Xerophyte

Central Spines

0-3, subulate, usually flattened near base, twisted, deflexed, 3-8 cm long., whitish to tan to brown, red-dish brown at bases.

Seeds

Tan, nearly round, notched seeds, 4-5 mm across, evidently notched, warped.

Description

Brownspine or Purple-fruit Prickly Pear (Opuntia phaeacanthaSN|31216]]SN|35254]]) is a complex of several medium-sized, brown-spinal prickly pear varieties. Plants may be erect or prostrate 60-90 cm tall, occasionally even taller, with no trunk and forms dense thickets up to 2.4 metres across or, it may remain a low, prostrate plant with most of the stem segments (pads) resting their edges on the ground, never growing taller than 40 cm tall. These are recognized by their weak stems and pads that sag or lie on the ground, especially during the winter months. Flowers are golden yellow with a yellow to reddish centre. Among the most common cacti in North America, Opuntia phaeacantha is the very embodiment of what most folks think of when they think of a prickly pear cactus. There are many forms with only a few spines.

Fruits (tunas)

Wine red to purple when ripe with greenish flesh (sometimes reddish and more or less juicy), obovate to barrel-shaped, 3-5 cm long, 2-3 cm in diameter, with 18-24 spineless areoles.

Flowers

Particularly attractive, bright yellow, yellow often with pale red to maroon throats and red central stripes on the tepals, 5-7 cm in diameter. Inner tepals yellow with red basal portions (rarely entirely pink to red), 30-40 mm long. Filaments greenish basally, cream coloured or white distally. Anthers yellow. Style white, cream to pinkish. Stigma yellowish, pale or dark green.

Glochids

Yellowish or yellow-brown, dense tuft, to 3(-5) mm long.

Chromosome Number

2n = 66.

Spines

(0-)2-8 per areole, mostly on upper fourth of stem or absent straight, curved, or spirally twisted . The clusters of one to four spines on the sides of the pads are mostly bent downward, while those on the edge of the pads are longer and straighter.

Stem

Decumbent to commonly trailing to 30-100 cm long. Pads (segments) widely variable not disarticulating. Most of them flattened, usually longer than broad, and rather thick, obovate to elliptic, 10-25 cm long and 9-18 cm wide ow tuberculate, glabrous, but others are egg shaped or club shaped, 10-18 cm long and 7-20 cm wide, bluish green when young, becoming yellowish green, greyish green to dark green, with age sometimes reddish during stress.

Radial Spines

2 slender, acicular, shorter, to 20 mm long, off white to yellowish.

Areoles

3-6 mm, 1-2.5 cm apart, oval to elliptic, with 5-7 per diagonal row on midstem segments, with tan to brown wool, ageing to grey.