Opuntia spinosior

• Overview
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Vulnerable

Common Names

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Description

Family Cactaceae

Fleshy perennials , shrubs , trees or vines , terrestrial or epiphytic. Stems jointed , terete , globose , flattened, or fluted , mostly leafless and variously spiny . Leaves alternate, flat or subulate to terete, vestigial, or entirely absent; spines, glochids (easily detached, small, bristlelike spines), and flowers always arising from cushionlike, axillary areoles (modified short shoots ) . Flowers solitary, sessile, rarely clustered and stalked (in Pereskia), bisexual , rarely unisexual , actinomorphic or occasionally zygomorphic. Receptacle tube (hypanthium or perianth tube) absent or short to elongate , naked or invested with leaflike bracts, scales , areoles, and hairs , bristles , or spines; perianth segments usually numerous , in a sepaloid to petaloid series. Stamens numerous, variously inserted in throat and tube; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary (pericarpel) inferior, rarely superior, 1-loculed, with 3 to many parietal (rarely basal) placentas; ovules usually numerous; style 1; stigmas 2 to numerous, papillate , rarely 2-fid. Fruit juicy or dry, naked, scaly , hairy , bristly , or spiny, indehiscent or dehiscent , when juicy then pulp derived from often deliquescent funicles (except in Pereskia) . Seeds usually numerous, often arillate or strophiolate ; embryo curved or rarely straight; endosperm present or absent; cotyledons reduced or vestigial, rarely leaflike.

About 110 genera and more than 1000 species: temperate and tropical America; Rhipsalis baccifera (J. S. Mueller) Stearn native in tropical Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, Mascarenes, and Sri Lanka; some species of other genera now extensively naturalized in the Old World through human agency; more than 60 genera and 600 species cultivated as ornamentals or hedges in China, of which four genera and seven species more or less naturalized.[1]

Genus Opuntia

Trees or shrubs , erect to trailing , usually many branched, sometimes forming clumps or mats; trunk , when present, initially segmented , appearing continuous with age, main axis determinate, usually terete . Stem segments green or sometimes reddish to purple, usually flattened, circular, elliptic , ovate , lanceolate, or obovate to oblanceolate , 2-60(-120) × 1.2-40 cm, nearly smooth to tuberculate , glabrous or pubescent ; areoles usually elliptic, circular, or obovate, 3-8(-10) × 1-7(-10) mm; wool white, gray, or tan to brown, aging white or gray to black. Spines 0-15+ per areole, white, yellow to brown, red-brown to gray, or black, sometimes partly to wholly white chalky (chalkiness disappearing when wet), aging gray to dark brown to black, with epidermis intact, not sheathed, acicular to subulate , sometimes setose or with hairlike bristles , terete to angular-flattened, to 75(-170) mm, tips sometimes paler or yellow. Glochids in adaxial crescent at margin of areole, in tuft or encircling areole margin, white to yellow to brown, or red-brown, aging white to brown or red-brown. Flowers bisexual or sometimes functionally staminate , radially symmetric ; outer tepals green to yellow with margins tinged color of inner tepals; inner tepals pale yellow to orange, pink to red or magenta, rarely white (unicolored) or with base of a different color (bicolored ), oblong to spatulate , emarginate-apiculate; nectar chamber simple , open, not covered by proximal thickening style. Pollen yellow, grains reticulate or foveolate (opuntioid type). Fruits sometimes proliferating (sprouting from another fruit), if fleshy , green, yellow, or red to purple or, if dry, tan to gray, straight, sometimes stipitate , clavate to cylindric , ovoid , or obovoid to subspheric, 10-120 × 8-120 mm, fleshy to juicy or dry, smooth or tuberculate, spineless or spiny , sometimes burlike. Seeds pale yellow to tan or gray, generally circular to reniform , flattened (discoid ) to subspheric, angular to squarish, sometimes warped, 2-7 × 2-7 mm, glabrous, commonly bearing 1-4 large, shallow depressions due to pressures from adjacent developing seeds; girdle protruding 0.3-3.5 mm, forming ridge or flat wing, or not protruding. x = 11.

