A Cactus Desert in Arizona. Photograph by D. T. McDougal.
THE CACTACEAE
DESCRIPTIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF
PLANTS OF THE CACTUS FAMILY
BY
N. L. BRITTON and J. N. ROSE
Volume I
The Carnegie Institution of Washington
Washington, 1919
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON
Publication No. 248 Volume I
press of gibson brothers
washington
CONTENTS.
page.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
Order Cactales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
Family Cactaceae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
Key to Tribes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
Tribe Pereskieae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
Pereskia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
Key to Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
Tribe Opuntieae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Key to Genera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Pereskiopsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Pterocactus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Nopalea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Tacinga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Maihuenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Opuntia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Key to Subgenera and Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Subgenus Cylindropuntia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Series Ramosissimae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Series Leptocaules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Series hurberianae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Series Echinocarpae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Series Bigelovianae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Series Imbricatae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Series Fulgidae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Series Vestitae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Series Clavarioides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Series Salmianae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Series Subulatae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Series Miquelianae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Series Clavatae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Subgenus Tephrocactus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Series Weberianae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Series Floccosae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Series Glomeratae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Series Pentlandianae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
page.
Family Cactaceae—continued.
Tribe Opuntieae—continued.
Opuntia—continued.
Subgenus Platyopuntia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Series Pumilae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Series Curassavicae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Series Aurantiacae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Series Tunae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Series Basilares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Series Inamoenae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Series Tortispinae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Series Sulphureae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Series Strigiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Series Setispinae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Series Phaeacanthae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Series Elatiores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Series Elatae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Series Scheerianae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Series Dillenianae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Series Macdougalianae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Series Tomentosae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Series Leucotrichae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Series Orbiculatae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Series Ficus-indicae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Series Streptacanthae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Series Robustae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Series Polyacanthae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Series Stenopetalae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Series Palmadorae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Series Spinosissimae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Series Brasilienses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Series Ammophilae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Series Chafeyanae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Grusonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
111
ILLUSTRATIONS.
facing
page
1. Cactus Desert in Arizona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece
2. (1) Flowering branch of Pereskia pereskia. (2 and 3) Fruit of Pereskia pereskia. (4) Leafy branch of
Pereskia sacharosa (5) Proliferous fruit of Pereskia sacharosa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
3. (1) Flowering branch of Pereskia grandifolia. (2) Leafy branch of Pereskiopsis chapistle. (3) Leafy
branch of Pereskiopsis pititache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
4. (1) Upper part of lowering joint of Nopalea cochenillifera. (2) Upper part of lowering joint of
Nopalea auberi. (3) Fruit of Nopalea auberi. (4) Flowering joint of Nopalea dejecta . . . . . .
34
5. Nopalea auberi as it grows near Mitla, Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
6. (1 and 2) Branch of Opuntia mortolensis. (3 and 4) Branch of Opuntia leptocaulis. (5) Flowering
branch of Opuntia arbuscula. (6) Flowering branch of Opuntia kleiniae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
48
7. (1) Leafy branch of Opuntia kleiniae. (2) Terminal branch of Opuntia vivipara. (3) Branch of
Opuntia parryi. (4) Flowering branch of Opuntia echinocarpa. (5) Fruiting branch of
Opuntia versicolor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
50
8. (1) Type plant of Opuntia vivipara, near Tucson, Arizona. (2) A much branched plant of Opuntia
versicolor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
52
9. (1) Joint of Opuntia tetracantha. (2, 3, 4, 5) Flowering joint of Opuntia versicolor. (6) Proliferous
fruits of Opuntia fulgida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
54
10. (1) Joint of Opuntia tunicata. (2, 3, 4, 5) Joint of Opuntia spinosior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
66
11. (1) Leafy branch of Opuntia imbricata. (2) Flowering branch of Opuntia prolifera. (3, 4) Form of
Opuntia alcahes. (5, 6) Opuntia vestita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
68
12. (1) Clump of plants of Opuntia fulgida. (2) A very open plant of Opuntia spinosior . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
13. (1) Opuntia exaltata as seen in the highlands of Peru. (2) Clump of Opuntia loccosa as it grows in
the valleys of the Andes of eastern Peru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
76
14. (1) Flowering branch of Opuntia burrageana. (2) Opuntia cylindrica. (3, 4) Joint of Opuntia stanlyi.
(5) Flowering joint of Opuntia macrorhiza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
78
13. (1, 2) Part of joint of Opuntia exaltata. (3) Upper part of joint of Opuntia macrarthra. (4) Upper
part of joint of Opuntia tortispina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
80
16. (1) Top of Opuntia miquelii. (2) Old and young joints of Opuntia invicta. (3) Upper part of joint of
Opuntia ignescens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
98
17. (1) Joint of Opuntia pascoensis. (2) Joints of Opuntia taylori. (3, 4) Form of Opuntia repens.
(5) Flower of Opuntia repens. (6) Flowering joint of Opuntia drummondii . . . . . . . . . 102
18. (1) Two plants of Opuntia drummondii. (2) Joints of Opuntia retrorsa with lower. (3) Joints of
Opuntia triacantha. (4) Joint of Opuntia jamaicensis. (5) Section of fruit of Opuntia
jamaicensis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
19. (1) Plant of Opuntia jamaicensis. (2, 3) Flower of Opuntia jamaicensis. (4) Longitudinal section
of flower of Opuntia jamaicensis. (5, 6) Stamen of Opuntia jamaicensis. (7) Style of
Opuntia jamaicensis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
20. (1) Flowering joint of Opuntia decumbens. (2) Fruiting joint of Opuntia decumbens. (3) Hybrid 116
21. Group of hardy Opuntia, mostly Opuntia tortispina, in grounds of New York Botanical Garden . . . 126
22. (1) Joints of Opuntia microdasys. (2) Flowering joint of Opuntia macrarthra. (3) Fruit of Opuntia
macrarthra. (4) Seed of Opuntia macrarthra. (5) Flowering joint of Opuntia opuntia . . . . . 128
23. (1) Flowering joint of Opuntia fuscoatra. (2) Upper part of joint of Opuntia sulphurea. (3) Joint
of Opuntia tenuispina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
24. (1) Plant of Opuntia santa-rita. (2) Plant of Opuntia discata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
25. (1) Flowering joint of Opuntia atrispina. (2) Flowering joint of Opuntia phaeacantha. (3) Upper part
of joint of Opuntia engelmannii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
26. (1) Flowering joint of Opuntia bergeriana. (2) Flowering joint of Opuntia elatior. (3) Flowering
joint of Opuntia boldinghii. (4, 5) Joint of Opuntia elata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
27. (1) Upper part of fruiting joint of Opuntia schumannii. (2) Flower of Opuntia schumannii. (3)
Flowering joint of Opuntia vulgaris. (4) Flowering joint of Opuntia stricta . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
28. (1) Flowering joint of Opuntia laevis. (2) Flowering joint of Opuntia dillenii. (3) Upper part of
lowering joint of Opuntia aciculata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
29. (1) View of Opuntia keyensis. (2) View of Opuntia dillenii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
30. Flowering joint of Opuntia linguiformis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
31. Flowering joints of Opuntia lindheimeri. (1) Orange-lowered race. (2) Red-lowered race . . . . . . . 166
32. (1) Upper part of lowering joint of Opuntia leptocarpa. (2) Fruit of Opuntia leptocarpa. (3) Flowering joint of Opuntia velutina. (4) Upper part of joint of Opuntia megacantha . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
33. (1) Upper part of joint of Opuntia tomentosa. (2) Flowering joint of Opuntia brasiliensis. (3)
Flowering branch of Opuntia brasiliensis. (4) Joint of Grusonia bradtiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
34. (1) Part of joint of Opuntia leucotricha. (2) Part of joint of Opuntia maxima. (3) Joint of Opuntia
lasiacantha. (4) Joint of Opuntia robusta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
35. (1) Plant of Opuntia fragilis. (2) Flowering branch of Opuntia rhodantha. (3) Flowering joint of
Opuntia polyacantha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
36. (1) Flowering joint of Opuntia spinosissima. (2, 3) Single lower of Opuntia spinosissima. (4, 5)
Longitudinal section of lower of Opuntia spinosissima. (6) Cross-section of ovary of
Opuntia spinosissima. (7) Style of Opuntia spinosissima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
PLATES
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V
THE CACTACEAE.
TEXT-FIGURES.
Fig.
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Hedge of Pereskia pereskia . . . . . . . . . .
Tree of Pereskia autumnalis . . . . . . . . .
Branches of Pereskia autumnalis . . . . . .
Branch of Pereskia lychnidilora . . . . . .
Leafy branch of Pereskia nicoyana . . . .
Branch of Pereskia zehntneri . . . . . . . .
Cultivated plant of Pereskia zehntneri .
Herbarium specimen of Pereskia moorei
Tree of Pereskia guamacho . . . . . . . . . .
Flowering branch of Pereskia guamacho
Leafy branch and lower of Pereskia
colombiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Branch and fruit of Pereskia bleo . . . . .
Fruit of Pereskia bahiensis . . . . . . . . . .
Leafy branch of Pereskia bahiensis . . . .
Tree of Pereskia bahiensis . . . . . . . . . . .
Hedge containing Pereskia grandifolia .
Branch of Pereskia zinniaelora . . . . . .
Tree of Pereskia cubensis . . . . . . . . . . .
Leafy branch of Pereskia cubensis. . . . .
Branch and fruit of Pereskia portulacifolia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant grown from a cutting of
Pereskiopsis velutina . . . . . . . . . . . .
Branch of Pereskiopsis diguetii . . . . . . .
Branch of Pereskiopsis opuntiaelora . .
Branch of Pereskiopsis rotundifolia . . .
Shows a clump of Pereskiopsis rotundifolia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Branch of Pereskiopsis porteri . . . . . . .
Branch of Pereskiopsis aquosa . . . . . . .
Leaf of Pereskiopsis kellermanii . . . . . .
Leaf of Pereskiopsis kellermanii . . . . . .
Leaf of Pereskiopsis kellermanii . . . . . .
Seed of Pterocactus hickenii . . . . . . . . .
Plant of Pterocactus hickenii . . . . . . . .
Branch of Pterocactus ischeri. . . . . . . .
Seed of Pterocactus ischeri . . . . . . . . .
Seed of Pterocactus pumilus . . . . . . . . .
Seed of Pterocactus tuberosus . . . . . . . .
Plant of Pterocactus tuberosus, showing
a very large root . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Pterocactus tuberosus . .
Joint of Nopalea guatemalensis . . . . . . .
Joint of Nopalea lutea . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Large plant of Nopalea dejecta . . . . . . .
Joints of Nopalea dejecta. . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Nopalea karwinskiana. . . . . . .
Joint of Nopalea inaperta . . . . . . . . . . .
Flower of Tacinga funalis . . . . . . . . . . .
Longitudinal section of lower of Tacinga
funalis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Section of stem of Tacinga funalis . . . .
Tip of young branch of Tacinga funalis
Plant of Tacinga funalis, climbing over
bushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant of Maihuenia valentinii . . . . . . . .
Fruit of Maihuenia poeppigii . . . . . . . .
Joint and lower of Maihuenia brachydelphys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant of Maihuenia tehuelches . . . . . . .
Branch of Opuntia ramosissima . . . . . .
Section of stem of Opuntia ramosissima
Plant of Opuntia leptocaulis . . . . . . . . .
page.
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Fig. 57.
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Section of stem of Opuntia leptocaulis .
Joint of Opuntia caribaea . . . . . . . . . . .
hicket formed of Opuntia caribaea . . .
Clump of Opuntia arbuscula . . . . . . . .
Plant of Opuntia arbuscula . . . . . . . . . .
Fruiting branch of Opuntia arbuscula. .
Flowering branch of Opuntia thurberi .
Branch of Opuntia davisii . . . . . . . . . . .
Branch of Opuntia viridilora . . . . . . . .
Branch of Opuntia whipplei . . . . . . . . .
Plant of Opuntia acanthocarpa . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia serpentina . . . . . . . . .
Plant of Opuntia bigelovii . . . . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia bigelovii . . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia ciribe . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia ciribe . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia cholla . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia cholla . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Proliferous fruits of Opuntia cholla,
developing new joints . . . . . . . . . . .
Proliferous fruits of Opuntia cholla,
developing new joints . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia lloydii . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant of Opuntia lloydii . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant of Opuntia imbricata . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia tunicata . . . . .
Plant of Opuntia pallida . . . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia molesta. . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia prolifera . . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia prolifera . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia alcahes . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia verschafeltii . . . . . . . .
Grafted plants of Opuntia clavarioides .
Potted plant of Opuntia salmiana . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia salmiana . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia subulata . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia pachypus . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia schottii . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia clavata. . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia parishii . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia pulchella . . . . . . . . . .
Plants of Opuntia vilis . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints and cluster of spines of Opuntia
bulbispina. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia grahamii . . . . . . . . . .
Plants of Opuntia weberi . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia weberi . . . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia loccosa . . . . .
Mound of Opuntia lagopus . . . . . . . . .
Root, joints, and lower of O. australis .
Joints of Opuntia glomerata . . . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia aoracantha . . . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia rauppiana . . . . . . . . . .
Flowering plant and fruit of Opuntia
subterranea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia hickenii. . . . . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia darwinii . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia atacamensis . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia russellii . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints of Opuntia ovata . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Potted plant of Opuntia sphaerica . . . .
Joint of Opuntia skottsbergii . . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia nigrispina . . . . . . . . . .
Joint of Opuntia pentlandii. . . . . . . . . .
page.
48
48
49
50
51
51
53
55
55
55
56
58
59
59
60
60
61
62
62
62
63
63
64
65
65
67
69
70
70
72
73
74
74
76
77
81
81
82
82
83
83
84
84
85
86
88
88
89
91
92
92
92
94
94
94
95
96
97
97
97
VI
Fig. 117.
118.
119.
120.
121.
122.
123.
124.
125.
126.
127.
128.
129.
130.
131.
132.
133.
134.
135.
136.
137.
138.
139.
140.
141.
142.
143.
144.
145.
146.
147.
148.
149.
150.
151.
152.
153.
154.
155.
156.
157.
158.
159.
160.
161.
162.
163.
164.
165.
166.
167.
168.
169.
170.
171.
172.
173.
174.
175.
176.
177.
178.
179.
180.
181.
182.
183.
184.
THE CACTACEAE.
TEXT-FIGURES—continued.
page
page.
146
Joints of Opuntia pentlandii . . . . . . . . .
98 Fig. 185. Joint of Opuntia vaseyi . . . . . . . . . . . . .
186. Potted plant of Opuntia occidentalis . .
147
Joint of Opuntia igneseens . . . . . . . . . .
98
187. Joint of Opuntia brunnescens . . . . . . . .
150
Mound of Opuntia ignescens . . . . . . . .
98
188. Fruit of Opuntia brunnescens . . . . . . . .
150
Plant of Opuntia campestris . . . . . . . . .
99
189. Joint of Opuntia galapageia . . . . . . . . .
150
Joints of Opuntia ignota . . . . . . . . . . . .
99
190. Flower of Opuntia galapageia . . . . . . . .
150
hicket of Opuntia pumila . . . . . . . . . .
100
191. Joint and cluster of spines of Opuntia
Joints of Opuntia pumila . . . . . . . . . . .
101
galapageia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
151
Joints of Opuntia pubescens . . . . . . . . .
101
192. Flowering joint of Opuntia delaetiana .
152
Joints of Opuntia curassavica . . . . . . . .
102
193. Joints of Opuntia hanburyana . . . . . . . .
154
Joints of Opuntia borinquensis . . . . . . .
504
194. Joint of Opuntia quitensis . . . . . . . . . . .
154
Joints of Opuntia militaris . . . . . . . . . .
104
195. Joint of Opuntia distans . . . . . . . . . . . .
155
Joints and lower of Opuntia tracyi . . . .
105
196. Joint of Opuntia elata . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
157
Joints and lowers of Opuntia pusilla . .
106
197. Joints of Opuntia cardiosperma . . . . . .
158
Joints of Opuntia aurantiaca . . . . . . . . .
107
198. Joint of Opuntia scheeri . . . . . . . . . . . .
159
Potted plant of Opuntia schickendantzii 107
199. Plant of Opuntia chlorotica . . . . . . . . .
160
Plant of Opuntia kiska-loro . . . . . . . . .
108
200. Joints of Opuntia chlorotica . . . . . . . . .
160
Joints of Opuntia canina . . . . . . . . . . . .
108
201. Plant of Opuntia dillenii . . . . . . . . . . . .
162
Plant of Opuntia retrorsa . . . . . . . . . . .
109
202. Joint of Opuntia tapona . . . . . . . . . . . .
164
Plant of Opuntia utkilio . . . . . . . . . . . .
110
203. Potted plant of Opuntia littoralis . . . . .
164
Joints of Opuntia anacantha . . . . . . . . .
110
204. Joints of Opuntia cantabrigiensis . . . . .
167
hicket of Opuntia bella . . . . . . . . . . . .
111
205. Part of joint and cluster of spines of
Joints of Opuntia bella . . . . . . . . . . . . .
112
Opuntia procumbens . . . . . . . . . . . .
167
Joints of Opuntia bella . . . . . . . . . . . . .
112
206. Joint of Opuntia cañada . . . . . . . . . . . .
167
Plant of Opuntia triacantha . . . . . . . . .
113
207. Joint of Opuntia pyriformis . . . . . . . . .
168
Plant of Opuntia tuna . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
114
208. Joint of Opuntia durangensis . . . . . . . .
169
Joints of Opuntia tuna . . . . . . . . . . . . .
114
209. Plant of Opuntia macdougaliana . . . . .
170
hicket of Opuntia antillana . . . . . . . . .
115
210. Potted plant of Opuntia macdougaliana
171
Joints of Opuntia antillana . . . . . . . . . .
115
211. Joint of Opuntia wilcoxii. . . . . . . . . . . .
172
Plant of Opuntia decumbens . . . . . . . .
117
212. Plant of Opuntia tomentosa . . . . . . . . .
173
Plant of Opuntia depressa. . . . . . . . . . .
118
213. Joint of Opuntia tomentella . . . . . . . . .
174
Joints of Opuntia lubrica. . . . . . . . . . . .
119
214. Potted plant of Opuntia leucotricha . . .
175
Landscape showing Opuntia treleasei. .
119
215. Joints of Opuntia orbiculata . . . . . . . . .
176
Joints of Opuntia basilaris. . . . . . . . . . .
120
216. Potted plant of Opuntia pilifera . . . . . .
177
Plant of Opuntia microdasys . . . . . . . .
121
217. Plants of Opuntia icus-indica . . . . . . .
178
Potted plant of Opuntia, probable hybrid 121
218. Fruit of Opuntia icus-indica . . . . . . . .
178
Joint of Opuntia macrocalyx . . . . . . . . .
122
219. Plant of Opuntia crassa . . . . . . . . . . . . .
179
Plant of Opuntia ruida. . . . . . . . . . . . .
122
220. Potted plant of Opuntia maxima . . . . .
180
Plant of Opuntia pycnantha . . . . . . . . .
123
221. Joint of Opuntia spinulifera . . . . . . . . .
182
Potted plant of Opuntia comonduensis
124
222. Joint of Opuntia lasiacantha . . . . . . . . .
183
Plant of Opuntia inamoena . . . . . . . . .
125
223. Joint of Opuntia zacuapanensis . . . . . .
183
Joint of Opuntia inamoena . . . . . . . . . .
125
224. Joint of Opuntia hyptiacantha . . . . . . .
184
Joints of Opuntia allairei . . . . . . . . . . . .
126
225. Joint of Opuntia streptacantha . . . . . . .
184
Joints of Opuntia pollardii . . . . . . . . . .
126
226. Potted plant of Opuntia megacantha . .
185
Plant of Opuntia opuntia . . . . . . . . . . .
128
227. Plants of Opuntia megacantha . . . . . . .
186
Fruit of Opuntia grandilora . . . . . . . . .
129
229. Joint of Opuntia megacantha . . . . . . . .
186
Flowering joint of Opuntia grandilora
129
229. Joint of Opuntia deamii . . . . . . . . . . . .
187
Flowering joints of Opuntia austrina . .
130
230. Joint of Opuntia eichlamii . . . . . . . . . .
188
Joints, lower, and fruit of O. plumbea .
131
231. Joint of Opuntia inaequilateralis . . . . . .
188
Fruit of Opuntia stenochila. . . . . . . . . .
132
232. Joint of Opuntia pittieri . . . . . . . . . . . .
189
Fruit of Opuntia stenochila. . . . . . . . . .
132
233. Joint of Opuntia cordobensis . . . . . . . .
189
Joint of Opuntia stenochila . . . . . . . . . .
132
234. Fruit of Opuntia cordobensis . . . . . . . .
189
Potted plant of Opuntia delicata . . . . . .
133
235. Joint of Opuntia quimilo . . . . . . . . . . .
190
Joint of Opuntia soehrensii . . . . . . . . . .
135
236. Fruit of Opuntia quimilo . . . . . . . . . . .
190
Joint of Opuntia microdisca . . . . . . . . .
135
237. Joint and lowers of Opuntia quimilo . .
191
Joints of Opuntia strigil . . . . . . . . . . . .
136
238. Plant of Opuntia robusta . . . . . . . . . . .
192
Joints of Opuntia ballii . . . . . . . . . . . . .
