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: PRICKLY-PEAR 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. 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. eFlora Treatment Author: Marc Baker, Lucas C. Majure & Bruce D. Parfitt
Opuntia curvispina Griffiths
NATIVE Habit: Shrub. Stem: 0.4 to 1.2 m; branches spreading to erect from a distinct cylindrical trunk; segments 12.5--22 cm, +- round to elliptic or obovate; gray- to yellow-green, glaucous. Spines: 4--6 per areole on generally >70% of segment, longest 4--7 cm, generally flat, reflexed-spreading, often twisted, bright red, red-brown, or reddish-yellow, apex translucent yellow. Flower: inner perianth 3--4 cm, clear yellow, base slightly dull red, pink, or green, darker with age; filaments pale yellow to whitish-green proximally; style white, stigma green. Fruit: 3--5 cm, juicy, pale to dark red or reddish-pink, glaucous; interior generally green; areoles 23--51. Seed: 3--6 mm. Chromosomes: 2n=44. Ecology: Grassland, juniper-grassland, open interior chaparral, Joshua-tree woodland; Elevation: 900--1500 m. Bioregional Distribution: DMtns; Distribution Outside California: southern Nevada, northern Arizona. Flowering Time: May--Jun Note: Possible origin as hybrid between O. chlorotica and O. phaeacantha, but widespread and often locally abundant outside California, even the dominant prickly-pear in some areas. Jepson eFlora Author: Marc Baker, Lucas C. Majure & Bruce D. Parfitt Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory Previous taxon: Opuntia chlorotica Next taxon: Opuntia engelmannii var. engelmannii
Citation for this treatment: Marc Baker, Lucas C. Majure & Bruce D. Parfitt 2019, Opuntia curvispina, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 7, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=89064, accessed on April 24, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 24, 2024.
No expert verified images found for Opuntia curvispina.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
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Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
