Flora of North America species comparison

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Opuntia pusilla

cockspur pricklypear, dune prickly-pear, sandbur pricklypear
Habit Shrubs, creeping, often forming mats, trailing, to 0.1 m. Stem segments easily detached, green, purplish red under stress, flattened, elliptic to linear, sometimes subcylindric (to subspheric), 2.5–5(–8) × 1.2–2.5 cm, tuberculate, glabrous; areoles 2–5 per diagonal row across midstem segment, subcircular, 2–3 mm diam.; wool tan to gray.
Spines

(0–)1–2(–4) per areole, in distal 3/4 of stem segment areoles (to nearly spineless), porrect to spreading, red-brown, aging gray, stout, straight, terete, to 30 mm, strongly barbed.
Glochids

in crescent at adaxial edge of areole, pale yellow, aging brown, to 3 mm, longest at areole apex.
Flowers

inner tepals yellow throughout, 20–30 mm;

filaments and anthers yellow;

style and stigma lobes white.
Fruits

green becoming red-purple at late maturity, barrel-shaped, 18–30 × 12–20 mm, fleshy, glabrous, spineless;

areoles 8–16.
Seeds

tan, subcircular, flattened, 4–6 mm diam.;

girdle slightly protruding.
2n

= 44.

Opuntia pusilla
Phenology Flowering spring (Apr–May).
Habitat Dune and pine scrub, primarily coastal, sandy openings, dunes, or rocky outcrops
Elevation 0-100 m (0-300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; MS; NC; SC; TX; Ga
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 130.
Parent taxa Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Opuntia
Sibling taxa
O. aciculata, O. atrispina, O. aurea, O. aureispina, O. basilaris, O. chisosensis, O. chlorotica, O. cubensis, O. ellisiana, O. engelmannii, O. ficus-indica, O. fragilis, O. humifusa, O. littoralis, O. macrocentra, O. macrorhiza, O. microdasys, O. oricola, O. phaeacantha, O. pinkavae, O. polyacantha, O. pottsii, O. rufida, O. santa-rita, O. stricta, O. strigil, O. tortispina, O. triacantha, O. ×columbiana, O. ×curvispina, O. ×occidentalis, O. ×spinosibacca, O. ×vaseyi
Synonyms Cactus pusillus, O. drummondii, O. tracyi
Name authority (Haworth) Haworth: Syn. Pl. Succ., 195. (1812)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

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