137
239. Plant of Opuntia fragilis . . . . . . . . . . . .
194
Joints of Opuntia pottsii . . . . . . . . . . . .
138
240. Joints of Opuntia arenaria . . . . . . . . . . .
195
Joint of Opuntia setispina . . . . . . . . . . .
138
241. Joint of Opuntia trichophora . . . . . . . .
195
Plant and fruit of Opuntia mackensensii 139
242. Plant of Opuntia erinacea . . . . . . . . . . .
196
Joint of Opuntia macrocentra . . . . . . . .
140
243. Joint of Opuntia juniperina. . . . . . . . . .
197
Joint of Opuntia tardospina . . . . . . . . .
141
244. Seed of Opuntia juniperina . . . . . . . . . .
197
Cluster of spines of Opuntia gosseliniana 141
245. Joint of Opuntia hystricina . . . . . . . . . .
197
Joint of Opuntia gosseliniana . . . . . . . .
141
246. Joint of Opuntia sphaerocarpa . . . . . . .
198
Joint of Opuntia angustata . . . . . . . . . .
142
247. Joints of Opuntia polyacantha . . . . . . .
199
Plant of Opuntia azurea . . . . . . . . . . . .
143
248. Joint of Opuntia stenopetala . . . . . . . . .
200
Joints of Opuntia azurea . . . . . . . . . . . .
143
249. Upper part of joint and lower of Opuntia
Joint of Opuntia covillei . . . . . . . . . . . .
145
stenopetala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
201
Joint of Opuntia covillei . . . . . . . . . . . .
145
THE CACTACEAE.
Fig. 250.
251.
252.
253.
254.
255.
256.
257.
258.
259.
260.
261.
262.
263.
264.
265.
266.
267.
268.
269.
270.
271.
272.
273.
274.
275.
276.
VII
TEXT-FIGURES—continued.
page.
page.
Plants of Opuntia palmadora . . . . . . . .
202 Fig. 277. Small joint of Nopalea gaumeri . . . . . .
216
Joints of Opuntia palmadora. . . . . . . . .
202
278. Elongated joint of Nopalea gaumeri . . .
216
Plants of Opuntia nashii . . . . . . . . . . . .
202
279. Plant of Opuntia depauperata. . . . . . . .
216
Potted plant of Opuntia nashii . . . . . . .
203
280. Joint of Opuntia depauperata . . . . . . . .
217
Joint of Opuntia bahamana. . . . . . . . . .
204
281. Plant of Opuntia pestifer . . . . . . . . . . .
217
Flower of Opuntia bahamana . . . . . . . .
204
282. Plant of Opuntia discolor . . . . . . . . . . .
218
Plants of Opuntia macracantha . . . . . .
204
283. Joints of Opuntia pestifer . . . . . . . . . . .
218
Potted plant of Opuntia macracantha . .
205
284. Joint of Opuntia discolor . . . . . . . . . . .
218
Potted plant of Opuntia spinosissima . .
205
285. Joint of Opuntia guatemalensis. . . . . . .
219
Plants of Opuntia millspaughii . . . . . . .
206
286. Joint of Opuntia pennellii . . . . . . . . . . .
219
Plant of Opuntia moniliformis . . . . . . .
206
287. Joints of Opuntia caracasana . . . . . . . . .
219
Plant of Opuntia moniliformis . . . . . . .
207
288. Plant of Opuntia aequatorialis . . . . . . .
220
Plant of Opuntia moniliformis . . . . . . .
207
289. Joints of Opuntia aequatorialis . . . . . . .
220
Plants of Opuntia rubescens . . . . . . . . .
208
290. Joints of Opuntia lata . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
220
Plants of Opuntia rubescens . . . . . . . . .
208
291. Fruits of Opuntia lata . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
220
Proliferous fruits of Opuntia rubescens
209
292. Joint with lower of Opuntia macateei .
220
Joint of Opuntia rubescens . . . . . . . . . .
209
293. Joint of Opuntia macateei . . . . . . . . . . .
220
Fruit of Opuntia brasiliensis . . . . . . . . .
209
294. Plants of Opuntia soederstromiana. . . .
220
Plant of Opuntia brasiliensis. . . . . . . . .
210
295. Plants of Opuntia zebrina . . . . . . . . . . .
220
Branch of Opuntia bahiensis . . . . . . . .
210
296. Fruit of Opuntia zebrina . . . . . . . . . . . .
222
Joint and fruit of Opuntia bahiensis . . .
210
297. Plants of Opuntia keyensis . . . . . . . . . .
223
Plant of Opuntia bahiensis . . . . . . . . . .
211
298. Section of lower of Opuntia keyensis .
223
Plant of Opuntia ammophila . . . . . . . .
211
299. Flower of Opuntia keyensis . . . . . . . . .
223
Fruiting joint of Opuntia ammophila . .
211
300. Joint of Opuntia bonplandii . . . . . . . . .
224
Flower of Opuntia argentina . . . . . . . .
212
301. Plant of Opuntia dobbieana . . . . . . . . .
224
Potted plant of Opuntia chafeyi. . . . . .
212
302. Plant of Opuntia dobbieana (without
legend) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
225
Plant of Opuntia chafeyi . . . . . . . . . . .
213
THE CACTACEAE
Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus
Family
1
T H E CACTACEAE.
INTRODUCTION .
The writers began field, greenhouse, and herbarium studies of the Cactaceae in
1904 and in the years following they made studies and collections over wide areas
in the United States, Mexico, and the West Indies. It was first intended that these
should be followed by a general description of the North American species only,
but a plan for a more complete investigation of the family was proposed by Dr. D.
T. MacDougal in January 1911. This was approved by the trustees of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington at its next regular meeting and a grant was made to
cover the expenses of such an investigation. Dr. Rose was given temporary leave of
absence from his position as Associate Curator in charge of the Division of Plants,
United States National Museum, and became a Research Associate in the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, with William R. Fitch and Paul G. Russell as assistants;
Dr. Britton, Director-in-Chief of the New York Botanical Garden, was appointed
an honorary Research Associate, while R. S. Williams, of the New York Botanical
Garden, was detailed to select and preserve the specimens for illustration. Work
under this new arrangement was begun January 15, 1912, and thus several lines of
investigation were undertaken in a comprehensive way.
1. Reexamination of type specimens and of all original descriptions: This was
necessary because descriptions had been incorrectly interpreted, plants had been
wrongly identified, and the errors perpetuated; thus the published geographical
distribution of many species was faulty and conclusions based on such data were
unreliable. Not only had specific names been transferred to plants to which they did
not belong, but generic names were interchanged and the laws of priority ignored.
Many valid species, too, had dropped out of collections and out of current literature
and had to be restored.
2. Assembling of large collections for greenhouse and herbarium use: Extensive
greenhouse facilities were furnished by the New York Botanical Garden and the
United States Department of Agriculture, while the herbaria and libraries of the
United States National Museum and of the New York Botanical Garden furnished
the bases for the researches. The New York Botanical Garden has also cooperated
in contributing funds in aid of the field operations, in clerical work, and a large
number of the illustrations used have been made there, the paintings and line
drawings mostly by Miss Mary E. Eaton.
3. Extensive f ield operations in the arid parts of both Americas: Many of these
deserts are almost inaccessible, while the plants are bulky and if not handled carefully are easily destroyed. Many plants require several years to mature, in some cases
many years to flower in cultivation. Through these explorations were obtained the
living material for the greenhouse collections and for exchange purposes, as well
as herbarium material for permanent preservation. Of much importance, also, were
field observations upon the plants as individuals, their form, habit, habitat, and
their relations to other species.
3
4
THE CACTACEAE.
Early in 1912 Dr. Rose went to Europe to study the collections there and
to arrange for exchanges with various botanical institutions having collections of
these plants. He spent considerable time at London, mainly at the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, where through the courtesy of the Director, Sir David Pram, he
was able to examine the greenhouse, illustrative, and herbarium material for which
this institution has long been famed. The collection at the British Museum of
Natural History and that of the Linnaean Society of London were examined. At
Paris he studied the collections at the Natural History Museum, many of which
have historic interest; one of his interesting discoveries there was that the Pereskia
bleo, collected by Baron Friedrich Alexander von Humboldt in Colombia, is a very
different species from the plant which for nearly a century has been passing in our
collections and literature under that name. He also visited the famous botanical
garden of the late Sir Thomas Hanbury, at La Mortola, Italy, and through the
courtesy of Lady Hanbury was given every possible facility, for the study of this
collection; Mr. Alwin Berger, who was then curator in charge, had brought together
one of the most extensive representations of this family to be found growing in the
open in any place in the world. Here in the delightful climate of the Riviera were
grown many species which were apparently just as much at home as they would
have been in their desert habitats. Dr. Rose also visited Rome, Naples, Venice, and
Florence, where he saw smaller collections in parks and private gardens. At Munich
he examined certain types in the Royal Botanical Museum, then under the charge
of Dr. L. Radlkofer, and saw some interesting species in the Royal Botanical Garden
then being organized by Dr. K. Goebel. At Berlin he examined the herbarium and
living specimens in the Berlin Botanical Garden, through the courtesy of Dr. A.
Engler, and the West Indian collection through the courtesy of Dr. I. Urban. He
then went to Halle and saw L. Quehl’s collection of mammillarias; to Erfurt, where
he saw the Haage and Schmidt, and Haage Jr. collections; to Darmstadt to see the
Botanical Garden under Dr. J. A. Purpus; and to Antwerp to see DeLaet’s private
collection.
In 1913 Dr. Britton and Dr. Rose visited the West Indies. Dr. Britton, who
was accompanied by Mrs. E. G. Britton, Miss D. W. Marble, and Dr. J. A. Shafer,
collected on St. Thomas and the other Virgin Islands, Porto Rico, and Curaçao. At
the latter island he rediscovered the very rare Cactus mammillaris, which had not
been in cultivation for many years. Dr. Rose, who was accompanied by William R.
Fitch and Paul G. Russell, also stopped at St. Thomas, and collected on St. Croix,
St. Christopher, Antigua, and Santo Domingo.
In 1914 and 1915 Dr. Britton again visited Porto Rico and, assisted by Mr.
John F. Cowell and Mr. Stewardson Brown, explored the entire southwestern arid
coast and the small islands Desecheo, Mona, and Muertos.
In 1914 Dr. Rose went to the west coast of South America, making short
stops at Jamaica and Panama. He made extensive collections in central and
southern Peru, central Bolivia, and northern and central Chile. At Santiago, Chile,
he examined a number of Philippi’s types in the National Museum and obtained
some rare specimens f rom the Botanical Garden through the courtesy of Johannes
Söhrens.
INTRODUCTION.
In 1915 Dr. Rose, accompanied by Paul G. Russell, visited Brazil and Argentina
on the east coast of South America, collecting extensively in the semiarid parts of
Bahia, Brazil, and in the region about Rio de Janeiro, so rich in epiphytic cacti.
In the deserts about Mendoza and Córdoba, in Argentina, collections were also
made. Here he also arranged for exchanges with the leading botanists and collectors. The following persons have made valuable contributions f rom the regions
visited: Dr. Leo Zehntner, Joazeiro, Brazil; Dr. Alberto Löfgren, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil; Dr. Carlos Spegazzini, La Plata, Argentina; Dr. Cristóbal M. Hicken,
Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Dr. Carlos S. Reed, Mendoza, Argentina.
In October and November 1916, Dr. Rose, accompanied by Mrs. Rose, visited
Curaçao and Venezuela, studying especially the cactus deserts about La Guaira
and Puerto Cabello. A number of photographs were taken by Mrs. Rose.
While en route for Venezuela, arrangements were made with Mr. Harold
G. Foss to make a collection of cacti at Coro, Venezuela. Among the specimens
obtained were species not found farther east in Venezuela, so far as known.
In 1916 Dr. Britton, assisted by Mr. Percy Wilson, studied the cacti of Havana
and Matanzas Provinces and those of the Isle of Pines, Cuba.
In 1918 Dr. Rose, assisted by George Rose, visited Ecuador on behalf of the
United States Department of Agriculture, aided by the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University and the New York Botanical Garden; about thirty rare or little
known species were obtained.
Through the expenditure of about $2,400, contributed by Dr. Britton,
a very important collection of cacti was made by Dr. J. A. Shafer during a six
months’ exploration f rom November 1916 to April 1917 of the desert regions
of northwestern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia, northeastern Argentina, and
adjacent Uruguay and Paraguay. Fortunately, for the purposes of this work, this
collection was brought back to New York by Dr. Shafer in time for the information
yielded by it and by his field observations to be used in the manuscript. It has given
us first-hand information concerning over 120 species of cacti as to which we have
previously known little.
There are still a few cactus regions which ought to be explored, but the following
summary will show the wide field from which we have obtained information.
Our field investigations have covered practically all the cactus deserts of
Mexico. The most important of these are the vicinities of Tehuacán and Tomellín,
the plains of San Luis Potosí, the chalky hills surrounding Ixmiquilpan, the lava
fields in the Valley of Mexico and above Cuernavaca, the deserts of Querétaro, the
west coast of Mexico extending from the United States border to Acaponeta, and
the seacoasts and islands of Lower California. Other regions in Mexico containing
cacti, but not in such great abundance as the foregoing, are those about Pachuca,
Oaxaca City, Mitla, Jalapa, Iguala, Chihuahua City, and Guadalajara. All the work
in Mexico, however, was done prior to 1912, for, owing to political disturbances, no
field work there has been feasible since that time.
In the United States our work has extended over the cactus regions of Florida,
Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, western Kansas, and southeastern Colorado.
6
THE CACTACEAE.
In the West Indies we have explored all of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas,
the Virgin Islands, St. Christopher, Antigua, Barbados, and Curaçao.
In South America our field study included the most important deserts of Peru,
Bolivia, and Chile, and parts of Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Argentina. The
cactus deserts of South America are so extensive and so remote from one another
that it was possible to visit only a part of them in the four seasons allowed for their
exploration.
Among many enthusiastic volunteers whose contributions of specimens and
data have greatly supplemented our own collections and field studies, the following
deserve especial mention:
Mr. Henry Pittier has made valuable sendings from Colombia, Venezuela,
Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico; Mr. 0. F. Cook, from Guatemala and Peru; Mr.
G. N. Collins, the late Federico Eichlam, Mr. R. H. Peters, Mr. C. C. Deam, Mrs. T.
D. A. Cockerell, Baron H. von Türckheim, and the late Professor W. A. Kellerman
have sent important collections from Guatemala; Mr. A. Tonduz, Mr. Otón
Jiménez, Dr. A. Alfaro, Mr. C. Wercklé, and Mr. Alf red Brade, local collectors and
naturalists in Costa Rica, have sent much good material from their country; Mr.
William R. Maxon has sent new and rare material from Costa Rica, Guatemala,
and Cuba; Professor C. Conzatti and his son, Professor Hugo Conzatti, Dr. C. A.
Purpus, Dr. Elswood Chaffey, Mrs. Irene Vera, M. Albert de Lautreppe, and the
late Mr. E. A. H. Tays have sent us many interesting specimens from Mexico; Mr.
W. E. Safford made a valuable collection in Mexico in 1907 E. W. Nelson and
E. A. Goldman, who have collected so extensively in Mexico and the Southwest,
have obtained many herbarium and living specimens for our use; Mrs. Gaillard,
who lived at Panama several years while the late Colonel D. D. Gaillard was a
member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, collected interesting cacti, including
Epiphyllum gaillardae; the late Dr. H. E. Hasse sent specimens from southern
California and Arizona; C. R. Orcutt, the well-known cactus fancier, has aided us
in many ways besides sending us specimens from his collections; Dr. R. E. Kunze
has frequently sent specimens, especially from Arizona; General Timothy E.
Wilcox, for whom Wilcoxia was named, has sent us specimens from the Southwest,
while his son, Dr. G. B. Wilcox, contributed several sendings from the west coast
of Mexico and Guatemala; Dr. D. T. MacDougal has sent many specimens from
all over the Southwest, especially from Mexico, Arizona, and southern California;
he has made several excursions into remote deserts, which have yielded interesting
results, and has contributed many excellent photographs, quite a number of which
are reproduced in this report (Plate 1, etc.). Professor F. E. Lloyd, while located
in Arizona and in Zacatecas, Mexico, made large collections of living, herbarium,
and formalin material, often accompanied by valuable field notes, sketches, and
photographs. Dr. Forrest Shreve has sent specimens, especially from northern
Arizona and Mr. W. H. Long from New Mexico; Mr. S. B. Parish and Mr. W.
T. Schaller have furnished interesting specimens and valuable notes on southern
California species; Professor J. J. Thornber has made valuable contributions of
material and notes from Arizona; Mr. M. E. Jones, Mr. I. Tidestrom, Mr. Thomas
INTRODUCTION.
H. Kearney, and Professor A. O. Garrett have all sent specimens from Utah; Professor T. D. A. Cockerell and Mr. Merritt Cary have sent specimens from Colorado;
Dr. P. A. Rydberg has brought many specimens from the Rocky Mountain region;
Messrs. Paul C. Standley, E. O. Wooton, Vernon Bailey, and H. L. Shantz have
sent specimens from the southwestern United States; Brother León, of the Colegio
de la Salle, Havana, and Dr. Juan T. Roig, of the Estación Agronómica, Santiago
de las Vegas, Cuba, have contributed Cuban specimens, and Dr. J. A. Shafer has
collected widely in Cuba; Mr. William Harris, of Hope Gardens, Jamaica, has collected for us in Jamaica; Dr. John K. Small has obtained collections from nearly
all over the southeastern United States, aided by Mr. Charles Deering. Dr. Henry
H. Rusby and Dr. Francis W. Pennell have contributed plants and specimens from
Colombia, collected in 1917 and 1918. Mr. Frederick V. Coville, of the United
States Department of Agriculture, has made many valuable suggestions during the
progress of the investigation.
In our studies we have also had use of the cacti of the following American
collections: Herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden at St. Louis; the Gray
Herbarium of Harvard University; the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at Laramie,
Wyoming; the collection of the United States Department of Agriculture; the
herbarium of the University of California, especially the Brandegee collection; and
the herbarium of the Field Museum of Natural History.
The types of the new species described in this work are deposited in the herbaria
of the New York Botanical Garden and the United States National Museum, unless
otherwise indicated.
In greenhouse collections many kinds of cacti grow very slowly, and flower
only after many years’ cultivation. We have a number of plants of this kind f rom
various parts of America. It is hoped that some of them may bloom during the
period of publication of this book and thus enable us to include them in an
appendix.
Fig. 1.—Pereskia pereskia. Grown as a hedge.
8
THE CACTACEAE.
Order CACTALES.
Perennial, succulent plants, various in habit, mostly very spiny, characterized by specialized
organs termed areoles. Leaves usually none, except in Pereskia and Pereskiopsis, where they, are
large and flat but fleshy, and in Opuntia and its relatives, where they are usually much reduced
and mostly caducous, terete, or subulate. Spines very various in size, form, arrangement, and color,
sometimes with definite sheaths. The areoles are peculiar and complex organs, situated in the axils
of leaves when leaves are present, and bearing the branches, flowers, spines, glochids, hairs, or
glands; in some genera two kinds of areoles occur, either distinct or united by a groove. Flowers usually perfect, either regular or irregular, usually solitary but sometimes clustered, sometimes
borne in a specialized terminal dense inflorescence called a cephalium; perianth-tube none, or
large and long, the limb spreading or erect, short or elongated, the lobes few or numerous, often
intergrading in shape and color, but sometimes sharply differentiated into sepals and petals; stamens commonly numerous, elongated or short, sometimes clustered in series, the filaments usually
borne on the throat of the perianth, the small oblong anthers 2-celled; style one, terminal, short
or elongated; stigma-lobes 2 to many, usually slender; ovary 1-celled, distinct, or immersed in a
branch or forming a part of a branch; ovules numerous. Fruit a berry, often juicy and sometimes
edible, sometimes dry, in one species described as capsular and dehiscing by an operculum, in
others opening by a basal pore. Seeds various; cotyledons two, accumbent, sometimes minute
knobs, often broad or elongated; endosperm little or copious; radicle terete.
he order consists of the following family only:
Family CACTACEAE Lindley, Nat. Syst. ed. 2. 53. 1836.
Characters of the order as given above. The family is composed of three tribes.
Key to Tribes.
Leaves broad, flat; glochids wanting; flowers stalked (sometimes short-stalked), often clustered . . . . . . . . . 1. Pereskieae
Leaves (except in Pereskiopsis) terete or subterete, usually small, often wanting on the vegetative parts;
flowers sessile
Areoles with glochids (except in Maihuenia); vegetative parts bearing leaves, which are usually
small and fugacious; flowers rotate (petals erect in Nopalea) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. Opuntieae
Areoles without glochids; usually no leaves on the vegetative parts (except cotyledonary); flowers
with definite tubes (except Rhipsalis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Cereeae
Tribe 1. PERESKIEAE.
Stems and foliage as in other dicotyledonous plants; inflorescence in some species compound;
flowers more or less stalked, their parts all distinct; glochids wanting; ovule with short funicle;
testa of seed thin, brittle.
he genus Pereskia, the only representative of this tribe, is, on account of its similarity
to other woody lowering plants, considered the nearest cactus relative to the other families,
but this relationship is in all cases remote.
he nearest generic relatives of Pereskia in the cactus family are doubtless the following:
Pereskiopsis, some of whose species were irst assigned to the genus Pereskia, but they
have diferent foliage and the areoles often bear glochids.