Species ca. 150 species: widespread in North America, Mexico, West Indies, South America, including the Galápagos Islands; some species introduced to and naturalized in the Old World.

Many taxa are cultivated for ornamental plants , food, and animal fodder . Some species of Opuntia become obnoxious weeds ; some species have been planted in Africa for stabilization of sand dunes.

Many interspecific hybrids are known and have been named; only five are fully treated here; two other named hybrids recognized by the author are briefly described and cross-referenced under putative parent taxa.[2]

Physical Description

Biology

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

Unambiguous Synonyms

1. Oplismenus burmanni auct. non (Retz.) Beauv.
2. Oplismenus compositus var. setarius (Lam.) F. M. Bailey
3. Oplismenus hirtellus setarius (Lam.) Mez Ex Ekman
4. Oplismenus setarius (Lam.) Roemer & J. A. Schultes
5. Panicum hirtellum L.
6. Panicum setarium Lam.

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Bot. Gaz. 25:119. 1898

Name verified on 29-Aug-2002 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 11-Feb-2007

Similar Species

Members of the genus Opuntia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 1155 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

O. abjecta · O. abyssi · O. acanthocarpa (Stag-Horn Cholla) · O. acanthocarpa Engelm. & Bigelow var. acanthocarpa Engelm. & Bigelow (Buckhorn Cholla) · O. acanthocarpa Engelm. & Bigelow var. coloradensis L.Benson (Colorado Buckhorn Cholla) · O. acanthocarpa ganderi · O. acanthocarpa Engelm. & Bigelow var. major (Engelm. & Bigelow) L.Benson (Slender Joint Buckhorn Cholla) · O. acanthocarpa Engelm. & Bigelow var. thornberi (Thornb. & Bonker) L.Benson (Thornber's Buckhorn Cholla) · O. acanthocarpa var. acanthocarpa (Buckhorn Cholla) · O. acanthocarpa var. coloradensis (Colorado Buckhorn Cholla) · O. acanthocarpa var. major (Slender Joint Buckhorn Cholla) · O. acanthocarpa var. thornberi (Thornber's Buckhorn Cholla) · O. acaulis (Opuntia) · O. acicularis (Old Man Whiskers) · O. aciculata (Chenille Prickly Pear) · O. acracantha · O. aequatorialis · O. affinis · O. aggeria (Big Bend Pricklypear) · O. agglomerata · O. airampo · O. alamosensis · O. albicans · O. albicarpa · O. albiflora · O. albisaetacens · O. albisetosa · O. alburdina · O. alcahes · O. alcerrecensis · O. alexanderi · O. alexanderi Britton & Rose var. bruchii (Speg.) Backeb. · O. alfagayucca · O. alko-tuna (Opuntia) · O. allairei · O. alpicola · O. alta · O. amarilla · O. ambigua · O. ammophila · O. amyclaea (Opuntia) · O. anacantha (Opuntia) · O. anacantha var. anacantha · O. anacantha var. kiska-loro (Opuntia) · O. anacantha var. retrorsa (Opuntia) · O. anacantha var. utikilio (Opuntia) · O. anahuacensis · O. andicola · O. angusta · O. angustata · O. anteojoensis · O. antillana · O. aoracantha · O. apurimacensis (Opuntia) · O. aquosa · O. arborea · O. arborescens · O. arbuscula (Arizona Pencil Cholla) · O. arbuscular · O. arcei (Opuntia) · O. archiconoidea · O. arechavaletae · O. arechavaletai · O. arechevaletai · O. arenaria (El Paso Pricklypear) · O. argentina · O. arizonica · O. arkansana · O. armata (Opuntia) · O. armata var. panellana · O. arrastradillo · O. articulata · O. articulata (Pfeiff.) D.R.Hunt var. inermis Speg. · O. articulata (Pfeiff.) D.R.Hunt var. papyracantha Phil. · O. asplundii · O. assumptionis (Opuntia) · O. atacamensis · O. atrispina (Devils River Prickly Pear) · O. atrocapensis · O. atroglobosa · O. atropes (Opuntia) · O. atrovirens (Opuntia) · O. atroviridis · O. auberi (Nopal De Lenguita) · O. aulacothele · O. aurantiaca (Jointed Prickly-Pear (Usa)) · O. aurea (Creeping Beavertail) · O. aureispina (Golden-Spined Prickly Pear) · O. australis · O. austrina · O. ayrampo · O. azurea (Nopal Coyotillo) · O. azurea var. aureispina · O. backebergii · O. bahamana · O. bahiensis · O. bakeri · O. balearica · O. ballii · O. barbata

