Common Name: CACTUS FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, tree, generally fleshy. Stem: cylindric to spheric, or flat; surface smooth, tubercled, or ribbed (grooved); nodal areoles bearing flowers. Leaf: generally 0 or early-deciduous, flat to +- cylindric. Spines: areoles generally with central, radial spines, occasionally with glochids. Flower: generally 1 per areole, bisexual [unisexual], sessile, radial [bilateral]; perianth parts generally many [5], scale-like to petal-like; stamens many; ovary inferior [superior], style 1, stigma lobes generally several [many]. Fruit: dry to fleshy or juicy, indehiscent to variously dehiscent, spiny, scaly, or naked; tubercled or smooth. Seed: generally many, occasionally 0--few.
Genera In Family: +- 125 genera, +- 1800 species: America (especially deserts), Africa; many cultivated, some edible. Note: Spines smaller, fewer (0) in shade forms; yellow spines blacken in age. Introduced species increasingly escape cultivation. Hybridization common in some genera.
eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Bruce D. Parfitt, Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin, Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: PINEAPPLE CACTUS
Habit: Erect or ascending, branches generally 0. Stem: 5--20 cm, 2--12 cm diam, ovoid to cylindric, not segmented, firm; ribs 8--21, prominent; tubercles distinct along ribs. Spines: [2]10--24 per areole, 0.3--2.1 mm diam, needle-like or awl-shaped, straight to curved or hooked; central spines 1--11 per areole. Flower: +- terminal, from upper edge of spine cluster, 25--75 mm diam; perianth +- green-yellow to magenta; ovary glabrous, spineless, scales sparse, rounded, ciliate at least near tip. Fruit: dehiscent by 2--4 short longitudinal slits, cylindric to +- spheric, spines 0. Seed: 2--3.7 mm, reniform, tubercled, glossy or shiny, black.
Etymology: (Greek: hard or cruel cactus)
eFlora Treatment Author: J. Mark Porter & Edward F. Anderson