Opuntia, whose species have leaves, though much reduced and usually caducous, otherwise
very diferent; but some of the species of Opuntia were irst referred to Pereskia.
Maihuenia (two of whose species have only recently been taken out of Pereskia), whose
seeds are similar but the areoles lack glochids, otherwise very diferent.
his tribe has a wide geographic distribution, but is found wild only in the tropics.
1. PERESKIA (Plumier) Miller, Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4. 1754.
Leafy trees, shrubs, or sometimes clambering vines, branching and resembling other woody
plants; spines in pairs or in clusters in the axils of the leaves, neither sheathed nor barbed; glochids
(found only in the Opuntieae) wanting; leaves alternate, broad, flat, deciduous, or somewhat fleshy;
flowers solitary, corymbose, or in panicles, terminal or axillary, wheel-shaped; stamens numerous;
style single; stigma-lobes linear; seeds black, glossy, with a brittle shell, the embryo strongly curved;
the cotyledons leafy; seedlings without spines.
9
PERESKIA.
Type species: Cactus pereskia Linnaeus.
In 1898 about 25 names had been proposed in Pereskia, but, in his monograph published
that year, Karl Schumann accepted only 11 species. Several new ones have been proposed
since the publication of Schumann’s monograph.
The species are native in Mexico, the West Indies, Central America, and South
America. Some of the species are much used as stocks for growing the various forms of
Zygocactus, Epiphyllum, and other cacti requiring this treatment; P. pereskia is most used
and P. grandifolia next. Several species are widely cultivated as ornamentals in tropical
regions; they do not flower f reely under glass in northern latitudes. All species studied
by us in the living state grow readily f rom cuttings.
The typical species seems to have been first introduced into Europe from the West
Indies in the latter part of the sixteenth century. A straight-spined species was first described and figured by L. Plukenet in 1696, who called it a portulaca, and the next year
by Commerson as an apple (Malus). In 1703 C. Plumier described the genus Pereskia,
basing it upon a single species. The genus was repeatedly recognized by Linnaeus in his
earlier publications, and by some pre-Linnaean botanists, but in 1753 Linnaeus merged
it into Cactus along with a number of other old and well-established genera; but it was
retained by Philip Miller in 1754 in the fourth edition (abridged) of his Gardeners’ Dictionary and has since been generally recognized as a genus by botanical and horticultural
authors.
he name is variously spelled Peirescia, Peireskia, Perescia, and Pereskia.
Named for Nicolas Claude Fabry de Peiresc (1580-1637).
Key to Species.
Climbing vines, the twigs with a short pair of reflexed spines f rom each areole, the stem with
acicular spines (Series 1. Typicae). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Shrub or trees with slender straight spines (Series 2. Grandifoliae).
Petals toothed or fimbriate.
Petals somewhat toothed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Petals fimbriate.
Species f rom Mexico; ovary turbinate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Species f rom Costa Rica; ovary pyriform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Petals entire, at least not fimbriate.
Branches and leaves very easily detached . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Branches and leaves not easily detached.
Axils of sepals bearing long hairs and bristles.
Leaves lanceolate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves orbicular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Axils of sepals not bearing long hairs and bristles.
Flowers white . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers not white.
Petals yellow.
Leaves lanceolate to oblong or obovate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves orbicular or broadly ovate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Petals red or purple.
Spines few or none . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Very spiny, at least on old branches.
Flowers terminal.
Flowers panicled.
Fruit naked, broadly truncate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fruit leaf-bearing, not truncate.
Leaves of ovary cuneate at base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves of ovary broad at base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers solitary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers usually axillary and solitary.
Leaves 1 cm. long or longer, obtuse or acute.
Flowers 2 to 5 together, 1 cm. long; South American species . . . . .
Flowers solitary, 1.5 cm. long; petals elliptic-obovate; Cuban
species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves emarginate, 1 cm. long or less, petals obovate . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Affinity unknown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. P. pereskia
2. P. autumnalis
3. P. lychnidilora
4. P. nicoyana
. P. zehntneri
6. P. sacharosa
. P. moorei
8. P. weberiana
9. P. guamacho
10. P. colombiana
11. P. tampicana
12. P. bleo
13. P. bahiensis
14. P. grandifolia
1. P. zinniaelora
16. P. horrida
1. P. cubensis
18. P. portulacifolia
19. P. conzattii
10
THE CACTACEAE.
Series 1. TYPICAE.
Consists of only the typical species, which is widely distributed, and much cultivated throughout tropical America. Schumann regarded it as a subgenus under the name Eupereskia.
1. Pereskia pereskia (Linnaeus) Karsten, Deutsch. Flora 888. 1882.
Cactus pereskia Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 469. 1753.
Pereskia aculeata Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. 1768.
Cactus lucidus Salisbury, Prodr. 349. 1796.
Pereskia longispina Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 178. 1812.
Pereskia aculeata longispina De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475. 1828.
Pereskia fragrans Lemaire, Hort. Univ. 2: 40. 1841.
Pereskia undulata Lemaire, Illustr. Hort. 5: Misc. 11. 1858.
Pereskia foetens Spegazzini in Weingart, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 14: 134. 1904.
Pereskia godseff iana Sander, Gard. Chron. III. 43: 257. 1908.
Shrub, at first erect, but the branches often long, clambering, and forming vines 3 to 10
meters long; spines on lower part of stem solitary or 2 or 3 together, slender and straight; spines
in the axils of the leaves paired, rarely in threes, short, recurved; leaves short-petioled, lanceolate
to oblong, or ovate, short-acuminate at the apex, tapering or rounded at base, 7 cm. long or less;
flowers in panicles or corymbs, white, pale yellow, or pinkish, 2.5 to 4.5 cm. broad; ovary leafy and
often spiny; fruit light yellow, 1.5 to 2 cm. in diameter, when mature quite smooth; seeds black,
somewhat flattened, 4 to 5 mm. in diameter; hilum basal, circular, depressed,, or crater-shaped.
he plant and fruit have several common names, one of which, blade apple, was in use
as early as 1697. Lemon vine, Barbados gooseberry, and West Indian gooseberry are three
others, with various French and Dutch modiications. In Argentina it is called sacharosa,
according to Sir Joseph Hooker (Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 116: pl. 7147), but this name is properly
applied only to the P. sacharosa of Grisebach, native of Argentina, a distinct species, which
Hooker thought identical with this.
he berries are eaten throughout the West Indies and the leaves are used as a pot herb
in Brazil. he species was in cultivation in the Royal Gardens of Hampton Court in 1696
and has been at Kew ever since its establishment in 1760, but did not lower until 1889. In
Washington we have one plant among a dozen which lowers abundantly each year; three
plants at New York bloom annually.
In tropical America the plant climbs over walls, rocks, and trees, and at lowering time
is covered with showy, fragrant blossoms, followed by beautiful clusters of yellow berries. In
La Plata it is grown sometimes for hedges (see ig. 1), but its strong, almost ofensive odor
makes it objectionable for growing near habitations.
Type locality: Tropical America.
Distribution: West Indies and along the east and north coasts of South America; found
also in Florida and Mexico, but perhaps only as an escape; widely grown for its fruit.
his species consists of several races, difering in shape and size of the leaves and in
color of the lowers. One of these races, with ovate-orbicular leaves rounded at the base,
had heretofore been known to us only in cultivation, but in October 1916, while collecting
in Venezuela, Dr. Rose found this broad-leafed form common in the coastal thickets near
Puerto Cabello.
Pereskia lanceolata (Förster, Handb. Cact. 513. 1846), P. acardia Parmentier (Pfeifer, Enum.
Cact. 176. 1837), and P. brasiliensis Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 176. 1837), usually referred as
synonyms of P. aculeata, were not formally published in the places above cited.
he following varieties, based on the shape of the leaves, are recorded under P. aculeata:
lanceolata Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 176. 1837); latifolia Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck. 202. 1834, name
only); rotundifolia Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 176. 1837); rotunda (Suppl. Dict. Gard. Nicholson
589. 1901) is perhaps the same as rotundifolia.
Pereskia aculeata rubescens Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 176. 1837) is described with glaucousgreen leaves above, tinged with red beneath.
Near the last belongs Pereskia godseff iana, described as a sport in the Gardeners’
Chronicle in 1908. It is a very attractive greenhouse plant, often forming a round, densely
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE II
M. E. Eaton del,
A HOEN & CO
1.
2, 3.
Flowering branch of Pereskia pereskia.
4.
Fruits of the same.
.
(All natural size.)
Leafy branch of Pereskia sacharosa.
Proliferous fruit of the same.
11
PERESKIA.
branched bush, but is sometimes grown as a climber, as a basket plant, or in the form
of a pyramid. It is especially distinguished by the rich coloration of the leaves, which
are variously mottled or blotched above with crimson, apricot-yellow, and green, but of
a uniform purplish crimson beneath. We have seen this form in the New York Botanical
Garden, where it is grown only as a bush. It was exhibited first at Ghent, Belgium, in
1908, and is supposed to have originated in Queensland, Australia.
Illustrations: Stand. Cycl. Hort. Bailey 5: pl. 87; Blühende Kakteen 2: pl. 86; Bot. Reg.
23: Pl. 1928; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 116: pl. 7147; Gard. Chron. III. 29: f. 61; Plumier, Nov. Pl.
Amer. pl. 26, in part; Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 1908: f. 10; Schumann, Gesamtb.
Fig. 2.—Pereskia autumnalis.
Kakteen f. 109, all as P. aculeata. Descourtilz, Pl. Med. Antill. ed. 2.4: pl. 294, as Cactier à Fruits Feuilles; Vellozo, Fl. Flum. 5: pl. 26, as Cactus pereskia; Gard. Chron. III. 43:
f. 114, as P. godseff iana.
Plate 11, igure 1, of this volume is a lowering branch of a plant at the New York Botanical Garden obtained from M. Simon, of St. Ouen, Paris, France, in 1901; igure 2, fruit
of same plant; igure 3, fruit of another plant. Text-igure 1, from a photograph taken by
Paul G. Russell at La Plata, Argentina, in September 1915, shows the plant used as a hedge.
Series 2. GRANDIFOLIAE.
In this series we include 18 species, all tropical American, both continental and insular.
Schumann, regarding the series as a subgenus, applied to it the name Ahoplocarpus.
2. Pereskia autumnalis (Eichlam) Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 399.
1909.
Pereskiopsis autumnalis Eichlam, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 19: 22. 1909.
Tree, 6 to 9 meters high, with a large, round, much branched top, the trunk usually very definite
and 40 cm. or more in diameter, often covered with a formidable array of spines; young branches
12
THE CACTACEAE.
cherry-brown, smooth; spines in the axils of the leaves usually solitary, sometimes in threes, long
and slender, 3 to 4 cm., rarely 16 cm. long; leaves thickish, oblong to orbicular, 4 to 8 cm. long,
rounded or somewhat narrowed at base, mucronately tipped; flowers solitary, near the tops of the
branches, short-peduncled; ovary covered with leafy scales; flowers 4 to 5 cm. broad; petals entire,
orange-colored; stamens numerous; fruit globular, 4 to 5 cm. in diameter, fleshy, glabrous, bearing
small, scattered leaves, these naked in the axils; seeds black, glossy, 4 mm. long.
Type locality: In Guatemala.
Distribution: Widely distributed in Guatemala, usually at an altitude of 120 to 300
meters; but we do not know of its occurrence elsewhere.
Fig. 3.—Pereskia autumnalis.
× 0.5.
Fig. 4.—Pereskia lychnidiflora.
he plant, so far as we know, has no common name and no use is made of its fruit.
Illustrations: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: pl. 52 to 54; Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst.
1908: pl. 10, f. 1; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 21: 37, the last as Pereskiopsis autumnalis.
Text-igures 2 and 3 are copied from the above-cited illustrations. he original photographs were obtained by 0. F. Cook in Guatemala.
3. Pereskia lychnidiflora De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475. 1828,
Evidently a tree or shrub; branches cylindric, woody-; leaves large, 4 to 7 cm. long, oval to
oblong, pointed, rounded at base, sessile, fleshy, with a prominent midvein; axils of leaves each
bearing a stout spine 2 to 5 cm. long and several long hairs; flowers large, 6 cm. broad, solitary,
borne at the ends of short, stout branches; petals broadly cuneate, laciniate at the apex; ovary
turbinate, bearing small leaves.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Mexico.
13
PERESKIA.
his species was described by De Candolle from Mociño and Sessé’s drawing, but it
has never been collected since, so far as we can learn. Its large lowers with laciniate petals
must make this a very striking species and it is surprising that it has not been rediscovered.
Schumann thought it might be the same as P. nicoyana of Costa Rica, but a study of recent
Costa Rican collections indicates that the species are distinct. he measurements given in the
description are taken from De Candolle’s plate, and may require some modiication. Cactus
f imbriatus Mociño and Sessé (De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475. 1828) was published only as a
synonym of this species.
Illustrations: Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: pl. 18; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. 1003.
f. 136; Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 1908: 545. f. 11.
Text-igure 4 is copied from the irst illustration above cited.
4. Pereskia nicoyana Weber, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 8: 468.
1902.
Tree, usually about 8 meters high; branches rigid, stout, covered with smooth brown bark;
spines wanting or single, long (4 cm. long), stout and porrect; leaves in fascicles on old branches,
but alternate on young shoots, lanceolate or oblanceolate, subsessile, the lateral veins almost
Fig. 5.—Pereskia nicoyana.
× 0.6.
Fig. 6.—Pereskia zehntneri.
× 0.6.
parallel and sometimes seeming to come from the base, acute, bright green, and somewhat shining; axils of the young leaves containing long white hairs; petals reddish yellow, fimbriate; ovary
pyriform, bearing 8 to 12 spreading leaves, except the uppermost ones, which are much smaller
and connivent.
Type locality: Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica.
Distribution: Costa Rica.
he spines, hairs in the axils of the leaves, and imbriate petals indicate a relationship
to the little-known P. lychnidiflora.
Mr. H. Pittier informs us that this species is common in the open coastal forests along
the Paciic side of Costa Rica. he plant illustrated by Mr. Pittier, referred to below, has a
long, slender trunk and is very spiny.
According to Mr. W. E. Saford, it has long, slender spines and the habit of the Osage
orange, and is used as a hedge plant in Costa Rica, where it is known as matéare or puipute.
Illustration: Pittier, Pl. Usuales Costa Rica pl. 2.
Text-igure 5 was drawn from a plant obtained by Mr. C. Wercklé at San José, Costa
Rica, in 1912.
14
THE CACTACEAE.
5. Pereskia (?) zehntneri sp. nov.
Shrub, 2 to 3 meters high, with a central erect trunk, very spiny; branches numerous, horizontal,
usually in whorls, sometimes as many as 10 in a whorl; branches terete, green, fleshy, very easily
detached from the stem; leaves stiff, fleshy, numerous, small, 2 to 4 cm. long, ovate to orbicular,
acute, standing at right angles to the branches; areoles large, filled with short white wool and
numerous slender white spines; flowers at tops of branches, large, 7 to 8 cm. broad, bright red,
appearing in November; petals broad, retuse; ovary borne in the upper end of the branch, very
narrow, 3 to 4 cm. long, bearing the usual leaves, areoles, and spines of the branches.
Collected by Dr. Leo Zehntner (Nos. 567 and 630,
type) November 15 and 16, 1912, at Born Jesus da
Lapa, Bahia, Brazil, on the Rio São Francisco.
This is a very rare plant and seen in only one
locality, in soil of a peculiar chalky formation. Living plants were taken by Dr. Zehntner to the Horto
Florestal, Joazeiro, Brazil, where they grew well, and
whence Dr. Rose obtained specimens in 1915 which
were shipped to the United States under No. 19722.
The plant is known in Bahia under the name
quiabento. It is probably not a true Pereskia; it suggests in its habit and foliage some of the Mexican
species of Pereskiopsis, but it may represent a distinct
genus.
Text-igures 6 and 7 are from the type plant above
cited.
6. Pereskia sacharosa Grisebach, Abh. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen 24: 141. 1879.
Pereskia amapola Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 938. 1898.
Pereskia argentina Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 938. 1898.
Small tree or shrub, 6 to 8 meters high; branches green
and smooth, but in age becoming yellowish or light brown;
leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, 8 to 12 cm. long, cuneate
at base, more or less pointed at apex; young areole with 1
to 3 spines, the longest 5 cm. long, the others when present
not over half as long, all acicular and dark in age; older
Fig. 7.—Pereskia zehntneri. Photograph
areoles often with 6 or more spines; pedicels sometimes
by Paul G. Russell.
10 mm. long; flowers in terminal clusters, either white or
rose-colored and very showy, 8 cm. broad, open at midday; sepals about 8, 1 or 2 petal-like, the
others scale-like, the outer sepals and upper scales bearing long hairs; petals 8, rose-colored, oblanceolate, 3 cm. long; stamens free from the petals, numerous, unequal, erect; filaments, style, and
stigma-lobes white; ovules borne on the lower part of ovary; ovary bearing small leaves, their axils
filled with short wool and occasionally bearing a spine; fruit hard, 2.5 to 4 cm. in diameter, more
or less tapering at base, many-seeded, leafless or nearly so, sometimes proliferous.
Type locality: Cobos, Oran, Argentina.
Distribution: Paraguay and Argentina.
Schumann (Gesamtb. Kakteen 765. 1898) gives Opuntia sacharosa Grisebach as a synonym of this species, but erroneously, since it was never taken up by Grisebach as an
Opuntia. The Index Kewensis refers this species to P. aculeata, doubtless following Hooker’s
references in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine for 1890 in regard to Argentine plants, which
even then were little known.
he common name of this plant in Argentina is sacharosa. It is sometimes used as a
hedge plant.
Plate 11, figure 4, represents a leafy branch of a plant given to the New York Botanical
Garden by Frank Weinberg in 1903; figure 5 shows its fruit.
15
PERESKIA.
7. Pereskia moorei sp. nov.
A much branched shrub about 1 meter high, covered with brown bark; branches stout; leaves
orbicular or obovate-oblong, rounded or apiculate at the apex, somewhat cuneately narrowed at the
base, thick and leshy, 4 to 8 cm. long, 3.5 to 6 cm. wide; areoles suborbicular, 4.5 mm. in diameter,
the wool gray; spines at each areole mostly 2 to 4, very unequal, the longest 7.5 cm. long or less,
ashy gray, blackish toward the apex; lowers purplish red, about 4.5 cm. long; ovary few-leafed, its
leaves obovate-oblong, 2.5 to 3 cm. long, bearing 1 to 3 black spines about 5 mm. long in the axils;
sepals narrowly oblong-obovate, bluntly acute, 2.5 cm. long, bearing long bristles in their axils; petals
obovate, obtuse, 3.5 cm. long, rose-colored; stamens about 2 cm. long; areoles on the ovary large, illed
with a mass of short, white wool and bearing an occasional short spine; fruit not known.
Fig. 8.—Pereskia moorei.
× 0.66.
Fig. 9.—Pereskia guamacho.
Described from the specimen preserved in the herbarium of the British Museum of
Natural History collected at Corumba, Brazil, by Spencer Moore, No. 955, who has kindly
furnished us with data for this description, together with a sketch of the type specimen.
Specimens were also collected at Corumba by F. C. Hoehne in 1908, No. 4863, who supposed it to be P. sacharosa.
Figure 8 is from a photograph of an herbarium specimen from Matto Grosso, Brazil,
received from P. C. Hoehne in 1915.
8. Pereskia weberiana Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 762. 1898.
Shrubby, much branched, glabrous, 2 to 3 meters high, the slender round branches about 3 mm.
thick; leaves ovate to elliptic, about 3 cm. long and 2 cm. wide, sessile, acute at the apex, obtuse at
the base; areoles circular, slightly elevated, the wool short, whitish, fading brown; spines 3 to 6 at the
lower areoles, solitary at the upper, 2 cm. long or less, terete, acicular, yellow or horn-colored; lowers clustered, white, about 1 cm. long or less; ovary about 2 mm. long, bearing a few white, woolly
areoles; outer segments of the perianth triangular, acute, woolly at the axils, the inner spatulate to
obovate; stamens a little longer than the petals; stigma-lobes 3 or 4, erect.
16
THE CACTACEAE.
Type locality: Tunari Mountains,* Bolivia, at 1,400 meters altitude.
Distribution: Bolivia, known only from the type locality.
his species is said to lower in May.
he description has been drawn from a cotype in the herbarium of the New York
Botanical Garden, and from Professor Schumann’s original account of the species in his
Gesamtbeschreibung der Kakteen, p. 762. Dr. Kuntze obtained the specimens during his
botanical exploration of Bolivia in 1892. he species was named, but not described, by
Professor Schumann in Dr. Kuntze’s Revisio Genera Plantarum (32: 107. 1893).
he material preserved is too imperfect to enable us to give an illustration of this
plant.
Fig. 1o.—Pereskia guamacho.
