Habit: Shrub, tree; roots fibrous [tuberous].
Stem: generally erect, < 6 [12] m; segments generally flat (+- cylindric), generally firmly attached; tubercles 0 to +- developed; ribs 0.
Leaf: small, conic, fleshy, deciduous, present on young stems, ovaries.
Spines: 0--many per areole, cylindric or flat, tip smooth or barbed, epidermis persistent; glochids generally many.
Fruit: juicy, fleshy or dry; wall thick, bearing areoles; spiny or not.
Seed: in a bony, +- white aril.
Species In Genus: +- 150 species: America;
Opuntia ficus-indica cultivated for food, others for ornament.
Etymology: (Possibly from Papago name ("opun") for this food pl; or for a spiny plant of Opus, Greece)
Note: Spines smaller, fewer in shade forms; yellow spines blacken in age. Spineless stems, ovaries, and fruit generally with glochids, these occasionally long, conspicuous; hybridization common. Taxa with cylindric to club-shaped stems moved to
Cylindropuntia,
Grusonia.
Jepson eFlora Author: Marc Baker, Lucas C. Majure & Bruce D. Parfitt
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Opuntia
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