yellow, aging brown, 4–9 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, 20–25 mm; filaments pale green to yellow; anthers yellow; style pale green or white, pink tinged; stigma lobes color unknown. |
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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. |
red, ovoid to obovoid, 25–30 × 15–20 mm, fleshy, glabrous, bearing few areoles, spineless. |
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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, somewhat flattened, 2.5 mm diam.; girdle protruding less than 1 mm. |
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2n | = 22. |
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Opuntia polyacantha |
Opuntia triacantha |
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Phenology | Flowering year-round. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Sandy areas on old limestone reefs, openings in tropical forests | |||||||||||||||||
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 triacantha occurs in the flora area only on Big Pine Key, Florida. It is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. (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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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Cactus ferox, Tunas polyacantha | Cactus triacanthos, O. abjecta, O. militaris | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Haworth: Suppl. Pl. Succ., 82. (1819) | (Willdenow) Sweet: Hort. Brit., 172. (1826) | ||||||||||||||||
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