× 0.8
9. Pereskia guamacho Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 938. 1898.
Plant very spiny, usually a small shrub 1 to 3 meters high, but often a tree 10 meters high with
a trunk up to 4 dm. in diameter and 3 meters long or more below the much branched top; areoles
rather prominent, especially in age often standing out like small knobs on the branches, filled with
brown felt, at first usually with only 1 to 4 spines along with a few short accessory ones, but in age
often with 20 spines or more; spines somewhat divaricate, rigid, brown, the longer ones often 4 cm.
long; leaves on young branches solitary, but on old wood growing in fascicles, acute, lanceolate to
ovate or obovate with cuneate bases, usually about 3 cm. long, but sometimes 5 to 9 cm. long by 3
to 6 cm. broad, fleshy; flowers probably solitary, but so thickly set along the branches as to appear
almost spicate, sessile, bright yellow, 4 cm. broad; ovary covered with small, lanceolate-acuminate
leaves, these hairy in the axils; stamens numerous; fruit globular, about 2 cm. in diameter, becoming
naked, said to be orange-colored and edible; seeds black, flattened, 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: Basin of the Orinoco, Venezuela.
Distribution: Venezuela mainland and on Margarita Island.
This plant is very common not only in the flat land along the coast of Venezuela
but also in the mountains. It is also widely grown in and about yards, for the leaves are
supposed to have medicinal properties, and when properly grown as a hedge it forms a
*Tunari Mountains, just northwest of Cochabamba, Bolivia, about at the site of Sacaba.
17
PERESKIA.
most formidable protection. In the grazing regions of the country and along railways where
wire fencing is employed, the trunks and larger branches are used for posts and smaller
branches for intervening supports; these posts and stays, however, do not die, but in time
grow to considerable size.
Although the wood, especially the branches, has little strength or endurance, it is used
somewhat for making hanging baskets for orchids. It is known everywhere as guamacho,
which was taken by Weber as the speciic name for the plant.
Figures 9 and 10 are from photographs taken by Mr. H. Pittier at Caracas, Venezuela,
in 1913.
10. Pereskia colombiana sp. nov.
A tree, 6 to 11 meters high, or sometimes smaller and shrub-like; main stem covered with
clusters of slender spines, 2.5 to 7 cm. long; branches glabrous, either bearing spines or naked,
covered with light-brown bark; areoles small, woolly; leaves oblong to
obliquely orbicular, short-petioled, unarmed at base, often broad above,
usually acute, probably fleshy, glabrous, 4 cm. long or less; flowers bright
yellow, opening about midday, borne on the old wood, solitary, sessile, 4
cm. broad; ovary covered with small ovate, acute leaves, these hairy in
the axils; sepals oblong, obtuse, about 1 cm. long, entire on the margins;
stamens numerous; fruit not known.
Collected by Herbert H. Smith at low altitudes near Santa Marta,
Colombia, in April, 1898 to 10 (No. 1886, type), and from the
same locality by Justin Goudot in 1844, and by Francis W. Pennell
in 1918 (No. 4765).
Mr. Smith remarks that the leaves are deciduous in March or
April, and that the tree is lealess when in bloom in the spring.
Figure 11 is copied from a drawing of an herbarium specimen
collected by Herbert H. Smith at Ronda, Santa Marta, Colombia.
11. Pereskia tampicana Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 939.
1898.
Shrub; branches often without spines or the spines several, needle
like, black, 2 to 3 cm. long; areoles globular, appearing as knobs along
the stem; leaves about 5 cm. long, petioled; flowers 2.5 cm. long; petals
entire, rose-colored.
Fig. 11 .—Pereskia colom-
biana × 0.5
Type locality: Near Tampico, Mexico.
Distribution: Eastern Mexico, but known only from the type locality.
P. tampicana is not well known and has been reported only from Tampico, Mexico. Dr.
E. Palmer made a careful search for it some years ago at the type locality, but in vain. In
1912 Dr. Rose examined the two small specimens of the species preserved in the herbarium
of the Royal Botanical Garden of Berlin, and is convinced that it is a Pereskia and not a
Pereskiopsis.
Pereskia rosea A. Dietrich (Allg. Gartenz. 19: 153. 1851; Opuntia rosea Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 764. 1898) is supposed to have come from Mexico, but we have not been able
to identify it; Schumann refers to it in a note under P. tampicana. Here he also takes up
Pereskia zinniaeflora De Candolle (Prodr. 3: 475. 1828). Both these speciic names are much
older than P. tampicana, and should either of them be found identical with it, the name P.
tampicana would be rejected.
12. Pereskia bleo (HBK.) De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 75.
1828.
Cactus bleo Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Sp. 6: 69. 1823.
Pereskia panamensis Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 739. 1898.
A tree, sometimes 7 meters high; trunk 10 cm. in diameter or less, when old becoming naked, but
young shoots often bear large fascicles of spines (sometimes 25 or more); young branches red, leafy, its
spines in fascicles of 5 and 6, but young shoots often bear but 1 to 4, black, acicular, up to 2.5 cm.
18
THE CACTACEAE.
long; leaves thin, oblong to oblanceolate, 16 to 21 cm. long, 4 to 5.5 cm. wide, acuminate, cuneate at base, tapering into petioles 2 to 3.5 cm. long; areoles circular, bearing when young a little
wool, but soon becoming naked; calyx turbinate, somewhat angled, naked, with linear deciduous
sepals; petals 12 to 15, rose-colored, obovate, 3.5 cm. long; style longer than the stamens, red,
thick; stigma-lobes 5 to 7; ovary depressed; fruit yellow, truncate, 5 to 6 cm. long; seeds 6 mm.
long, black, shining.
Type locality: Near Badillas, on the Magdalena River, Colombia, South America.
Distribution: Northwestern South America and throughout Panama.
This species was collected by Bonpland during Humboldt’s trip through the New World
and was described and published by Kunth in 1823. Dr. Rose examined two of the original
specimens in the herbarium of the Museum of Natural History at Paris, one being the
specimen given by Bonpland and the other the specimen in the Kunth Herbarium, which
Fig. 12.—Pereskia bleo.
is kept distinct from the general herbarium. The only other representatives of this species
from South America which we have seen are a specimen in the herbarium of the same
museum, which was collected by Justin Goudot in Colombia in 1844, and one collected in
1852, by I. F. Holton at San Juancito, Colombia, preserved in the Torrey Herbarium and
one recently brought by Francis W. Pennell from Boca Verde, Rio Sinu, Colombia.
Heretofore Pereskia bleo has been considered one of the most common species, for many
living collections as well as herbaria contain many specimens under that name; the plant
which has been known as P. bleo, however, is P. grandifolia Haworth, now known to be a
native of Brazil and not found wild in Colombia.
Since determining that the so-called Pereskia bleo of our gardens and of Brazil is not the
true P. bleo of Humboldt, we have become convinced that P. panamensis Weber is the same
as P. bleo; Mr. Pittier’s exhaustive exploration of Panama has strengthened our conclusions,
for he has traced this species as far south as the Colombian border. Humboldt’s plant came
from northern Colombia.
19
PERESKIA.
In Panama the plant is known under the name ñajú de Culebra.
Illustrations: All illustrations referred to this species which we have examined are cited
under P. grandifolia.
Figure 12 is from a photograph taken by Henry Pittier, near Chepo, Panama, October
30, 1911.
13. Pereskia bahiensis Gürke, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 18: 86.
1908.
Shrub or tree, sometimes 8 meters high, with a more or less deinite trunk, sometimes 1 meter
or more long and 1 .5 to 2 dm. in diameter, and a large, rounded, much branched top; spines on new
growth wanting, but on old wood 5 to 40 at an areole, some of them 5 to 9 cm. long; young branches
green; leaves lanceolate, 6 to 9 cm. long, deciduous, somewhat pointed,
narrowed at base into short petioles; lowers in small panicles, rosecolored; ovary bearing large leaves with cuneate bases; fruit often
proliferous, yellowish when mature, more or less irregularly angled,
bearing large leaves 3 to 4 cm. long, which ultimately fall away; seeds
black, oblong, 5 mm. long.
Type locality: In the southeast catinga between Rio
Paraguaçu at Tambury and Rio das Contas at Caldeirão,
Bahia, Brazil.
Distribution: Dry parts of eastern Brazil.
This species is very common in the dry regions of Bahia; and is often planted for hedges about small towns. The
fruit is proliferous; as many as eight were found hanging
from a single peduncle;
it is said to be edible,
but while half-ripe is
very astringent. The perfect fruits can seldom be
found, because the birds
peck into them for the
large black seeds.
Called in Brazil,
according to Dr. Leo
Zehntner, I n i a b a n t o ,
Espinha de São Antonio,
and Flor de Cêra. He also
Figs. 13, 14.—Pereskia bahiensis. × 0.5.
says: “I think Iniabanto
is the best and ought to be generalized. It is derived f rom Iniabo = Okra = Hibiscus
esculentus, without doubt because the leaves of the pereskias are sometimes eaten by
people, giving a mucilaginous dish like that of the Hibiscus f ruit.”
Illustration: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 18: 87.
Figure 13 is from a specimen, preserved in formalin, collected by J. N. Rose near Machado
Portello, Bahia, Brazil, in June 1915 igure 14 is from a plant from the same place; igure
15 is from a photograph obtained by J. N. Rose at Barrinha, Bahia, in June 1915.
14. Pereskia grandifolia Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 85.
1819.
Cactus rosa Vellozo, Fl. Flum. 206. 1825.
Pereskia ochnacarpa Miquel, Bull. Sci. Phys. Nat. Neerl. 48. 1838.
Tree or shrub, 2 to 5 meters high, usually with a definite, very spiny, woody trunk up to 1
dm. in diameter, the branches fleshy, glabrous, elongated, usually with 1 or 2 acicular spines at
the areoles; leaves oblong, obtuse or acute, somewhat narrowed at base, 8 to 15 cm. long; petioles
short; inflorescence terminal, usually few-flowered; 3.5 to 4 cm. broad; sepals green; petals rosecolored, sometimes white; filaments red; style and stigma-lobes white; ovary leaf-bearing; fruit
described as large, pear-shaped, many-seeded; seeds black.
20
THE CACTACEAE.
Type locality: In Brazil.
Distribution: Brazil, widely planted and subspontaneous throughout the West Indies.
he plant is extensively used for hedges in tropical America. It is planted by pushing
cuttings into the ground, its spiny stems soon forming a capital barrier.
Illustrations: Vellozo, Fl. Flum. 5: pl. 27, as Cactus rosa. Amer. Garden 11: 462;
Blühende Kakteen 3: 137; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 63: pl. 3478; Cycl. Amer. Hort. Bailey
1: f. 309; Dict. Hort. Bois f. 678; Edwards’s Bot. H. Reg. 17: pl. 1473; Engler and
Prantl, Pflanzenfam. 3 6a: f. 71; Gard. Chron. III. 20: f. 75; Karsten, Deutsch. Fl. 887.
f. 9; Martius, Fl. Bras. 4 2: pl. 63; Pfeiffer and Otto, Abbild. Beschr. Cact. 1: pl. 30;
Reichenbach, Fl. Exot. pl. 328, all as Pereskia bleo.
Fig. 15.—Pereskia bahiensis. Photograph by Paul G. Russell.
Plate 111, igure 1, represents a lowering branch of a plant obtained by N. L. Britton
on St. Christopher in 1901. Figure 16 is from a photograph of the plant used as a hedge
near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
15. Pereskia zinniaeflora De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475.
1828.
Shrub; leaves oval to oblong, 2 to 4 cm. long, acuminate, cuneate at base; spines on young
branches 1 or 2 at an areole, on old branches 4 or 5, all short, less than 1 cm. long; flowers
broad, 5 cm. wide, rose-red; petals entire, obtuse or retuse; style and stamens very short; ovary
truncate, bearing small, stalked leaves.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Mexico.
Nicholson associates this species with Pereskia bleo, that is, P. grandifolia, but the
relationship is not close. The measurements of the flower given above are taken from
BRITTON AND ROSE
M. E. Eaton del.
1.
PLATE III
A HOEN & CO
Flowering branch of Pereskia grandifolia.
2. Leafy branch of Pereskiopsis chapistle.
3. Leafy branch of Pereskiopsis pititache. (All natural size.)
21
PERESKIA.
De Candolle’s plate cited below, and may not be quite correct. This species, so far as we
are aware, has not been again collected.
Cactus zinniaeflora Mociño and Sessé (De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475. 1828) was given as
a synonym.
Illustrations: Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 135 Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: Pl. 17;
Rümpler, Sukkulenten f. 127; Suppl. Dict. Gard. Nicholson f. 624.
Figure 17 is a copy of the second illustration above cited.
Fig. 16.—Pereskia grandifolia. Exposed branches are
shown above the other foliage.
16. Pereskia horrida (HBK.) De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475.
Fig. 17.—Pereskia zinniaeflora.
1828.
Cactus horridus Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Sp. 6: 70. 1823.
Tree, 4 to 6 meters high, with terete slender branches; spines often solitary, sometimes 2 or
3, slender, dark in color, unequal, the longest 2 to 3 cm. long; leaves solitary, alternate, narrowly
oblong, 3 cm. long, subsessile, entire, glabrous; flowers 3 to 5 together in upper axils, about 10
mm. long; calyx described as 5-toothed and persistent; petals or 6, red, lanceolate, spreading; fruit
fleshy, many-seeded.
Type locality: “Ad lumen Marañon prov. Jaen de Bracamoros.” (Schumann says this
locality is in Peru.)
Distribution: Northwestern South America.
he above description is compiled from Kunth’s original description and from notes made
by Dr. Rose upon the type material in the herbarium of the Museum of Natural History at
Paris, in which there are specimens from both Bonpland and Kunth. Both of these sheets
lack lowers and fruit, and only Kunth’s bears leaves. So far as we are aware,
22
THE CACTACEAE.
no other material of this species has been collected since Humboldt’s time except that
in 1912 Dr. Weberbauer wrote that he had visited the Marañon, at Humboldt’s locality, and
had collected a single specimen, which had been sent to the Botanical Museum at Berlin.
17. Pereskia cubensis Britton and Rose, Torreya 12: 13. 1912.
A tree, 4 meters high, with a trunk 2.5 dm. in diameter and a large, iat, much branched top;
bark brownish, rather smooth, marked here and there by black bands (representing the old areoles),
these broader than high; young branches slender, smooth, with light-brown bark; spines from young
areoles 2 or 3, needle-like, brownish, 2 to 4 cm. long, from old areoles very numerous (25 or more),
and much longer (5 cm. or more long); leaves several at each areole, sessile, bright green on both
sides, oblanceolate to oblong or obovate, 1 to 4 cm. long, 10 to 12 mm. wide, acute at both ends
or obtuse at the apex, leshy, the midvein broad, the lateral veins very obscure; peduncle very short,
jointed near the base, bearing 1 to 3 leaf-like bracts; lowers terminal and also axillary, solitary; sepals
5, obtuse or rounded, ovate-oblong to orbicular, unequal, 7 to 9 mm. long, the larger ones with broad
purple margins; petals 8, about 15 mm. long, deep reddish purple, obovate-elliptic, rounded; stamens
many, about 6 mm. long; anthers light yellow; ovary turbinate, naked, spineless; fruit not seen.
Fig. 18.—Pereskia cubensis.
Fig. 19.—Pereskia cubensis.
× 0.5
Type locality: In Cuba.
Distribution: Near the southern coast of eastern and central Cuba.
he tree is abundant on the plain between Guantánamo and Caimanera, Oriente, where
the type specimens were collected; it also inhabits coastal thickets at Ensenada de Mora, in
southwestern Oriente, the plants of this colony bearing leaves with less acute apices than
those of the typical ones. A single plant was also observed on La Vigia Hill, at Trinidad,
province of Santa Clara, which had shorter and smaller leaves than either of the other two.
he description of the lower is from one of a plant collected by N. L. Britton and J. F.
Cowell at Ensenada de Mora, southern Oriente, Cuba, in 1912, and brought to the New
York Botanical Garden, where it lowered in May 1917.
Dr. Rose finds that the plant in De Candolle’s herbarium which represents the Pereskia
portulacifolia of the Prodromus is undoubtedly Pereskia cubensis. It was collected as
early as 1821.
Illustration: Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 10: f. 22.
Figure 18 is from a photograph taken by Dr. M. A. Howe in the colony of this tree
at Nuevaliches, near Guantánamo, Cuba, studied by Dr. N. L. Britton in 1909; igure 19
represents a leafy branch of the same plant.
23
PERESKIA.
18. Pereskia portulacifolia (Linnaeus) Haworth in De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475.
1828.
Cactus portulacifolius Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 469. 1753.
A tree, 5 to 6.6 meters high, the branches terete, very spiny; spines acicular, sometimes almost
bristle-like, 2 cm. long, on old wood in clusters of 7 to 9, but on new growth usually solitary; leaves
Fig. 20.—Pereskia portulacifolia.
× 0.66.
only 1 cm. long or less, cuneate at base, often retuse at apex; peduncles short but deinite, 2 to 5
mm. long, bearing several small spatulate to broadly obovate leaves; lowers rose-colored, about 3 cm.
broad; sepals about 3, ovate to shortly oblong, obtuse, leshy, 8 mm. or less long; petals oblong, about
2 cm. long, thin, obtuse; ovary small, truncate, naked or bearing a single small leaf; immature fruit
hard, depressed, 2 cm. long, 2.5 cm. broad, smooth, naked or with a single small leaf 5 to 6 mm. long,
with a broad scar at the top 8 to 10 mm. in diameter; fruit globular, naked; seeds large, black.
Type locality: Tropical America, doubtless Hispaniola.
Distribution: Haiti.
The usual reference for the first publication of the plant under Pereskia is Haworth’s
Synopsis (Syn. Pl. Succ. 199. 1812), but it was not here formally transferred from the
genus Cactus. His statement is: “Cactus portulacifolius is another species of this genus.”
Our knowledge of this plant is drawn from the illustration below cited and descriptions,
and from a fragmentary specimen collected by W. Buch near Gonaives, Haiti, in 1900,
24
THE CACTACEAE.
where it grows on dry calcareous rocks, and one obtained by Paul Bartsch at Tomaseau in
April 1917. Dr. Bartsch states that the flower reminds one very much of a rose and the
fruit is pendent like a green plum.
Lunan in 1814 (Hort. Jam. 2: 236) described a tree nearly a foot in diameter, growing
at a residence near Spanish Town, Jamaica, stating that it differed from Pereskia by the
absence of tufts of leaves on its fruit. His description points to Pereskia portulacifolia, but
nothing is known of the species in Jamaica at the present day; according to Grisebach,
Macfadyen recorded it as cultivated there.
Illustration: Plumier, Pl. Amer. ed. Burmann pl. 197, f. 1.
Figure 20 is copied from the illustration above cited.
19. Pereskia conzattii sp. nov.
Tree, 8 to 10 meters high; bark of stems and branches brown and smooth; leaves orbicular to
obovate, acute, 1 to 2.5 cm. long; areoles small, with short white wool and a few long hairs; spines 2
to 6 on young branches, 10 to 20 on main stem, acicular, 2 to 2.5 cm. long, at first yellowish brown,
dark brown in age; flowers not known; ovary bearing small scales; fruit naked, pear-shaped, more
or less stalked at base, 3 to 4 cm. long; seeds black, glossy, 3 mm. long, with a small white hilum.
Collected at Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, in February and April, 1913,
by Professor C. Conzatti; probably also in Guatemala.
Species Unknown to Us.
Pereskia aff inis and P. haageana Meinshausen, Wochenschr. Gärtn. Pflanz. 2: 118. 1859.
Pereskia cruenta, P. grandiflora, and P. (?) plantagnea, the irst two given as synonyms
and the last merely mentioned by Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. pp. 176, 177, and 179) can not be
identiied. he same is true of P. grandispina Forbes ( Journ. Hort. Tour Germ. 159. 1837).
Tribe 2. OPUNTIEAE.
Plants usually very fleshy, never epiphytic, branched (usually much branched), one to manyjointed; joints diverse in structure, terete, compressed, or much flattened, with irregularly scattered areoles, ribless, except one species; leaves usually caducous, but in some species more or
less persistent, small or minute, subulate or cylindric, in one genus broad and flat; areoles usually
glochidiferous (except in Maihuenia; in Grusonia only those of the ovary), mostly spine-bearing;
spines usually slender, straight or nearly so, sometimes sheathed; corolla mostly rotate (sepals and
petals in Nopalea erect); flowers sessile, diurnal, one from an areole; fruit usually a fleshy berry,
sometimes dry, rarely capsular; seed white or black, globular, flattened or even winged, with a
thin or hard testa; cotyledons large, elongated.
This tribe contains 7 genera and at least 300 species, various in habit, flower, fruit,
and seeds. It is more closely related to the Pereskieae than to the Cereeae. The following
characters possessed by some or all genera of the Opuntieae are wanting in the Cereeae:
Leaves on the stem (see also Harrisia and Hylocereus); glochids in the areoles; sensitive
stamens; sheathed spines; winged, white, and bony-covered seeds; the separation of withering calyx, stamens, and style from the ovary; areoles irregularly distributed over the stem
in all the genera except Grusonia, in which they are arranged on ribs as in many of the
Cereeae.
he tribe is distributed throughout the cactus regions of the Americas, but the genera,
except Opuntia, are localized.
Key to Genera.
Leaves broad and flat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves subulate or cylindric.
Seeds broadly winged. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Seeds wingless.
Stamens much longer than the petals.
Petals erect; joints flat . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Petals recurved; joints terete. . . . . . . . . .
Stamens shorter than the petals.
Joints flat to terete, not ribbed.
Testa of the seed thin, black, shining
Testa thick, pale, dull . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints terete, longitudinally ribbed . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. Pereskiopsis
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. Pterocactus
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Nopalea
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. Tacinga
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Maihuenia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. Opuntia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. Grusonia
25
PERESKIOPSIS.
1. PERESKIOPSIS Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50: 331.
1907.
