Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Cactaceae > Opuntia > Opuntia polyacantha

Opuntia polyacantha (plains pricklypear)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Opuntia trichophora (Engelm. & J.M. Bigelow) Britton & Rose, is a species of cactus in genus Opuntia, more commonly known as prickly pears or nopal. O. trichophora is distributed throughout parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, and may have disjoint populations in Wyoming, southern Montana, and southern Idaho. Opuntia trichophora is a diploid (2n=22) but has sometimes been treated as a variety of Opuntia polyacantha a tetraploid (2n=44). O. trichophora tends to have longer spines than O. polycantha or O. macrorhiza.
View Wikipedia Record: Opuntia polyacantha

Infraspecies

Opuntia polyacantha var. arenaria
Opuntia polyacantha var. erinacea (grizzlybear pricklypear) (Attributes)
Opuntia polyacantha var. hystericina
Opuntia polyacantha var. hystracina
Opuntia polyacantha var. hystricina (grizzlybear pricklypear)
Opuntia polyacantha var. nicholii (Navajo Bridge pricklypear)
Opuntia polyacantha var. polyacantha (hairspine pricklypear)

Attributes

Bloom Period [1]  Late Spring
Drought Tolerance [1]  High
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [1]  None
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [1]  6 months 20 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [1]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [1]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [1]  Fall
Growth Form [1]  Stoloniferous
Growth Period [1]  Spring, Summer, Fall
Growth Rate [1]  Rapid
Hazards [2]  The plant has numerous minutely barbed glochids (hairs) that are easily dislodged when the plant is touched and they then become stuck to the skin where they are difficult to see and remove. They can cause considerable discomfort;
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Insects, Lepidoptera
Propagation [1]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [1]  12 inches (30 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [1]  Rapid
Seed Vigor [1]  Medium
Seeds Per [1]  145000 / lb (319670 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [1]  Decumbent
Structure [1]  Shrub
Usage [2]  The peeled stems have been used as a mordant in fixing dyes; A pink to red dye is obtained from the fruit; A gum is obtained from the stem that can be used as an adhesive;
Vegetative Spread Rate [1]  Moderate
Flower Color [1]  Yellow
Foliage Color [1]  Green
Fruit Color [1]  Red
Flower Conspicuous [1]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [1]  Yes
Height [2]  6 inches (0.15 m)
Width [2]  39 inches (1 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 4 Low Temperature: -30 F° (-34.4 C°) → -20 F° (-28.9 C°)
Light Preference [1]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [1]  Strong Base
Soil Fertility [1]  Infertile
Water Use [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [1]  Porous
Screening - Winter [1]  Porous
View Plants For A Future Record : Opuntia polyacantha

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Antilocapra americana (pronghorn)[3]
Dactylopius confusus (california cochineal scale)[4]
Neotoma micropus (southern plains woodrat)[5]
Thomomys talpoides (northern pocket gopher)[6]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

NatureServe Explorer

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3The Sagebrush Sea by Cornell Lab of Ornithology
♦ 4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 5Neotoma micropus, J. K. Braun and M. A. Mares, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 330, pp. 1-9 (1989)
♦ 6Thomomys talpoides, B. J. Verts and Leslie N. Carraway, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 618, pp. 1-11 (1999)
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0