More Info

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Further Reading

• Anderson, E. F. (2001): The Cactus Family, Timber Press, Protland, Oregon
• Anderson, E. F. 2001. The cactus family. (Cact Fam) 213.
• Benson, L. 1982. The cacti of the United States and Canada. (Cact US Can) [accepts].
• Botanisches Zentralblatt; referierendes Organ für das Gesamtgebiet der Botanik. Jena [etc.]G. Fischer [etc.] GER url p. 176.
• Bulletin - United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.];1877-1971. ENG url p. 108, p. 111, p. 115, p. 118, p. 66.
• Camps and cruises of an ornithologist, by Frank M. Chapman with 250 photographs from nature by the author. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1908. ENG url p. 428.
• Carnegie Institution of Washington publication. Washington, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1902- ENG url p. 15, p. 171, p. 44, p. 68.
• Experiment station record. Washington: G.P.O., 1889-1946. ENG url p. 1135.
• Flora of New Mexico / by E.O. Wooton and Paul C. Standley. Washington: G.P.O., 1915. ENG url p. 443.
• Hunt, D. 1992. CITES Cactaceae checklist. (CITES Cact L) [accepts].
• Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder. Berlin, Gebr. Borntraeger, 1874-98; GER url p. 288, p. 527, p. 684.
• Kartesz, J. T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. (L US Can ed2) [accepts].
• Kearney, T. H. & R. H. Peebles. 1969. Arizona flora, ed. 2. (F Ariz) [accepts].
• Manual of the trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico). With six hundred and forty-four illustrations from drawings by Charles Edward Faxon. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin, 1905. ENG url p. 689.
• Martin, W. C. & C. R. Hutchins. 1980. A flora of New Mexico. (F New Mex) [accepts].
• Naturalist's guide to the Americas, prepared by the Committee on the Preservation of Natural Conditions of the Ecological Society of America, with assistance from numerous organizations and individuals, assembled and edited by chairman, Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins, 1926. ENG url p. 565.
• North American trees (exclusive of Mexico and tropical United States) A handbook designed for field use, with plates and distribution maps. Ames, Iowa State University Press[1961] ENG url p. 325.
• Report on the progress and condition of the U.S. National Museum for the year ending June 30 / Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum. Washington: G.P.O., 1907-1951. ENG url p. 136.
• Shreve, F. & I. L. Wiggins. 1964. Vegetation and flora of the Sonoran desert. (F SonorDes) [accepts].
• The American botanist: a monthly journal for the plant lover. Binghamton, N.Y.: Willard N. Clute & Co., 1901-1948. ENG url p. 74.
• The Plant world. Baltimore [etc.]Plant World Association [etc.] ENG url p. 296, p. 298, p. 39.
• The Popular science monthly. [New York, Popular Science Pub. Co., etc.] ENG url p. 336.

Notes

Contributors

• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed November 26, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 6 providers.
• USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL (April 29, 2008)

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 26, 2007:

• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
• School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Arizona State University Vascular Plant Herbarium
• Utah State University, USU-UTC Specimen Database

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2668347
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-504042
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13765748
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:20006755-1
• GRIN Nomen Number: 414885
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 504042
• MoBot NameID: 5100085
• Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: PDCAC0D190
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: OPSP2
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 50823

Footnotes

1. Zhen-yu Li & Nigel P. Taylor "Cactaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 209. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Donald J. Pinkava "Opuntia". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 93, 94, 95, 102, 123, 232, 381. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

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