Trees and shrubs, in habit and foliage similar to Pereskia; old trunk forming a solid woody
cylinder covered with bark and resembling the ordinary dicotyledonous stein; areoles circular, spinebearing or sometimes spineless, also bearing hairs, wool, and usually glochids; flowers similar to
those of Opuntia; ovary sessile (one species described as pedunculate), with leaves at the areoles
(except in one species); fruit red, juicy; seeds bony, few, covered with matted hairs.
Type species: Opuntia brandegeei Schumann.
he plants are common in hedges and thickets of Mexico and Guatemala.
As to the number of species to be recognized in this genus we are uncertain; about
16 have been described. In our first discussion of the genus (op. cit.) we recognized 11
species, including several known only from descriptions. There now seem to be at least
10 species, of which 8 are in cultivation in Washington and New York. Two of the plants
were described, as early as 1828, as species of Pereskia, and here they remained with 2
later-described species until, in 1898, Dr. A. Weber transferred them to Opuntia, placing them in a new subgenus, Pereskiopuntia. The same year Dr. Karl Schumann adopted
Weber’s conclusions, publishing his treatment of the subgenus and assigning 5 species to it.
In its large leaves and woody, spiny stems, this group suggests Pereskia, but it has
glochids and different flowers, fruit, and seeds; in flowers, fruit, seeds, and glochids it resembles Opuntia, but on account of habit and foliage must be excluded from that genus.
In view of these differences, Britton and Rose in 1907 established the genus Pereskiopsis
and listed 11 species, 4 of which had been originally described as species of Pereskia and
5 as species of Opuntia. Since then we have grown most of these plants along with the
pereskias and opuntias so as to compare them. Unfortunately we are not able to describe
all the species fully, for they have never been known to flower in cultivation, although
some of the species, at least, bloom freely in the wild state. The leaves on the lower
parts of shoots are sometimes broader and shorter than those on the upper parts, and in
greenhouse cultivation the leaves of some species are narrower than when the plants, are
growing under natural conditions.
he generic name is from the Greek and signiies resembling Pereskia.
Key to Species.
Stems, ovary, and often the leaves more or less pubescent.
Normal leaves long-acuminate, narrow, with narrow cuneate bases .
Normal leaves abruptly pointed, somewhat cuneate at base . . . . . .
Stems, ovary, and leaves glabrous.
Leaves, at least some of them, not much longer than broad.
Fruit without leaves, at least so figured . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fruit with leaves subtending the areoles.
Areoles white, with few glochids or none.
Leaves orbicular or nearly so, rounded or apiculate . . . . .
Leaves, at least the upper ones, obovate or elliptic, acute
Areoles dark, filled with numerous brown glochids . . . . . . .
Leaves, at least some of them, twice as long as broad or longer.
Leaves spatulate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves elliptic to oblong, or obovate.
Leaves pale green, glaucous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves bright green, shining.
Glochids few, yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Glochids many, brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. P. velutina
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. P. diguetii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. P. opuntiaeflora
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. P. rotundifolia
at both ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. P. chapistle
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. P. porteri
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. P. spathulata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8. P. pititache
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. P. aquosa
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10. P. kellermanii
1. Pereskiopsis velutina Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50: 333.
1907.
Stems weak and spreading, forming compact bushes 9 to 12 dm. high or sometimes higher;
old stems with cherry-brown bark; young branches green, borne nearly at right angles to the old
stem, velvety-pubescent; areoles bearing long white hairs and several short spines and some glochids;
leaves elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 2 to 6 cm. long by 1.5 to 2.5 cm. broad, acuminate, or acute at both
ends, dull green, more or less velvety-puberulent on both surfaces, when very young brighter green;
flowers sessile on the second-year branches; ovary obovoid to oblong, pubescent, bearing large leaves
26
THE CACTACEAE.
and areoles similar to those of the stem; leaves on ovary spreading or ascending and persisting
after the flower falls; flower-bud (above the ovary) 2 to 3 cm. long, acute; sepals green or deep
red tinged with yellow; petals bright yellow.
Type locality: In hedges about city of Querétaro, Mexico.
Distribution: Table-lands of central Mexico.
his plant is called by the natives nopaleta and
cola de diablo.
Illustration: Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: pl. 44.
Figure 21 is from a photograph of type plant.
2. Pereskiopsis diguetii (Weber) Britton and Rose,
Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 332. 1907.
Opuntia diguetii Weber, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 4: 166.
1898.
Tall shrub, larger than the preceding species; old
stems reddish; branches pubescent; areoles when young
filled with long, white, cobwebby hairs, when old large
and filled with short black wool; leaves elliptic to obovate,
3 to 5 cm. long, usually abruptly pointed, more or less
cuneate at the base; spines usually 1, rarely as many as
4, at first nearly black, in time becoming lighter, sometimes nearly 7 cm. long; glochids brownish, not very
abundant; flowers yellow; f ruit 3 cm. long, red, pubescent,
its areoles often bearing spines as well as glochids; seeds
white, 5 mm. broad, covered with matted hairs.
Type locality: Near Guadalajara, Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico.
Common in hedges near Guadalajara and Oaxaca,
Mexico. According to W. E. Saford, it is known in
Guadalajara as tasajillo and alilerillo.
Figure 22 represents a leafy branch of a plant
collected by W. E. Saford in Guadalajara, Mexico,
in 1907.
3. Pereskiopsis opuntiaeflora (De Candolle) Britton and
Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 332. 1907.
Pereskia opuntiaeflora De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475. 1828.
Opuntia golziana Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 654. 1898.
Shrubby, glabrous; leaves obovate, mucronate, often
in pairs; spines, when present, solitary, elongated, 2 to 3
times as long as the leaves; flowers subterminal, shortpedunculate; petals numerous, ovate, subacute, reddish
yellow, arranged in two series; ovary leafless, bearing
areoles filled with glochids.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Known only from the original
description.
Fig. 21.—Pereskiopsis velutina.
his description is drawn from De Candolle’s
original description and illustration; otherwise nothing is known of the plant.
his species, as illustrated by De Candolle, is unlike anything we know. In its pedunculate fruit it is like Pereskia, but its lealess ovary and its areoles illed with glochids would
exclude it from that genus. In a general way the illustration looks more like a Pereskiopsis,
and we suspect that the delineation is incorrect or that the leaves had fallen away from
the specimen drawn.
27
PERESKIOPSIS.
Cactus opuntiaeflorus Mociño and Sessé (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 178. 1837) was published
as a synonym of Pereskia opuntiaeflora.
Illustrations: Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 137 Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: pl. 19,
both as Pereskia opuntiaeflora.
Figure 23 is copied from the second illustration above cited.
4. Pereskiopsis rotundifolia (De Candolle) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50: 333.
1907.
Pereskia rotundifolia De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475. 1828.
Opuntia rotundifolia Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 652. 1898.
Stem thick, more or less woody; branches slender, glabrous; leaves nearly orbicular, mucronate;
spines elongated, solitary; flowers 3 cm. broad, borne on the second-year branches; petals reddish
yellow, broad, with mucronate tips; ovary leafy; fruit obovoid, red, leafy.
Fig. 22.—Pereskiopsis
diguetii. × 0.5.
Fig. 23.—Pereskiopsis opuntiaeflora. × 0.5.
Fig. 24.—Pereskiopsis
rotundifolia. × 0.5.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Known only from the original description and, apparently, from Oaxaca.
Cactus frutescens Mociño and Sessé (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 178. 1837) and Cactus rotundifolia Mociño and Sessé (De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 475. 1828) were given as synonyms of
Pereskia rotundifolia, but were never published.
Illustrations: Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: pl. 20, as Pereskia rotundifolia; Schumann,
Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 99, as Opuntia rotundifolia.
Figure 24 is copied from the irst illustration above cited; igure 25 is from a photograph
taken by Dr. MacDougal at Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1906.
5. Pereskiopsis chapistle (Weber) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 331.
1907.
Opuntia chapistle Weber in Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 388. 1904.
A large, branching shrub, sometimes 3 to 4 meters high, the branches widely spreading, glabrous; spines single, white, long (6 cm. long), very stout; leaves fleshy, somewhat persistent, obovate
to elliptic, sometimes nearly orbicular, 3 to 4 cm. long, glabrous; flowers yellow; fruit red.
Type locality: In Oaxaca.
Distribution: Oaxaca and perhaps Morelos, Mexico.
Illustration: Bull. Soc. Nat. Acclim. France 52: f. 10, as Opuntia chapistle.
Plate 111, igure 2, represents a leafy branch of a plant collected by Dr. Rose at Cuernavaca, Mexico, in 1906.
28
THE CACTACEAE.
Fig. 25.—Pereskiopsis, apparently P. rotundifolia, with other cacti in the background.
6. Pereskiopsis porteri (Brandegee) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 332. 1907.
Opuntia porteri Brandegee in Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 899. 1898.
Opuntia brandegeei Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 653. 1898.
Pereskiopsis brandegeei Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 331. 1907.
Stems stout, woody, branching, 6 to 12 dm. high, 3 cm. in diameter, the old areoles bearing 3
to 8 stout spines 3 to 5 cm. long, but on the trunk often 15 to 20 spines from an areole; irst and
second year branches usually short, spineless, or with 1 or 2 brown spines, those of the irst year
green, the second-year brownish; areoles bearing numerous small, brown
glochids; leaves sessile, 2 to 3 cm. long, obovate, acute, leshy, in greenhouse
specimens sometimes much narrower; lowers about 4 cm. in diameter;
sepals few, spatulate, short; petals few, yellow, broad, entire; fruit joint-like,
oblong, 4 to 5 cm. long, orange-colored, with large areoles bearing brown
glochids; seeds I or few, covered with white deciduous hairs.
Type locality: In Sinaloa, Mexico.
Distribution: Common in the Cape region of Lower California
and in the State of Sinaloa, Mexico.
Figure 26 shows a leafy twig of a plant sent in 1904 from the
Missouri Botanical Garden to the New York Botanical Garden as
Opuntia brandegeei, which had been received by the Missouri Botanical Garden from Mrs. Katharine Brandegee in 1901.
7. Pereskiopsis spathulata (Otto) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll.
50: 333. 1907.
Pereskia spathulata Otto in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 176. 1837.
Opuntia spathulata Weber, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 4: 165. 1898.
Fig. 26.—Pereskiopsis
porteri. × 0.66.
Branching shrub, 1 to 2 meters high; branches few, glaucescent, deflexed; leaves spatulate, thick,
green, 2.5 to 5 cm. long; areoles distant, woolly, hairy when young; spines 1 or 2, rigid, white below,
2.5 cm. long; glochids brown, borne in the upper part of the areoles; flowers red; seeds white.
29
PERESKIOPSIS.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Probably southern Mexico, but no deinite locality is known.
here is some confusion in the literature of this species; Schumann describes it as
pubescent, while in the original description nothing is said about pubescence; this error is
probably due to a misidentiication, for Dr. Rose found in the Museum of Paris two specimens collected by Diguet at Guadalajara, Mexico, which were labeled Opuntia spathulata,
and which have pubescent branches and leaves; these are undoubtedly O. diguetii.
Pereskia crassicaulis Zuccarini (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 176. 1837) was never published,
simply being given as a synonym of P. spathulata.
8. Pereskiopsis pititache (Karwinsky) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50: 332.
Pereskia pititache Karwinsky in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 176. 1837.
Pereskia calandriniaefolia Link and Otto in Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 252.
Schumann.)
Opuntia pititache Weber, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 4: 166. 1898.
1850.
1907.
(According to
Stems rather low and somewhat branching; bark light brownish and flaking off; areoles on
main trunk each bearing 1 to 4 slender acicular spines and a small cluster of yellowish glochids;
branches, even when several years old, bearing a single long, acicular spine from an areole and no
glochids; young and growing branches rather slender and green, their areoles small, black in the
center, with long, white hairs from their margins and no spines; leaves obovate or oblong-obovate,
4 cm. long or less, pale green, thin, acute or bluntish at the apex, narrowed at the base.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Uncertain, but reported from southern Mexico.
In the original description this species is said to have a very spiny, erect woody trunk,
the branches spreading nearly horizontally, the spines unequal, 3 to 6, 25 to 37 mm. long,
the leaves leshy, green, lanceolate to ovate, 37 mm. long, 16 mm. broad. It was named by
Baron Wilhelm von Karwinsky and probably collected by him in Mexico, but no deinite
locality was given; Weber states it is from Tehuantepec, while Schumann gives Tehuacán on
a statement of Weber.
Pereskia calandriniaefolia we have referred here, following Schumann, but the original description is somewhat
different f rom that of P. pititache, the leaves being described
as spatulate to lanceolate, strongly narrowed below, 7.5
cm. long.
Our description is mostly drawn from specimens growing
in the New York Botanical Garden obtained from M. Simon,
of St. Ouen, Paris, in 1901.
Illustrations: Abh. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. München 2: pl. 1,
sec. 6, f. 1, 2; pl. 2, f. 9, both as Pereskia pititache.
Plate 111, igure 3, represents a leafy shoot of a plant
sent by M. Simon, of St. Ouen, Paris, France, to the New
York Botanical Garden in 1901.
9. Pereskiopsis aquosa (Weber) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc.
Coll. 50: 331. 1907.
Opuntia aquosa Weber, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 4: 165. 1898
Shrub, with glabrous, glaucous, green branches, the young
shoots with long white hairs at the areoles; leaves bright green,
nearly elliptic, acute, about twice as long as wide, narrowed at
the base, glabrous; spines usually solitary, standing at right angles
to the stem, white; glochids few, yellow; flowers yellow; outer
petals blotched with red; fruit pear-shaped, 4 to 5 cm. long, 2
to 2.5 cm. in diameter, yellowish green.
Fig. 27.—Pereskiopsis aquosa.
× 0.66.
30
THE CACTACEAE.
Type locality: Guadalajara, Mexico.
Distribution: In hedges about Guadalajara, Mexico.
he fruit, called in Mexico tuna de agua and tasajillo, is used in making a cooling drink
and for preserves.
Opuntia spathulata aquosa (Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 4: 165. 1898) was given as a
synonym of this species, but was never published.
Illustration: Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 1908: pl. 10, f. 2.
Figure 27 represents a leafy shoot of the plant collected by W. E. Safford near
Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1907.
10. Pereskiopsis kellermanii Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 332.
1907.
Stem glabrous, herbaceous, weak, and clambering over shrubs to a length of to 5 meters, about
2 cm. in diameter; second-year branches usually at right angles to main stem, with cherry-red
bark; old stem bearing several slender, acicular brown spines, sometimes only 1, sometimes wanting, and numerous brown glochids; young branches green, fleshy, their areoles circular, white, filled
with long white hairs, brown glochids, and often with several
acicular brown spines; spines on wild plants often stout, usually
solitary, nearly black, 2 to 3 cm. long; leaves various, shining
green, glabrous, thickish, elliptic and two or three times as long
as wide, or suborbicular, acute at the apex, narrowed at the base,
5 cm. long or less, 2 to 2.5 cm. broad; flowers not known; fruit
red, glabrous, leafy, 3 to 6 cm. long, bearing large areoles filled
with brown glochids; seeds covered with matted hairs.
Figs 28, 29, and 30.—Pereskiopsis keller-
Type locality: Trapichite, Guatemala.
manii, showing three leaf forms. × 0.5.
Distribution: Guatemala.
Figures 28, 29, and 30 are copied from sketches of the leaf-forms of the type plant,
made by W. A. Kellerman in Guatemala in 1908.
2. PTEROCACTUS Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 7: 6.
1897.
Stems low, more or less branched above, cylindric, from tuber-like and often greatly enlarged
roots; leaves minute, caducous; spines weak, several or many at each areole; glochids small, caducous
as in Opuntia; flower terminal, regular, without tube; perianth-segments several, erect; filaments
and pistil shorter than the petals; ovary nearly turgid, bearing numerous small clusters of spines;
fruit dry, capsular, dehiscent; seeds winged, white; embryo curved.
Type species: Pterocactus kuntzei Schumann.
Four species have already been described, but three of these we have combined and
the fourth is referred to Opuntia. hree additional species, however, are here described. he
generic name refers to the winged seeds.
his is a remarkable genus, and it is surprising that it remained unrecognized so long,
for one of its species was known as long ago as 1837; the fruit and seeds, however, seem
not to have been known until about 1897. In habit the plants are nearest some of the anomalous species of Opuntia, having large roots and short, weak stems like Opuntia chaffeyi, of
Mexico; the seeds, however, difer, not only from those of Opuntia, but from those of all
other cactus genera, in being winged. he fruit, according to Schumann, although we have
not been able to conirm his observation deinitely, is a capsule with an operculum. Another
peculiarity is that the fruit is borne in the end of the stem or branch.
While this genus has good characters, it is no more distinct than many others and
does not deserve the relative importance given to it by T. von Post and Otto Kuntze in
Lexicon Generum Phanerogamarum, who treat it as one of the only three cactus genera to
be conserved, in their view.
31
PTEROCACTUS.
Key to Species.
Seeds narrowly winged; spines up to 2 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Seeds broadly winged; spines 3 to 10 mm. long.
Joints strongly tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints scarcely tuberculate.
Ovary densely covered with weak spines; wing of seed 1 mm. wide
Ovary loosely covered with stiff spines; wing of seed 2 mm. wide .
Figs. 31, 32.—Pterocactus
hickenii × 0.7.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. P. hickenii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. P. f ischeri
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. P. pumilus
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. P. tuberosus
Fig. 33.—Pterocactus fischeri. × 1.12. Photograph
by Paul G. Russell
1. Pterocactus hickenii sp. nov.
Rootstocks moniliform, consisting of at least 4 joints widely separated; joints above ground
2 or 3, 2 to 3 cm. long, almost hidden by the spines; spines from each areole numerous, slender,
yellow above, brown at base; glochids numerous; fruit and flower not known; seeds thick, 5 mm.
in diameter, with narrow lateral wing.
Collected by Cristóbal M. Hicken (No.
3284) January 10, 1914, near Comodoro
Rivadavia, southeastern Chubut, Argentina.
Figures 31 and 32 represent a plant and
a seed from the specimen above cited
Figs. 34, 35, 36.—Seeds of three species of Pterocactus.
Natural size.
2. Pterocactus fischeri sp. nov.
Stems low, 1 dm. high or less, spreading or erect, cylindric, 1.5 cm. in diameter, tuberculate;
leaves minute, acute; tubercles about as long as broad, arranged in spiral ridges somewhat resembling those of Opuntia whipplei; spines numerous, the radials 12 or more, white, setaceous, 6 mm.
long, spreading; centrals usually 4, 1 to 1.5 cm. long, brownish, the tips and bases often yellowish;
32
THE CACTACEAE.
glochids numerous, yellowish, 3 to 4 mm. long; flowers, in only specimen seen, terminal, almost
continuous with the stem; ovary tuberculate and spiny like the stem, deeply umbilicate; seed one,
large, flat-winged.
Collected by Walter Fischer in 1914. in the Province of Rio Negro, Argentina, and given
to Dr. Rose during his visit to Argentina in 1915 by Professor Cristóbal M. Hicken.
While this species resembles some of the
species of Cylindropuntia of the United States,
the spines are not sheathed.
Figure 33 is from a photograph of the
specimen above cited; igure 34 shows a seed
of the same specimen.
3. Pterocactus pumilus sp. nov.
Plants low, usually prostrate or ascending;
joints cylindric, 1 cm. in diameter, covered with
weak appressed spines; areoles very woolly; flower
terminal; ovary sunk in the apex of the terminal
joint, somewhat umbilicate; ovules several; seed
flattened, 7 mm. in diameter, very thin.
Collected by Cristóbal M. Hicken (No.
3286), January 8, 1914, at Puerto Piramides,
Chubut, Argentina.
Figure 35 shows a seed of above specimen.
4. Pterocactus tuberosus (Pfeiffer).
Opuntia tuberosa Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 146. 1837.
Pterocactus kuntzei Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 7: 6. 1897.
Pterocactus kurtzei Schumann in Engler and Prantl,
Pflanzenfam. Nachtr. 259. 1897.
Pterocactus decipiens Gürke, Monatsschr. Kakteenk.
17: 147. 1907
Roots tuber-like, single or in clusters, usually
small but sometimes large and thick, up to 12 cm.
long by 8 cm. in diameter, deep-seated, giving off
several erect stems, these branching at surface of
the ground; terminal branches purplish, turgid, 3
to 40 cm. long, 1 cm. in diameter, more or less
clavate; areoles numerous, small, bearing numerous
small white appressed spines; flowers terminal, 2
to 3 cm. long; petals long, lanceolate, apiculate,
yellow; ovary with numerous areoles bearing long
bristles; ovules numerous; fruit dry; seeds large,
flat, winged, 10 to 12 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Near Mendoza, Argentina.
Distribution: Western provinces of Argen- Fig. 37—Pterocactus tuberosus. Natural size. Photograph
by Paul G. Russell.
tina, chiely in the mountains.
We have not seen the type of P. kuntzei,
which is doubtless at Berlin, but we have examined cotypes in the Kurtz Herbarium at
Córdoba, Argentina, and at New York.
Opuntia tuberosa, described from Mendoza as long ago as 1837, has long been a puzzle
to botanists, who have tried to associate it with various opuntias. Dr. Rose, who visited
Mendoza in 1915, found a tuberous-rooted cactus in the mountains above that city, which
we are convinced is the plant described by Pfeiffer. There is no doubt, on the other
NOPALEA.
