Xerophyte

Description

Opuntia engelmanniiSN|35254]]SN|19920]] is a very varaible prickly pear, generally forming a dense, mound-shaped shrub, less than 1 metre tall (occasionally tree-like up to 3.5 metres high), usually with no apparent trunk or with a short trunk. Lower branches generally decumbent, upper spreading to ascending.

Stem Segments

Joints obovate to orbicular to rhombic, not disarticulating, flat, glabrous, yellow-green to green (rarely blue-green), obovate to round, or apex tapering, elongate, about 15?30(-120) cm long and 12?20(-40) cm wide, more or less tuberculate.

Note

The nomenclatural history of this species is somewhat complicated due to the varieties, as well as its habit of hybridizing with Opuntia phaeacanthaSN|35254]]SN|35254]]. A lot of confusion exists in the identification of this species and Opuntia phaeacanthaSN|19920]]SN|35254]].

Areoles

5-8 per diagonal row across mid-stem segments, evenly distributed on stem segment to absent, subcircular to obovate, 4-7