| | The genera of Cactaceae |
Prickly pears.
Including Airampoa Fric, Cactodendron Bigelow, nom. inval., Cactus Lem., Chaffeyopuntia Fric & Schelle, Clavarioidia Kreuz. (nom. inval.), Ficindica St.-Lag., Nopalea Salm-Dyck, Parviopuntia Soulaire & Marn.-Lap. (nom. inval.), Phyllarthus Neck. ex M.Gómez (nom. inval.), Salmiopuntia Fric (nom. inval.), Subulatopuntia Fric & Schelle, Tunas Lunell, Weberiopuntia Fric including Nopalea Salm-Dyck
The plants opuntioid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The stems usually spiny. The plants terrestrial and self supporting (usually), or scrambling; producing aerial roots, or not producing aerial roots; branched (the branches sometimes easily detached); with cladodes. The cladodes without midribs. The plants erect; shrubby, or tree-like; with well formed trunks, or not developing conspicuous trunks; to 0.3–10 m high (or more, when erect). The branches resembling the main stem. The main stem nearly always not remaining dominant, or remaining dominant (Nopalea); flattened. The branches flattened; not combining a straight upper margin with a curved lower one. The stems segmented, or not segmented; ribbed and grooved (rarely), or not ribbed and grooved. The plants hardly conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate. The tubercles if interpreted as present, not connected by ribs; spirally disposed, or scattered. The areoles not tubercle-associated (at least, hardly detectably so); spirally disposed, or borne in longitudinal series, or borne along the margins of the flattened branches, or spirally disposed and borne along the margins of the flattened branches, or scattered on the surfaces; simple; with glochids (these usually more persistent than the spines); with spines, or without spines (rarely). The spines variously small to large, solitary to clustered (usually numerous, often readily shed and irritable); 1–10(–50) (usually fewer than 12); without sheaths; stiff, or flexible; straight, or curved; flattened, or terete. The mature stems with well developed leaves to with much reduced leaves (sometimes very small and fugacious). Leaves of mature stems minute to medium-sized; fleshy; terete (cylindrical).
Flowering during the day. The flowers terminal (rarely, or sub-terminal), or lateral; one per areole; rotate; sessile; regular to somewhat irregular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium (usually, bearing leaflike scales, the areoles with glochids and sometimes spines), or scarcely produced beyond the ovary to not produced beyond the ovary (? - the ‘literature descriptions’ being disgracefully non-comparative); not naked; with scales; with spines, or spineless. The hypanthial tube not naked; with scales; with spines (and sometimes glochids), or spineless. The perianth sequentially intergrading from sepals to petals, or petaline, or of ‘tepals’; green, or yellow, or red. The perianth segments relatively short, broad; blunt, or pointed, or apiculate. Stamens numerous; adnate to the perianth (inserted in the throat); not exserted (mostly), or exserted beyond the perianth (e.g., Nopalea). Gynoecium inferior. The ovules circinotropus, campylotropous. The funicles circinate.
The mature fruit 1–8(–17) cm long; usually umbilicate, globose to ovoid (usually), or ellipsoidal, or clavate, or pyriform, or turbinate, or barrel-shaped (i.e., of assorted shapes, usually globular or ovoid); naked (rarely?), or not naked (usually with areoles); spiny, or with glochids, or spiny and with glochids, or without spines; fleshy (mostly, edible or not), or non-fleshy when mature; indehiscent. The seeds white; conspicuously hairy (rarely), or not hairy; wingless; encased in their bony arils. Cotyledons fleshy, foliaceous.
Physiology. CAM.
Natural Distribution. Native to Southern U.S.A., South and central America to Patagonia; widely introduced worldwide, with several noxious weed species.
Classification. About 330 species. Subfamily Opuntioideae. Tribe Opuntieae.
Cf. Hunt (1967).
Images. • Opuntis cochinellifera: © Zoya Akulova (2016). • Opuntis cochinellifera: © Zoya Akulova (2016). • Opuntis oricola: © Zoya Akulova (2015). • Opuntis oricola: © Zoya Akulova (2010). • Opuntis oricola: © Zoya Akulova (2010). • Opuntia pubescens (as pascoensis), O. pusilla (as drummondii), O. repens, O. taylori: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. anacantha var. retrorsa, O. jamaicensis, O. pusilla (as drummondii), O. triacantha: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. jamaicensis: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. decumbens: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. microdasys, O. stricta (as macrartha), and ‘O. opuntia’ = ?: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. humifusa (as fuscoatra), O. macrorhiza (as tenuispina), O. sulphurea: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. atrispina, O. engelmannii, O. phaeacantha: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. boldingii, O. elatior (O. bergeriana = elatior): Britton & Rose (1919). • O. schumannii, O. stricta. ‘O. vulgaris’ = ?: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. engelmannii var. linguiformis (as O. linguiformis): Britton & Rose (1919). • O. lindheimeri: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. megacantha, O. velutina, ‘O. leptocarpa’ = ?: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. tomentosa, Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis, Grusonia bradtiana (all as Opuntia): Britton & Rose (1919). • O. ficus-indica (as maxima), O. lasiacantha, O. leucotricha, O. robusta: Britton & Rose (1919). • O. fragilis and O. polycantha (O. rhodantha = polycantha): Britton & Rose (1919). • Opuntia cochenillifera, O. auberi, O. dejecta (all as Nopalea): Britton & Rose (1919). • Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. (as O. monacantha), Bot. Reg. 1726, 1835. • Opuntia macrorhiza, with Cylindropuntia alcahes var. burrageana, Austrocylindropuntia cylindrica, and Grusonia emoryi (all as Opuntia): Britton & Rose (1919). • Opuntia stricta (as macrartha) and O. macrorhiza (as tortispina), with Austroylindropuntia subulata (as exaltata): Britton & Rose (1919). • ‘Opuntia sp.’, with Selenicereus grandiflora L. (as Cactus): Le Maout and Decaisne (1873).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2018 onwards. The genera of Cactaceae: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 14th November 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