33
hand, that it is Pterocactus kuntzei, from the same region, which was described as new by
Schumann in 1897.
Opuntia alpina Gillies (Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 146. 1837) was not published, but
was given as a synonym of Opuntia tuberosa. Schumann referred both names to Opuntia
platyacantha.
Illustrations: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 7: 7; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 107, both as
Pterocactus kuntzei; Blühende Kakteen 3: pl. 140, as P. decipiens.
Figure 36 shows a seed of a plant, collected by Dr. Rose near Mendoza, Argentina, in
1915; igure 37 is from a photograph of same plant; igure 38 is from a photograph taken
by Dr. Carlos Spegazzini.
Fig. 38.—Pterocactus tuberosus
3. NOPALEA Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 63. 1850.
Much branched cacti with definite cylindric trunks; roots so far as known fibrous; branches
or joints flattened, fleshy, often narrow; glochids usually less abundant than in Opuntia; spines
solitary or in clusters at the areoles, sheathless; leaves small, subterete, soon deciduous; areoles
bearing white wool, glochids, and often spines; flowers originating in the areoles usually at or
near the edges of the joints; sepals ovate, erect; petals red or pinkish, erect, closely appressed
against the numerous stamens and the style; filaments and style slender, much longer than the
petals; ovary more or less tuberculate, naked or spiny, with a very deep umbilicus; fruit a juicy
berry, red, edible, usually spineless; seeds numerous, fiat, covered by a hard bony aril.
Nopalea is closely related to Opuntia, with which it is sometimes united; the erect petals
and elongated ilaments and style are constant in Nopalea, however.
hree species were included by Salm-Dyck in this genus when it was described, of which
Opuntia cochenillifera Linnaeus was the irst and is therefore considered the type.
Karl Schumann described ive species in his monograph, but since then two species, N.
guatemalensis and N. lutea, have been described by Dr. Rose, and one, N. inaperta, by Dr.
Griiths. N. moniliformis (Linnaeus) Schumann, based on plate 198 of Plumier, is Opuntia
moniliformis (Linnaeus) Steudel.
he species are natives of Mexico and Guatemala, and have been accredited to Cuba,
although none has recently been observed wild on that island. Some of them are widely
34
THE CACTACEAE.
cultivated and may be found throughout the warmer parts of the world. Two are of
some economic importance and two or three are grown as ornamentals.
he name Nopalea is doubtless from nopal, the common name of Mexicans for certain
opuntias and nopaleas.
Key to Species.
Spineless, or rarely a few short spines on old joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints spiny (spines few in N. auberi).
Spines, at least those of young joints, very slender, acicular, several at each areole.
Spines white . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines yellow or becoming brown.
Joints obovate to oblong, 10 to 22 cm. long, 5 to 10 cm. wide . . . . . . . . . .
Joints linear-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 6 to 12 cm. long, 2 to 3 cm. wide
Spines stouter, subulate.
Areoles with 1 or 2 spines, or spineless; joints glaucous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Areoles with 2 to 4 spines; joints green.
Joints linear or linear-oblong, 4 to 7 times as long as wide . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints oblong or oblong-obovate, 2 to 4 times as long as wide.
Spines 2 to 4; joints not tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines 4 to 12; joints strongly tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 1. N. cochenillifera
. . . . . . . . . . 2. N. guatemalensis
. . . . . . . . . . 3. N. lutea
. . . . . . . . . 3a. N. gaumeri
. . . . . . . . . . 4. N. auberi
. . . . . . . . . . 5. N. dejecta
. . . . . . . . . . 6. N. karwinskiana
. . . . . . . . . . 7. N. inaperta
1. Nopalea cochenillifera (Linnaeus) Salm-Dyck, Cact. fort. Dyck. 1849. 64.
1850.
Cactus cochenillifer Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 468. 1753.
Opuntia cochinelifera Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 6. 1768.
Often tall plants, 3 to 4 meters high, with trunks up to 2 dm. thick; branches of ascending or
spreading oblong joints, sometimes 5 dm. long, green, bright green at first; spines none or rarely
minute ones develop on the older joints; glochids numerous, caducous; leaves small, awl-shaped,
soon deciduous; flowers appearing from the tops of the joints, usually in great abundance; flower,
from base of ovary to tip of style, 5.5 cm. long; ovary nearly globular, 2 cm. long, with low
diamond-shaped tubercles, its areoles bearing many glochids; sepals broadly ovate, acute, scarlet;
petals a little longer than the sepals, otherwise similar, persistent; stamens pinkish, exserted 1
to 1.5 cm. beyond the petals; stigma-lobes 6 or 7, greenish, exserted beyond the stamens; style
swollen just above its base into a broad disk; fruit red, about 5 cm. long, rarely maturing in
greenhouse plants; seeds about 5 mm. long and 3 mm. wide.
Type locality: Jamaica and tropical America.
Distribution: Cultivated in the West Indies and tropical America; its original habitat
unknown.
Opuntia magnifolia Noronha (Verhandl, Batav. Genootsch. 5 4: 22. 1790), published
without description, is referred to this species by Schumann and others. The name Opuntia
mexicana, although it has been used for more than one species, first appeared in Pfeiffer’s
Enumeratio (p. 150. 1837) as a synonym of O. cochenillifera. Cactus subinermis Link (Steudel,
Nom. ed. 2. 1: 246. 1840) is given as a synonym of Opuntia cochenillifera.
he speciic name of this plant was given because it is one of the species of cactus from
which cochineal was obtained. Cochineal was long supposed to be a vegetable product; it
was not until 1703 that, by the aid of the microscope, it was deinitely determined to be
of insect origin. he cochineal industry is of prehistoric origin. he Spaniards found it well
established when they conquered Mexico in 1518, and began at once to export the product.
As early as 1523 Cortez was ordered to obtain and send to Spain as much as he possibly
could, while during the early colonial days it was one of the chief articles of tribute to the
crown. From Mexico and Peru the industry was taken to southern Spain, India, Algiers,
South Africa, New Granada (Colombia), Jamaica, and the Canary Islands. he industry
grew rapidly and was very proitable. he greatest source of the cochineal was probably the
Canary Islands. In about the year 1868 more than 6,000,000 pounds, valued at $4,000,000,
were exported from these islands alone, of which the largest part was sent to England.
he cochineal insects were placed on the joints or branches of the cactus plants, where
they rapidly multiplied and in about four months were collected by brushing them of into
baskets or bags. hen, after being dried in various ways, they became the cochineal of commerce. Two or three such collections were made each year.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE IV
M. E. Eaton del.
1.
2.
Upper part of flowering joint of Nopalea cochenillifera.
Upper part of flowering joint of Nopalea auberi.
(All natural size.)
A HOEN & CO
4.
.
Fruit of Nopalea auberi.
Flowering joint of Nopalea dejecta.
35
NOPALEA.
he cactuses upon which the cochineal was raised were often grown in large plantations
called nopalries, sometimes containing 50,000 plants in rows about 4 feet apart.
Since the introduction of the aniline dyes, the cochineal industry has almost disappeared.
he cochineal colors, while brilliant and attractive, are not very permanent.
According to J. J. Johnson, this plant was introduced into cultivation in England, in
1688; but according to Ray it was growing in Chelsea before that time.
Illustrations: Hernandez, Nov. Pl. Hist. 78 and 479. f. 1. 1651, as Nopalnochetzli; Andrews, Bot. Rep. 8: pl. 533; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 54: pl. 2741, 2742; Descourtilz, Fl. Pict.
Antilles 7: pl. 516, all as Cactus cochenillifer. Cycl. Amer. Hort. Bailey 1: 205. f. 308; Gard.
Chron. III. 34: 92. f. 41; Pfeifer and Otto, Abbild. Beschr. Cact. 1: pl. 24, all as Opuntia
cochenillifera; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 3, as Opuntia coccifera; Dillenius, Hort. Elth. pl.
297, as tuna, etc.; Agr. Gaz. 25: pls. opp. p. 884; Amer. Garden 11: 457; Martius, Fl. Bras.
42: pl. 6o. Schumann Gesamtb. Kakteen 1. 109, b.
Plate iv, igure 1, shows a plant which lowered in the New York Botanical Garden in
1912.
2. Nopalea guatemalensis Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50: 330. 1907.
Tree-like, 5 to 7 meters high, branched, sometimes nearly to the base; joints bluish green,
ovate to oblong, 15 to 20 cm. long; areoles numerous, filled with short white wool; spines 5 to
8, unequal, nearly or quite porrect, white or sometimes rose-colored, the longest 2.5 to 3 cm.
long; leaves small, linear, reflexed; flower, including ovary, 5 to 6 cm. long; sepals ovate, thickened;
petals red; fruit 4 to 5 cm. long, clavate, red, more or less tuberculate, deeply umbilicate, without
prominent glochids; seeds irregular, 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: El Rancho, Guatemala.
Distribution: Arid valleys of Guatemala.
Illustrations: Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 1908: f. 13, 14; Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50:
pl. 41, 42.
Figure 39 illustrates joints of a plant obtained from Frank Weinberg in 1910.
Fig. 39.—Nopalea guatemalensis.
× 0.4.
Fig. 40.—Nopalea lutea.
× 0.4.
3. Nopalea lutea Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 405. 1909.
More or less arborescent, 5 meters high or less, with a short, deinite trunk and several large,
lateral, more or less spreading branches; joints obovate to elliptic or oblong, 10 to 22 cm. long, pale
green, slightly glaucous; areoles about 2 cm. apart, large, illed with short brown wool; spines weak,
yellow, acicular or bristle-like, the longest 4 cm. long; lowers 5 cm. long; petals red, 2 cm. long;
36
THE CACTACEAE.
ovary with numerous prominent areoles illed with yellow bristles; fruit red, 4 cm. long; seeds 4 to
5 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Near El Rancho, Guatemala.
Distribution: Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
his species, although not discovered until 1907, is very common, extending from altitude
300 meters at El Rancho to altitude 1,100 meters near Aguas Calientes. According to Mr.
Fig. 41.—Nopalea dejecta.
Charles C. Deam, who has explored extensively in Guatemala, the plant when growing on
river sand-bars is low, but in rich soil is tall.
Our reference of this species to Nicaragua is based on a specimen collected by A. S.
Oersted in 1845-1848 between Granada and Tipitapa. he joints of this, however, are nearly
orbicular or a little longer than broad, with numerous brown spines and glochids. More
material may show that this specimen should be referred elsewhere.
Illustration: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: pl. 58.
Figure 40 shows a joint of a plant from Guatemala, received from F. Eichlam in 1911.
37
NOPALEA.
3a. Nopalea gaumeri sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 216.)
4. Nopalea auberi (Pfeiffer) Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 64.
Opuntia auberi Pfeiffer, Allg. Gartenz. 8: 282. 1840.
1850.
Often 8 to 10 meters high, with a cylindric, jointed trunk, never very spiny, but the areoles
bearing tufts of brown glochids; branches often at right angles to the stem; joints narrow, thick,
3 dm. long, bluish green and glaucous; areoles circular, about 2 mm. broad, bearing short white
wool and later a tuft of brown glochids; spines, when present, 1 or 2, subulate, the upper one
about twice as long as the other, white or nearly so, with brownish tips, the longest one 2 to
3 cm. long; flowers from base of ovary to tip of style about 9 cm. long; petals erect, closely
embracing the stamens, rose-pink, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 2 to 3.5 cm. long; filaments 12
to 15 mm. longer than the petals, white below, but the exposed parts pinkish; anthers dehiscing
before maturing of stigma; style stout, light pink with a large, white, circular disk just above the
constricted base; stigma-lobes green; ovary 4 cm. long, with low but very distinct tubercles and
a deep umbilicus, its areoles bearing many brown glochids, these sometimes 10 mm. long.
Fig. 42.—Nopalea
dejecta. × 0.33.
Fig. 43.—Nopalea karwinskiana.
× 0.5
Fig. 44.—Nopalea inaperta.
× 0.5.
Type locality: Erroneously cited as Cuba.
Distribution: Central and southern Mexico.
Illustration: Addisonia 1: pl. 10.
Plate iv, igure 2, represents a lowering joint of a plant obtained by W. K Saford at
Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1907; igure 3 shows young fruit of the same plant; plate v is from
a photograph taken by Dr. MacDougal near Mitla, Mexico, in 1906.
5. Nopalea dejecta Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 64.
1850.
Opuntia dejecta Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 361. 1834.
Plant 1 to 2 m. high, with a definite trunk, very spiny, the old areoles often bearing 6 or 8
spines; joints narrow, 10 to 15 cm. long, only moderately thick, often drooping, bright green even
in age, bearing usually two somewhat spreading spines at an areole; spines at first pale yellow or
pinkish, in age gray, the longest 4 cm. long; flower, including ovary and style, cm. long; sepals
obtuse; petals erect, dark red; stamens long-exserted, dark red.
Type locality: Erroneously cited as Havana, Cuba.
Distribution: Common in cultivation in tropical America; perhaps native in Panama.
Opuntia dffusa and O. horizontalis are both given by Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 159. 1837)
as synonyms of this species.
38
THE CACTACEAE.
Illustrations: Agr. Gaz. N. S. W. 25: pl. opp. p. 138; Roig, Cact. Fl. Cub. pl. [6], this
last as Nopalea auberi.
Plate iv, igure 4, shows a lowering joint of a plant obtained from Mr. S. F. Curtis in
1897. Figure 41 is from a photograph taken by Dr. Juan T. Roig in the Havana Botanical
Garden, Cuba; igure 42 shows a joint of a plant collected by Mr. J. F. Cowell at Panama
in 1905.
6. Nopalea karwinskiana (Salm-Dyck) Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 752.
1898.
Opuntia karwinskiana Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 239. 1850.
A tree, 2 meters high or more, with a definite jointed terete spiny trunk; joints oblong, 1.5
to 3 dm. long, light dull green, only slightly glaucous; leaves elongated, acute; areoles distant;
spines 3 to 7 from an areole, porrect, 1 to 2 cm. long, pale yellow to nearly white; glochids yellow, numerous, caducous; flowers red, 11 to 12 cm. long; ovary deeply umbilicate, 3 cm. long.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Mexico.
Figs. 45, 46.—Flower of Tacinga funalis.
Drawing by A. Löfgren.
× 0.9.
Figs. 47, 48.—Tacinga funalis.
× 0.6.
his species was sent from Mexico by Karwinsky, who supposed it was an Opuntia.
When described by Salm-Dyck in 1850 it had not lowered. It was re-collected by Edmund
Kerber near Colima, Mexico, and lowered for the irst time in cultivation in 1879.
Our description is drawn chiely from a plant now in the New York Botanical Garden, obtained from M. Simon, of St. Ouen, Paris, France. In the original description it is
stated that the young spines are 2 to 4 and rose-colored, but afterwards 18 to 20, gray and
delexed. O. nopalilla Karwinsky (Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 68. 1850) was irst
given as a synonym of this species.
Figure 43 represents a joint with young fruit, from a plant sent by M. Simon, St. Ouen,
Paris, France, in 1901.
7. Nopalea inaperta Schott in Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 139. 1913.
Described as 5 to 7 meters high, but in cultivation much smaller, diffusely branched, often
bush-like; trunk very spiny; terminal joints rather small, obovate, 6 to 17 cm. long, strongly tuberculate, bright green; spines usually 3 to 6 at areoles of young joints, more at old ones, yellowish
BR IT TON AN D R OSE
PLAT E V
NOPALEA.
Nopalea auberi as it grows near Mitla, Mexico.
Photograph by D. T. MacDougal.
39
TACINGA.
39
brown, 2 cm. long or less; flowers rather small, including ovary and stamens 4 cm. long; filaments
numerous, long-exserted; style much longer than the stamens; stigma-lobes 5, green; fruit small,
red, 1.5 cm. long.
Type locality: In Yucatan, Mexico.
Distribution: Yucatan.
Dr. Griiths states that he found this species in the Albert S. White Park, Riverside,
California, in 1904. In the Bulletin of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station No.
60 he describes and illustrates it, but without speciic name. Later he identiied it as the
same as one of Schott’s specimens from Yucatan, and then published it as above.
Dr. Griiths compares it with N. auberi, but its nearest relative is N. karwinskiana, from
which it difers in its smaller and more tuberculate joints and much smaller lowers.
Illustration: N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pl. 3, f. 1, as Nopalea.
Figure 44 shows a joint from a plant obtained by Dr. David Griiths at Riverside.
4. TACINGA gen. nov.
Long, clambering or climbing cacti, more or less branched; old stems smooth, brown; branches
faintly ribbed, terete; young branches green, each tipped with a tuft of long wool or soft hairs;
areoles small but conspicuous, black, the margin giving off long, white, cobwebby hairs; leaves
minute, soon deciduous, 3 to 4 mm. long; spines sometimes present, on young joints 2 or 3,
reflexed, appressed, brown, 2 to 3 mm. long, not seen on old branches; glochids from the upper
parts of the areoles, pale yellow, numerous, caducous, falling in showers at the slightest jarring of
the branch; flower-buds acute; flowers usually terminal, opening in the evening or at night; ovary
narrow, bearing numerous areoles, the umbilicus very deep; petals few, spreading or recurved; a
row of hairs between the petals and the stamens; stamens and style erect, much longer than the
petals; fruit oblong, the upper half sterile, bearing areoles but no spines; seeds nearly globular,
white, covered with a bony aril.
his genus is intermediate between
Opuntia and Nopalea, having the erect,
non-sensitive stamens of the latter, and
the areoles, leaves, and glochids of the
former. From Opuntia it difers in its
narrow, green, recurved petals, in having one or possibly more rows of hairs
between the stamens and the petals, in
the clambering or climbing habit, and
its very caducous glochids.
Only one species is known, this a
common and characteristic plant of the
catinga* in Bahia, Brazil, whence the
anagramatic name.
1. Tacinga funalis sp. nov.
At first erect, then climbing over
shrubs or through trees, 1 to 12 meters
long, somewhat branching; old stems
woody, slender; branches usually reddish,
the areoles borne on low ribs; glochids
short; flower, including ovary, 7 to 8 cm.
Fig. 49.—Tacinga funalis. Showing how it climbs over bushes.
long; sepals about 10, short, ovate, acute,
5 to 15 mm. long; petals about 7, green, 4
cm. long, acute, revolute; stamens erect, connivent, not sensitive; anthers narrow, elongated; style
elongated, thread-like, most slender below, a little longer than the stamens, 4.5 cm. long, creamcolored; stigma-lobes 5, green; fruit 4 to 5 cm. long; seeds 3 to 4 mm. broad.
* Catinga or caatinga is the common Brazilian name for the thorn-bush desert region in Bahia, Brazil. Dr
Albert Löfgren says that the name (best spelled caatinga) is of Indian origin, meaning can = wood, forest; tinga =
white, clear; a forest in which one can see far.
40
THE CACTACEAE.
Common in the dry parts of Bahia, Brazil, where it was collected by Rose and Russell
in 1915 (No. 19723, type). Dr. Zehntner thinks there may be a second species, as he has
found one with purple lowers; specimens from southern Bahia had purple buds, but the
open lowers were not seen. he type comes from Joazeiro, northern Bahia.
Dr. Rose studied this species in the ield and believed it to be new. On reaching Rio de
Janeiro, he found that Dr. A. Löfgren had also studied it, referring it, however, to Opuntia,
using the above speciic name.
Figures 45 and 46 are copied from drawings of the lowers given to Dr. Rose by Dr.
Löfgren; igures 47 and 48 are from twigs of the plant grown at the New York Botanical
Garden; igure 49 is from a photograph of the type plant.
5. MAIHUENIA Philippi, Gartenflora 32: 260.
1883.
Plants low, cespitose, often forming small, dense mounds; stems jointed; joints small, globular or short-cylindric; leaves small, usually terete, persistent; leaves of seedlings terete, ascending,
with 2 long white bristles in the axils; areoles filled with white wool; spines 3, the central one
elongated, the 2 lateral ones small and very short; glochids wanting; flowers large for the size
of the plant, yellow or red, usually terminal; petals distinct; flower-tube none; stamens and style
much shorter than the petals; fruit juicy (described as dry in one species), oblong to obovoid,
bearing small scattered, ovate, persistent leaves; wall of fruit thin; cotyledons linear; seed black,
shining, with a brittle testa.
Fig. 50.—Maihuenia valentinii.
Type species: Opuntia poeppigii Otto.
here are ive species described, rather closely related, natives of the high mountains of
Chile and Argentina.
he generic name is derived from maihuen, the native name of the plant.
his is a .small, localized genus; it is perhaps nearest Opuntia, but is without glochids
and has diferent seeds. he irst species was described in 1837, and a second in 1864, both
as Opuntia. Weber in 1898 transferred them to Pereskia, proposing a new subgenus for them,
but they are much less like Pereskia than Opuntia, for, except as to the seeds, they have little
in common with Pereskia; in habit, leaves, spines, lowers, and fruits they are quite unlike
any of the pereskias.
41
MAIHUENIA
Key to Species.
Joints subglobose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints oblong to cylindric.
Leaves linear, 4 to 6 mm. long . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves ovate to subulate, 2 to 4 mm. long.
Joints spineless below . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints spiny all over.
Leaves on the ovary with white hairs
in their axils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves on the ovary without hairs in
their axils
. . . 1. M. patagonica
. . . 2. M. poeppigii
. . . 3. M. brachydelphys
. . . 4. M. valentinii
5. M. tehuelches
1. Maihuenia patagonica (Philippi).
Opuntia patagonica Philippi, Linnaea 33: 82. 1864.
Pereskia philippii Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 939. 1898.
Maihuenia philippii Weber in Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 757. 1898.
Low, much branched, and dense, resembling Sempervivum tomentosum in habit; joints subglobose, 1 to 1.5 cm.
Fig. 51.—Maihuenia poeppigii. × 0.75.
in diameter; leaves subulate, green; young areoles bearing Fig.
52.—Maihuenia brachydelphys. × 0.75.
white hairs; spines weak, hardly pungent, white, the longest
10 to 15 mm. long; flowers 2.8 to 3 cm. long; fruit 8 to 10 mm. long, thicker than long; leaves
on the ovary ovate to lanceolate, fleshy, naked in their axils, except some of the upper ones; seeds
round, 3 to 4 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: In southern Argentina.
Distribution: Near snow-line on southern mountain ranges of Argentina and Chile.
Opuntia philippii Haage and Schmidt, without description, is given by Weber (Dict.
Hort. Bois 939. 1898) as a synonym of this species.
his is called by the natives espina blanca.
2. Maihuenia poeppigii (Otto) Weber in
Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 755.
1898.
Opuntia poeppigii Otto in Pfeiffer,
Enum. Cact. 174. 1837.
Opuntia maihuen Remy in Gay, Fl.
Chilena 3: 29. 1847.
Pereskia poeppigii Salm-Dyck, Cact.
Hort. Dyck. 1849. 252. 1850.
Shrubby, much branched, prostrate,
forming dense cespitose masses 1 meter
broad; joints spiny to the bases, cylindric,
6 cm. long or more, 1.5 cm. in diameter;
leaves cylindric, green, 4 to 6 mm. long;
spines 3 from each areole, the 2 laterals
very short, the central one 1.5 to 2 cm.
long; flowers terminal, yellow; fruit oblong to obovoid, about 5 cm. long and
3 cm. thick.
Type locality: In Chile, without
deinite locality.
Distribution: High mountains of
Chile.
Illustrations: Schumann, Gesamtb.
Kakteen f. 108, b, c.; Gartenlora 32:
pl. 1129, f. 1 to 4, as Opuntia poeppigii; Dict. Gard. Nicholson 3: f. 82,
as Pereskia poeppigii.
Figure 51 is from a fruit obtained
by Dr. Rose at the National Museum
of Chile, Santiago, in 1914.
Fig. 53.—Maihuenia tehuelches
42
THE CACTACEAE.
3. Maihuenia brachydelphys Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 756.
1898.
Cespitose, prostrate; joints cylindric or nearly ellipsoid, naked below, 2 cm. long; spines 2 or 3,
one much stouter and longer, yellow except at base and there brown; leaves terete, 2 to 3 mm. long;
areoles circular, full of white wool; flowers usually from the tips of joints, red, 3.5 cm. long.
Type locality: Pasco Cruz, Argentina, 34° south latitude, province of Mendoza.
Distribution: Western Argentina.
Opuntia brachydelphys Schumann is mentioned by Kuntze (Rev. Gen. Pl. 32: 107. 1898)
by name only.
Illustration: Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 108, a.
Figure 52 is copied from Schumann’s illustration above cited.
4. Maihuenia valentinii Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires II. 4: 289. 1902.
Shrubby, 1 to 2.5 dm. high, dull green; joints cylindric, somewhat clavate, 1 to 3.5 cm. long;
leaves ovate, small; spines , the central much larger, 2 to 6 cm. long; flowers from near the ends of
the branches, 2 cm. broad, the sepals reddish, the petals white to light yellow; stamens indefinite;
filaments white; style 6 mm. long, white, longer than the stamens; stigma-lobes 5, short, 2 mm.
long, purplish; ovary globular to obconic, 5 to 8 mm. long, bearing numerous triangular fleshy
leaves with long white hairs and sometimes 1 or 2 spines in their axils; fruit unknown.
Type locality: Near Trelew, Chubut, Argentina.
Distribution: Territory of Chubut, southern Argentina.
Related to M. tehuelches and M. poeppigii, but said to be very distinct.
Figure 50 is from a photograph furnished by Dr. Carlos Spegazzini.
5. Maihuenia tehuelches Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires II. 4: 288. 1902.
Shrubby, 2 to 3 dm. high, with many intricate branches, dull green; joints cylindric, ellipsoid
to somewhat clavate, 2 to 8 cm. long by 10 to 12 cm. in diameter; leaves ovate, small, 2 to 4
mm. long; spines 3, the central one erect, 2 to 4 cm. long, the 2 lateral ones only 5 to 10 mm.
long; flowers at the apex of the branches, 35 to 45 mm. broad, white to yellowish white; fruit
globose, naked, dry, 2 cm. in diameter; seeds black, 3 mm. broad.
Type locality: Between San Julián and Rio Deseado, Argentina.
Distribution: Dry, rocky deserts, southwestern Argentina.
Figure 53 is from a photograph furnished by Dr. Carlos Spegazzini.
6. OPUNTIA (Tournefort) Miller, Gard. Dict. Abridg. ed. 4.
1754.
Cactodendron Bigelow, Pac. R. Rep. 3: 102; 4: 7, 11, iii. 1856.
Consolea Lemaire, Rev. Hort. 1862: 174. 1862.
Tephrocactus Lemaire, Cact. 88. 1868.
Ficindica St. Lager, Ann. Soc. Bot. Lyon 7: 70. 1880.
Cacti, sometimes with definite trunks, or more often much branched from the base, the
branches often spreading, reclining, or prostrate, sometimes clambering, but never climbing (one
species known with annual stems); roots fibrous or rarely tuberous and large and fleshy; ultimate
branches (joints or, pads) cylindric to globose or flattened, usually very fleshy, sometimes woody;
areoles axillary, bearing spines, barbed bristles (glochids), hairs, flowers, and sometimes glands;
leaves usually small, terete, mostly early deciduous; spines solitary or in clusters, terete or flattened,
naked or sheathed, variously colored; glochids usually numerous, borne above the spines; flowers
usually one at an areole; ovary inferior, one-celled, many-ovuled, bearing leaves, the areoles often
with spines and glochids; sepals green or more or less colored, usually grading into the petals;
petals usually of various shades and combinations of green, yellow, and red (rarely white), widely
spreading; stamens much shorter than the petals, sensitive; style single, thick; stigma-lobes short;
fruit a berry, dry or juicy, often edible, spiny or naked, globular, ovoid or ellipsoid; seed covered
by a hard, bony aril, white, flattened; embryo curved; cotyledons 2, large.
he species grow naturally from Massachusetts to British Columbia south to the Strait
of Magellan. Several have been naturalized and have become very abundant locally in the
Old World and in Australia.
OPUNTIA
43
he type species is Cactus opuntia Linnaeus.
Karl Schumann recognized 131 species in his “Gesamtbeschreibung der Kakteen,”
published during the years 1897 and 1898. Many have been described since this monograph was published.
he name Opuntia was that of a town in Greece, where some cactus-like plant is said
to have grown.
he genus is important economically. It furnishes the well-known tuna fruit largely imported into our eastern cities from Italy and which is common in the markets of Mexico.
Some species are used for hedges, the branches of others are cooked like spinach, and still
others furnish forage for stock.
The species are numerous and very diverse, and have at various times been grouped by
authors into several genera, while other species, now referred by us to Nopalea, Maihuenia,
and Pereskiopsis, were included in Opuntia.
he following genera now referred to Opuntia have been regarded as distinct from it:
Consolea was described by Lemaire in 1862. He described five species, of which C.
rubescens is the first and therefore the type. This group is a striking one, characterized by
a pronounced cylindric trunk in old plants, with an unjointed central woody axis, peculiar
semaphore-like branches at the top, and very small flowers. There are eight species of
this group, described under our series Spinosissimae. They are confined to the West Indies,
although C. rubesceus, the spineless race of Opuntia catacantha, was originally described as
from Brazil-doubtless erroneously.
Tephrocactus was described by Lemaire in 1868, and to it he referred eight species of
Opuntia. T. diadematus is the type species. Schumann included it in Opuntia as a subgenus,
with 15 species. hey are all South American, chiely in Argentina and Bolivia.
Ficindica was established by St. Lager in 1880, based on Opuntia f icus-indica, which is
clearly congeneric with Opuntia opuntia.
In 1856 the name Cactodendron was proposed in an account of Whipple’s Expedition,
published in volumes 3 and 4 of the Pacific Railroad Reports. It was apparently not
intended to be a formal publication, but as a definite species is indicated, the name is
published. It will be of interest to record here the evidence upon which we reach this
conclusion:
Cactodendron Bigelow Pac. R. Rep. 3: 102; 4: 7, 11; Additional Notes and Corrections iii. 1856.
“There are * * * Opuntia of many varieties; some with wide leaf-like joints, others of shrubby
form and woody fibre, which the botanist proposes to name Cactodendron.” Pac. R. Rep. 3:
102.
“Immediately on our entrance into this valley (November 19 [1856]) we found and collected
a new species of Opuntia, with prostrate, nearly terete joints, entirely devoid of woody fibre; * * *.
Lieutenant Whipple discovered the first specimen of our new Cactodendron, as we were pleased
to call it, to distinguish it from the O. arborescens.” Pac. R. Rep. 4: 7.
“The arborescent Opuntia, first found near Zuni, which, to distinguish from the true O.
arborescens, we called Cacto-dendron, finds its western limits near the termination of this region.”
Pac. R. Rep. 4: 10.
“15. ‘New arboresent Opuntia,’ called also ‘our new Cactodendron,’ pages 7 and 11, is Opuntia
whipplei, E. & B., new species.” Pac. R. Rep. 4: Additional Notes and Corrections iii.
Opuntias are known under a great variety of names. Among the names for the latjointed species, the most common are: prickly pear in the United States; tuna in Mexico;
sucker and bullsucker in the Lesser Antilles. For the round-stemmed forms we have: cane
cactus, and such Mexican names as cholla and tasajo. Dr. David Griiths has published a
list of names used in Mexico.
he genus Opuntia, as understood by us, is composed of at least 250 species, but more
than 900 names are to be found in literature. No type specimens of many of the species
44
THE CACTACEAE.
were preserved by their authors, some have, apparently, been lost, and some, which are
probably preserved, we have been unable to study.
he genus shows a great range in stem structure, varying from cylindric to broad and
lat. hese extremes suggest diferent generic types, but these characters can not be used
except in the most general way, for some species have both rounded and lattened stems.
Some with round stems have lowers which suggest a closer relationship with the species
with lattened stems.
he habits of some of the species are very characteristic, while others show a wide range
of forms. Many of the erect or tree-like forms, when grown from cuttings, develop bushy
habits much unlike their normal shapes.
he spines, while somewhat constant in color in some species, vary considerably in others,
and the number of spines is rather inconstant. Species which are normally abundantly spined
are sometimes naked when cultivated, while species which are normally naked sometimes
develop spines in cultivation; cultivated specimens usually have weaker spines and sometimes
decidedly diferent ones from wild plants.
he lowers often vary greatly in color, as is seen especially in O. versicolor and O.
lindheimeri, which show wide ranges of color forms. Some lowers vary in color during the
day.
We group the species known to us into 3 subgenera, 46 series, and with the following
characteristics:
Key to Subgenera and Series of Opuntia.
A. Joints all terete, elongated or short, cylindric to globose.
B. Branches several, many-jointed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subgenus 1. Cylindropuntia
C. Spines with papery sheaths.
D. Spines, at least some of them, solitary, sometimes several, acicular;
ultimate branches slender, rarely more than 1 cm.
thick.
E. Stem and branches conspicuously marked by flattened,
diamond-shaped tubercles; f ruit dry, covered with
long bristle-like spines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 1. Ramosissimae (N. A.
EE. Tubercles not flattened nor diamond-shaped; f ruit
usually a naked berry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 2. Leptocaules (N. A.)
DD. Spines always more than 1; ultimate branches stouter.
E. Ultimate branches not over 2 cm. thick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 3. Thurberianae (N. A.)
EE. Ultimate branches 2 cm. thick or more.
F. Fruit dry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 4. Echinocarpae (N. A.)
FF. Fruit fleshy.
G. Tubercles of young joints scarcely longer than broad . . Series 5. Bigelovianae (N. A.)
GG. Tubercles distinctly longer than broad.
H. Tubercles narrow, high, laterally flattened . . . . . . . . Series 6. Imbricatae (N. A.)
HH. Tubercles broad, low . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 7. Fulgidae (N. A.)
CC. Spines without sheaths.
D. Joints not tuberculate, or with broad or flat tubercles.
E. Areoles long-woolly or with weak hairs (without hairs
in O. verschaffeltii) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 8. Vestitae (S. A.)
EE. Areoles neither long-woolly nor long-hairy.
F. Joints clavate or crested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 9. Clavarioides (S. A.)
FF. Joints neither clavate nor crested.
G. Low, slender species, scarcely, if at all, tuberculate . . . . Series 10. Salmianae (S. A.)
G. Tall, stout species, the tubercles broad or flat;
leaves large . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 11. Subulatae (S. A.)
DD. Joints strongly tuberculate, the tubercles elevated.
E. Tall, shrubby species; joints cylindric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 12. Miquelianae (S. A.)
EE. Low, prostrate species; joints clavate (transition to
Tephrocactus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 13. Clavatae (N. A.)
BB. Branches 1 to few-jointed, the short joints usually clustered . . . . . . . . Subgenus 2. Tephrocactus (S. A.)
C. Joints, at least some of them, cylindric, tuberculate, the
tubercles contiguous (transition to Cylindropuntia) . . . Series 1. Weberianae
CC. Joints globose to oblong, mostly little, if at all, tuberculate.
D. Areoles normally bearing many long white hairs, which
often cover the whole plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 2. Floccosae
DD. Areoles without hairs.
E. Spines, when present, at least some of them, modified
into flat, papery processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 3. Glomeratae
EE. Spines, when present, all subulate or acicular, terete or
somewhat flattened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 4. Pentlandianae
OPUNTIA
Key to Subgenera and Series of Opuntia—continued.
AA. At least some of the joints flat or compressed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subgenus 3. Platyopuntia
B. Stems perennial, stout or slender.
C. Plants branching f rom near or at the base, not forming erect,
cylindric unjointed trunks; flowers mostly large.
D. Epidermis glabrous or pubescent, not papillose-tuberculate
when dry.
E. Flowers perfect; petals obovate to oblong.
F. Fruit a juicy berry (exceptions in Series 5, Basilares).
G. Joints readily detached.
H. Joints very readily detached; low, mostly smalljointed species.
I. Joints little flattened, subterete (transition to
Cylindropuntia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 1. Pumilae (N. A.; S. A.)
II. At least the ultimate joints distinctly flattened.
J. Ultimate joints or all joints turgid . . . . . . . . Series 2. Curassavicae (N. A.; S. A.)
JJ. Ultimate joints flat and thin . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 3. Aurantiacae (S. A.)
HH. Joints less readily detached; mostly taller and
larger-jointed species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 4. Tunae (N. A.; S. A.)
GG. Joints not readily detached, persistent.
H. Areoles small, 1 to 2 mm. in diameter, not elevated, mostly close together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 5. Basilares (N. A.)
HH. Areoles larger, mostly distant.
I. Prostrate or spreading species; joints relatively
small. (O. austrina suberect.)
J. Joints not tuberculate.
K. Flowers small, brick-red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 6. Inamoenae (S. A.)
KK. Flowers large, yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 7. Tortispinae (N. A.)
JJ. Joints strongly tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 8. Sulphureae (S. A.)
II. Bushy, depressed or tall species.
J. Spines, when present, brown or yellow (white
in O. setispina).
K. Spines brown, at least at the base or tip.
L. Bushy or depressed species.
M. Fruit very small. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 9. Strigiles (N. A.)
MM. Fruit large.
N. Spines acicular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 10. Setispinae (N. A.)
NN. Spines subulate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 11. Phaeacanthae (N. A.)
LL. Tall species, sometimes with a definite
trunk (O. galapageia sometimes depressed).
M. Spines several at each areole . . . . . . Series 12. Elatiores (N. A.; S. A.)
MM. Spines, when present, 1 to few at each
areole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 13. Elatae (S. A.)
KK. Spines, if any, yellow, at least partially.
L. Epidermis glabrous.
M. Areoles close together, bearing long
brown wool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 14. Scheerianae (N. A.)
MM. Areoles distant, without long wool . Series 15. Dillenianae (N. A.)
LL. Epidermis, at least that of the ovary,
pubescent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 16. Macdougalianae (N. A.)
JJ. Spines, when present, white (or faintly yellow).
K. Epidermis pubescent.
L. Spines, when present, acicular. . . . . . . . Series 17. Tomentosae (N. A.)
LL. Spines several, setaceous, flexible . . . . . Series 18. Leucotrichae (N. A.)
KK. Epidermis glabrous.
L. Areoles bearing long, soft hairs . . . . . . Series 19. Orbiculatae (N. A.)
LL. Areoles without long hairs.
M. Joints green or bluish green.
N. Spineless, or with few, usually short,
spines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 20. Ficus-indicae (N. A.; S. A.)
NN. Spiny, at least old joints so . . . . Series 21. Streptacanthae (N. A.; S. A.)
MM. Joints blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 22. Robustae (N. A.)
FF. Fruit dry, not juicy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 23. Polyacanthae (N. A.)
EE. Flowers diœcious; petals very narrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 24. Stenopetalae (N. A.)
DD. Epidermis densely papillose-tuberculate when dry . . . . . . . . . . . Series 25. Palmadorae (S. A.)
CC. Plants with erect, unjointed trunks, the branches with flat
joints; flowers mostly small.
D. Flowers small; joints spreading.
E. Joints all flat, relatively thick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 26. Spinosissimae (N. A.)
EE. Some joints terete, others flat and very thin . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 27. Brasilienses (S. A.)
DD. Flowers large; joints ascending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 28. Ammophilae (N. A.)
BB. Stems annual, very slender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series 29. Chaffeyanae (N. A.)
45
46
THE CACTACEAE.
Subgenus 1. CYLINDROPUNTIA.
Includes the many-jointed species in which none of the joints is at all flattened.
Series 1. RAMOSISSIMAE.
The series consists of a single bushy species, with slender joints, the nearly flat tubercles
diamond-shaped and contiguous, the acicular spines, when present, usually only 1 at an areole.
1. Opuntia ramosissima Engelmann, Amer. Journ. Sci. II. 14: 339.
1852.
Opuntia tessellata Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 309. 1856.
Frutescent, bushy, sometimes 2 meters high, the branches gray, often widely spreading, and
9 cm. long; tubercles low, slightly convex, 4-angled to 6-angled, giving the surface an appearance
of being covered with diamond-shaped plates; leaves
ovoid, 1 to 3 mm. long, acute; areoles on young shoots
circular, with white or tawny wool and pale glochids,
the upper part in age compressed into the narrow slit
between the two -adjoining tubercles, the lower part
depressed-linear, with a slightly elevated border; spines
often wanting, but when present abundant, usually
one at each areole, rarely 2, porrect, acicular, sometimes 6 cm. long, usually reddish when young, covered
by loose, yellow, papery sheaths; flowers, including
ovaries, 3 to 4 cm. long; sepals subulate, similar to
the leaves of the ovary, but longer; petals greenish
yellow, tinged with red, obovate, aristulate, about 1
cm. long; stamens greenish yellow; anthers orangecolored; style and stigma-lobes cream-colored; ovary
narrowly obconic, covered with emarginate tubercles,
the areoles bearing wool and long glochids, but no
spines; fruit dry, obovate, 2 to 2.5 cm. long, covered
with clusters of weak, slender spines, appearing like
a bur; seeds few, white, 5 mm. broad.
Type locality: In California, near the Colorado River.
Distribution: Southern Nevada, western
Arizona, southeastern California, northwestern
Sonora and probably northeastern Lower CaliFigs. 54, 55.—Opuntia ramosissima. × 0.75.
fornia.
he lowers of this species have been described as purple, apparently erroneously.
his species is found in the most arid deserts of the southwestern part of the United
States, usually growing on low hills, and is conined chiely to the lower Colorado; it is here
rather inconspicuous and might easily be overlooked. It is one of the least succulent species
of the genus, the terminal shoots soon becoming hard, and hence the plant is diicult to
propagate from cuttings, and is rarely found in greenhouse collections.
Opuntia tessellata cristata Schumann (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 8: 70. 1898) is a striking
monstrosity which Schumann has described and igured.
Illustrations: Cact. Journ. 1: pl. [1]; Cycl. Amer. Hort. Bailey 3: f. 1549; Pac. R. Rep.
4: pl. 21; 24, f. 20, all as Opuntia tessellata.
Figure 54 represents a spiny branch drawn from a specimen sent by Mr. S. B. Parish
from Barstow, California, in 1915; igure 55 shows a portion of an unarmed branch sent by
the same collector from the same locality.
Series 2. LEPTOCAULES.
Bushy species, with slender joints, the ultimate ones 4 to 15 mm. thick, often readily detached; the flowers small.
Inhabitants of the southwestern United States, Mexico, northern South America, and ,
one species in Santo Domingo.
47
OPUNTIA
Key to Species.
Ultimate joints short, usually at right angles to the branches, 4 to 7 mm. thick.
Bushy plants, 1.5 meters high or less; f ruit small, fertile.
Branches scarcely if at all tuberculate.
Leaves ovoid to ovoid-subulate; young areoles long-hairy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leaves linear; areoles not long-hairy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Branches long-tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Elongated plants, up to 2 meters long; f ruit larger, sterile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ultimate joints longer, 8 to 15 mm. thick, usually at an acute angle to the branches.
Joints only slightly tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints manifestly tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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5.
O.
O.
O.
O.
mortolensis
leptocaulis
tesajo
caribaea
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. O. arbuscula
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. O. kleiniae
2. Opuntia mortolensis sp. nov.
Slender, 6 dm. high or less, dull green, with dark blotches below the areoles, the ultimate twigs
short, sometimes only 2 cm. long, 4 to 5 mm. thick, scarcely tuberculate; leaves ovate to ovate-subulate,
2 to 4 mm. long, green, with acute bronze-colored tips; young areoles with numerous, early deciduous, weak white hairs sometimes longer than the leaves, and several brown glochids; areoles of old
branches with solitary acicular spines 3 to 5 cm. long, these with tightly itting brownish sheaths;
lowers and fruit unknown.
Described from No. 25360, New York Botanical Garden, received from the garden of
Sir Thomas Hanbury, La Mortola, Italy, in 1906. Mr. Berger has referred this specimen
to Opuntia leptocaulis longispina, but this was considered by Dr. Engelmann as the “usual
western form” of O. leptocaulis.
An herbarium specimen collected by Rose, Standley, and Russell at Empalme, Sonora,
Mexico, March 11, 1910 (No. 12644), appears to be referable to this species.
he short leaves and long-hairy young areoles appear to distinguish this plant from O.
leptocaulis.
Illustration: Gard. Chron. III. 34: f. 37, as Opuntia leptocaulis longispina.
Plate vi, igure 1, represents a branch of a plant sent from La Mortola, Italy, in 1906;
igure 2 shows a leafy twig of the same plant.
3. Opuntia leptocaulis De Candolle Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 118.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1828
ramulifera Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 360. 1834.
gracilis Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 172. 1837.
fragilis frutescens Engelmann, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 5: 245. 1845.
virgata Link and Otto in Förster, Handb. Cact. 506. 1846.
vaginata Engelmann in Wislizenus, Mem. Tour North. Mex. 100. 1848.
frutescens Engelmann, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 6: 208. 185o.
frutescens brevispina Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 309. 1856.
frutescens longispina Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 309. 1856.
leptocaulis brevispina S. Watson, Bibl. Index 1: 407. 1878.
leptocaulis vaginata S. Watson, Bibl. Index 1: 407. 1878.
leptocaulis stipata Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 456. 1896.
leptocaulis longispina Berger, Bot. Jahrb. Engler 36: 450. 1905.
Usually bushy, often compact, 2 to 20 dm. high, but sometimes with a short, definite trunk
5 to 8 cm. in diameter, dull green with darker blotches below the areoles, with slender, cylindric,
ascending, hardly tuberculate branches; branches, especially the fruiting ones, thickly set with short,
usually spineless joints spreading nearly at right angles to the main branches, very easily detached;
leaves green, awl-shaped, 12 mm. long or less, acute; spines usually solitary at young areoles, very
slender, white, at areoles of old branches 2 or 3 together, 2 to 5 cm. long or less; sheaths of spines
closely fitting or loose and papery, yellowish brown to whitish; areoles with very short white wool;
flowers greenish or yellowish, 1-5 to 2 cm. long including the ovary; sepals broadly ovate, acute, or
cuspidate; ovary obconic, bearing numerous small woolly brown areoles subtended by small leaves,
its glochids brown; fruit small, globular to obovate or even clavate, often proliferous, red or rarely
yellow, 10 to 18 mm. long, turgid, slightly fleshy; seeds compressed, 3 to 4 mm. broad, with narrow,
often acute, margins.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Southwestern United States and Mexico.
his species has a wide distribution for an Opuntia, extending from southern United
States to Puebla, Mexico.
48
THE CACTACEAE.
he great variation in the length of the spines and in the character of the spine sheaths
has led to the description of several varieties. hese all seem to us to merge into the one
species, as above indicated. It sometimes hybridizes with O. imbricata. See C. B. Allaire’s
plant from San Antonio, New Mexico.
he following names, Opuntia leptocaulis laetevirens Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck. 184. 1834),
O. gracilis subpatens Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 73. 1850), and O. leptocaulis major
Toumey (Cycl. Amer. Hort. Bailey 3: 1152. 1901) are printed but not described.
Illustrations: Bull. Torr. Club 32: pl. 10, f. 9; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 21, in part;
Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 1908: f. 12; Emory, Mil. Reconn. app. 2. f. 12; Pac. R. Rep.
4: pl. 20, f. 1; pl. 24, f. 13 to 15, all as Opuntia vaginata. Cact. Journ. 1: 154, as Opuntia
Fig. 56.—Opuntia leptocaulis in the foreground.
Fig. 57—Opuntia leptocau- Fig. 58.—Opuntia Calis. × 0.4.
ribaea. × 0.66.
frutescens. Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 20, f. 4, 5; pl. 24, f. 19, all as Opuntia frutescens brevispina. Pac.
R. Rep. 4: pl. 20, f. 2, 3; pl. 24, f. 16 to 18, all as Opuntia frutescens longispina.
Plate vi, igure 3, represents a fruiting branch from a plant collected by Dr. Rose near
Sierra Blanca, Texas, in 1913; igure 4 shows a fruiting branch from another Texas plant
obtained by the same collector. Figure 56 is from a photograph taken by Dr. MacDougal
near Tucson, Arizona, in 1913; igure 57 represents a branch with young leafy shoots, of a
specimen collected by Dr. Rose in 1913 at Laredo, Texas.
4. Opuntia tesajo Engelmann in Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 448. 1896.
Bushy, 3 dm. broad and high; joints slender, indistinctly tuberculate, 2 to 5 cm. long; areoles
5 to 6 mm. apart; leaves awl-shaped, 2 to 4 mm. long, often red; spines at first 2, small, dark
brown, 4 to 8 mm. long, either erect or reflexed; later a long central spine develops, this porrect,
5 cm. long, yellow near the tip; flowers yellow, small, 1.5 to 1.8 cm. long, including the ovary;
style whitish; stigma-lobes 5, yellowish.
Type locality: In Lower California.
Distribution: Central part of Lower California.
he type of this little-known species should be in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden, at St. Louis, but it can not now be found. he species has been in cultivation
at La Mortola, Italy, but it does not do well under cultivation. Dr. C. A. Purpus, who has
collected the plant in Lower California, regarded it as related to O. ramosissima, claiming
that the stems have the peculiar marking of that species. his
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE VI
M. E. Eaton del.
A HOEN & CO
1, 2.
3, 4.
Branches of Opuntia mortolensis.
. Flowering branch of Opuntia arbuscula.
Branches of Opuntia leptocaulis.
6. Flowering branch of Opuntia kleiniae.
(All natural size.)
OPUNTIA
49
relationship, however, is not shown in the La Mortola plant. With only a very meager
description published and no type specimen preserved, it is diicult to decide the relationship
of this species. No exact type locality is cited for it, but it is said to grow “among rocks,
especially towards the west coast, and in the more central portions” of Lower California,
where it was irst collected by W. M. Gabb in 1867.
We refer this species with hesitation to the series Leptocaules.
Opuntia tenajo ( Just’s Bot. Jahresb. 242: 380. 1896) is doubtless an error in spelling for
O. tesajo.
Fig. 59.—Opuntia caribaea forming dense thickets.
5. Opuntia caribaea sp. nov.
Stems 1 to 3 meters high, forming thickets in open woods and waste grounds; ultimate joints
horizontal, 5 to 10 cm. long, much thicker than in O. leptocaulis, with short, elevated tubercles;
areoles large, bearing white wool and a few long caducous hairs; spines 1 to 3, porrect, acicular,
2 to 3 cm. long covered with thin, brown, papery sheaths; glochids dark brown; leaves small, 1 to
2 mm. long, acute; flowers not known; fruit red, 1.5 to 2 cm. long, usually naked but sometimes
bearing short spines from the upper areoles, so far as known always sterile.
Very common on the cactus plain about Azua and also near Barahona, Santo Domingo;
collected near Azua, March 1913, by Rose, Fitch, and Russell (No. 3837, type); also by Paul
Bartsch in Haiti, 1917; also on the northern coast of Venezuela, and on Margarita Island,
and apparently in Trinidad, as indicated by a colored drawing in the Kew herbarium received
in 1825 from David Lockhart.
he plant grows in great abundance in Santo Domingo with other cacti, and certainly
appears to be indigenous. Its nearest relative is O. leptocaulis, from which it difers in its
greater size, thicker joints, and larger fruit.
Figure 58 represents a joint of a plant collected by Rose, Fitch, and Russell at Azua,
Santo Domingo, in 1913; igure 59 is from a photograph of the type plant taken by Paul
G. Russell.
50
THE CACTACEAE.
6. Opuntia arbuscula Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 309.
1856.
Opuntia neoarbuscula Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 260. 1908.
Forming a bush 2 to 3 meters high, often with a rounded, very compact top with numerous short branches; trunk short, 10 to 12 cm. in diameter, with several woody branches; ultimate
joints 5 to 7.5 cm. long, 8 mm. in diameter, with low, indistinct tubercles; leaves small; spines
usually 1, but sometimes several, especially on old joints, porrect, up to 4 cm. long, covered with
loose straw-colored sheaths; flowers greenish yellow tinged with red, 3.5 cm. long; fruit often
proliferous, sometimes only one-seeded.
Fig. 60.—Opuntia arbuscula.
Type locality: On the lower Gila near Maricopa village.
Distribution: Arizona and Sonora.
Opuntia congesta Griiths (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 88, pl. 2, f. 4, 7; pl. 8; pl. 13, f. 5.
1909), from the description, is near this species and probably a race of it.
Races of the species difer in size, in armament, in the length of the tubercles, and in
size and shape of the fruit.
Illustrations: Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67: pl. 6, f. 2; Bull. Torr. Club 32: pl. 9, f. 3;
Plant World 1110: f. 11; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 22; 19: pl. 23, in part, this last as
Opuntia neoarbuscula; Carnegie Inst. Wash. 269: pi. 11, f. 95.
Plate vi, igure 5, represents a lowering branch from Professor J. W. Toumey’s collection
at Tucson, Arizona. Figure 60 is from a photograph taken by Dr. MacDougal near Tucson,
Arizona, in 1906; igure 61 is from a photograph taken by George B. Sudworth in Santa
Rita Mountains, Arizona; igure 62 shows a fruiting branch from the same collection.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE VII
M. E. Eaton del. 1, 3, 4
Krieger del. 2, 5
1. Leafy branch of Opuntia kleiniae.
4. Flowering branch of Opuntia echinocarpa.
2. Terminal branch of Opuntia vivipara.
. Fruiting branch of Opuntia versicolor.
3. Branch of Opuntia parryi.
(All natural size.)
A HOEN & CO
51
OPUNTIA
7. Opuntia kleiniae De Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 118.
1828.
Opuntia wrightii Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 308. 1856.
Opuntia caerulescens Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 86. 1909.
Stems pale, glaucous, sometimes 2-5 meters tall, woody at base; tubercles long; areoles large, a
little longer than wide, filled with white wool from the very first; spines usually 1, but sometimes
more, from the base of the areole, covered with yellow sheaths, on old joints accompanied by
several bristle-like spines from the lower margin of the areole; glochids yellow to brown; leaves
linear, 15 cm. long, acute; flowers 3 cm. long, purplish; petals broad, rounded at apex; fruit red,
2 to 2.5 cm. long, long persisting; seeds 4 to 5 mm. broad.
Fig. 61 .—Opuntia arbuscula.
Fig. 62.—Opuntia arbuscula.
× 0.75.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Texas to central Mexico.
Opuntia kleiniae was originally described as without tubercles on the stems, which has
raised the question whether the plant bearing this name is properly referred; in this respect
O. arbuscula answers the description better, but it is very doubtful whether O. arbuscula could
have been known at that time.
Opuntia kleiniae has long been in cultivation and is to be seen in most collections.
In 1910 Dr. Rose collected near Alamos, Mexico, an Opuntia very similar in habit and
joints to O. kleiniae, but much more spiny.
Opuntia kleiniae cristata (Cat. Darrah Succ. Manchester 55. 1908) is a garden form. O.
kleiniae laetevirens Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 73. 1850) is only a name.
Illustrations: Abh. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. München 2: pl. 1, sec. 7, f. 9; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard.
19: pl. 21, in part; 20: pl. 6, in part, this last as Opuntia caerulescens.
Plate vi, igure 6, represents a lowering branch of a specimen obtained from M. Simon,
of St. Ouen, Paris, France, in 1901; plate vii, igure 1, represents a leafy branch of a specimen collected by Dr. Rose at Ixmiquilpan, Mexico, in 1905.
Two remarkable opuntias were collected in Lower California by Dr. Rose in 1911, but
as they were not in lower or fruit, and have not developed lowers since they were brought
into cultivation, we are unable to describe them fully; they are doubtless of this relationship
and their characters are given as follows:
Opuntia sp.
Stems 1.3 to 2 meters high, rather weak, often clambering over bushes, 10 mm. in diameter,
woody below, pale, when dry the white epidermis peeling off; lateral branches numerous, horizontal,
52
THE CACTACEAE.
short (2 to 6 cm. long); areoles on old stems bearing 3 or 4 long (2 to 4 cm. long) needle-like
brownish spines; young areoles usually with a single spine each, filled with brown wool; glochids brown,
numerous sheaths on young spines straw-colored, soon deciduous; flowers and fruit unknown.
Description based on ield notes and on living and herbarium specimens.
Collected by Dr. Rose on Santa Cruz Island, Gulf of California, April 1, 1911 (No. 1 6845).
Opuntia sp.
Procumbent, forming an indeterminable mass of spiny branches, 3 to 10 dm. in diameter; old
stems woody, smooth, brown, and shiny, 2 cm. in diameter; branches 10 to 20 cm. long, bluish green;
spines of two kinds; the 2 to 4 principal ones long (2 to 3 cm. long), needle-like, at irst covered with
thin yellow sheaths, straw-colored when young, becoming purplish, inally fading to gray; secondary
spines 4 to 6, radial, inconspicuous; glochids brownish; lowers and fruit unknown.
Description based on ield notes and living and herbarium specimens.
Collected by Dr. J. N. Rose on East San Benito Island, of the coast of Lower California, March 9, 1911 (No. 16085). his is, doubtless, the plant referred to by Walton (Cact.
Journ. 2: 137. 1899) as O. ramosissima, but it is not that species.
Series 3. THURBERIANAE.
Bushy, arborescent, or depressed species, with slender joints, the ultimate ones tuberculate,
about 2 cm. thick or less, the areoles bearing several spines. We recognize 8 species, 7 of them
natives of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, and 1 in Lower California.
Key to Species.
Bushy or arborescent species, 6 dim high or higher.
Tubercles narrowly oblong, 1 cm. long or more.
Joints readily detached . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints not readily detached.
Longer spines 2.5 cm. long or longer.
Flowers orange to scarlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers purple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines 2 cm. long or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tubercles low, oblong, 6 to 8 mm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Depressed species, 6 dm. high or less.
Spines yellow or brown; flowers green or tinged with yellow.
Spines yellow, up to 5 cm. long; petals 1 to 1.5 cm. long . . .
Spines brown, 2.5 cm. long or less; petals 2 to 2.5 cm. long .
Spines white; flowers yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8. O. vivipara
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O.
O.
O.
O.
tetracantha
recondita
thurberi
clavellina
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13. O. davisii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14. O. viridiflora
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15. O. whipplei
8. Opuntia vivipara Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 52: 153. 1905.
Plant 2 to 3.5 meters high, usually several strong branches from the base, 8 to 10 cm. in
diameter, much branched above, but not compactly so; old stems with rather smooth bark; young
branches bluish green, slender, 1 to 2 cm. long, 10 to 12 mm. in diameter; tubercles low, oblong,
1 to 20 mm. long;, areoles when young bearing a dense cushion of yellow wool with few or
no glochids; spines 1 to 4, 2 cm. long or less, porrect or ascending, covered with straw-colored
sheaths; leaves small, terete, acutish, purple; flowers numerous, borne in clusters at the top of
the branches, purplish; ovary strongly tuberculate, bearing white deciduous bristles; fruit oblong,
4 to 6 cm. long, smooth, with a somewhat depressed umbilicus, yellowish green, spineless; seeds
white, very thick, 5 mm. long.
Type locality: Near Tucson, Arizona.
Distribution: Known only from type locality.
he relationship of this species is doubtful; it resembles certain garden forms of O.
tetracantha, but difers from typical forms of that species in its much larger fruit and seeds,
diferent armament, and habit. he type grew associated with O. spinosior and O. versicolor,
but there is no indication that it is the result of hybridization of those species.
Illustrations: Smiths. Misc. Coil. 52: pl. 12; Plant World 1110: f. 12.
Plate vii, igure 2, represents a branch drawn by L. C. C. Krieger at the Desert Botanical Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona; plate viii, igure 1, is from a photograph of the type plant
taken by Dr. MacDougal in 1908.
BR I T TO N AN D R O SE
PLAT E VI I I
1. Type plant of Opuntia vivipara, near Tucson, Arizona
2. A much-branched plant of Opuntia versicolor..
53
OPUNTIA
9. Opuntia tetracantha Toumey, Gard. and For. 9: 432.
1896.
Low bush, 5 to 15 dm. high, branching; central stem woody, 5 to 8 cm. in diameter; young joints
23 to 30 cm. long, 10 to 15 mm. in diameter, purplish; tubercles at irst prominent, elongated, 16
to 22 mm. long; areoles bearing wool, light brown glochids, prominent glands and spines; spines 3
to 6, usually 4, slender, somewhat delexed, 2 to 3.5 cm. long; lowers greenish purple, 1.5 to 2 cm.
broad; fruit 2 to 2.5 cm. long, yellowish orange to “scarlet,” nearly smooth, but rarely bearing a few
spines, deeply umbilicate; seeds 3 to 5 cm. broad, with irregular faces and a thick, spongy commissure.
Type locality: Five miles east of Tucson, Arizona.
Distribution: Known only from the region about Tucson, Arizona.
he species was originally compared by Mr. Toumey with O. thurberi, with which he
thought it to be closely associated, but difering in “its longer, more strongly delexed spines,
smaller and diferent-colored lowers.”
he type specimen was not indicated, but Toumey’s own plant, collected in 1895, which
was recently purchased by the U. S. National Herbarium, is doubtless the type.
Illustration: Bull. Torr. Club 32: pl. 9, f. 2.
Plate ix, igure 1, shows a joint painted by L. C. C. Krieger at the Desert Botanical
Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona.
10. Opuntia recondita Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 131. 1913.
“A stout broad-branched shrub, 1 to 1.5 meters in height; trunk cylindric, 4 to 7 cm. in diameter, with constrictions corresponding to each year’s growth, with gray bark, and having a few lateral,
easily detachable, weakly spined joints about 10 cm. long, the remaining joints being 20 to 30 cm.
long, very spiny, in the second year about 2 cm. in diameter, tuberculate; tubercles forming a ridge,
flattening out below, above extending precipitously, about 2 to 5 cm. long, 5 to 6 mm. wide, and 4
to 5 mm. high, remaining recognizable three years, and then disappearing; areoles broadly obovate,
5 to 6 mm. in the longest diameter, in age becoming larger and more prominent, forming new
wool for several years; glochids yellow, in a thick 3 mm.
long cluster on the upper part of the areole, also smaller
clusters on the other parts of the areole, mostly at the base
of the longest and most central spine; spines first 2 to 4,
later 6 to 8 or 10, upright, spreading, 2 5 to 5 cm. long, in
cross-section weakly circular, gray at the base, becoming deep
reddish brown at the tips, surrounded the entire length by
a loose, comparatively bright sheath; between the spines are
scattered a few dirty-black, sheathless bristles about 6 mm.
long; leaves subulate, finely tipped, terete, 12 to 20 mm. long.
“Flowers bright purple, when open about 2.5 cm. in
diameter; petals finely and irregularly serrate, inconspicuously but finely irregularly notched; sepals thick, triangular
pointed, greenish purple; anthers greenish with purple tinge;
pistil greenish at base, with purple tinge above; stigma-lobes
6, white; ovary obovoid, tuberculate, with small areoles, 2
mm. in diameter, short greenish brown glochids 1 to 2 mm.
long, and 1 , 2, or 3 brown, caducous spines sheathed in
part; fruit not deciduous, 3 to 3.5 by 2 to 2.4 cm., large,
greenish yellow with a reddish tinge on the outermost side,
only weakly tuberculate in the second year, with projecting
brownish glochids 3 mm. long; seeds white, thick, mostly
flat but often lightly angled with narrowly thickened edges,
and often somewhat concave.”
Type locality: La Perla, Mexico.
Distribution: Known only from type locality, and,
to us, only from the description of which the above is
a translation by Mr. Russell.
Fig. 63.—Opuntia thurberi. Natural size.
11. Opuntia thurberi Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 308. 1856.
Large bushy plants, 2 to 4 meters high; joints slender, elongated, 1.5 to 2.5 dm. long, 10
to 12 cm. in diameter; tubercles 1.5 to 2 cm. long, flattened laterally; leaves linear, 6 to 8 mm.
54
THE CACTACEAE.
long, spreading; spines 3 to 5, short (10 to 12 mm. long), spreading, covered with thin, brown,
papery sheaths, the lowest one stoutest; flowers 3.5 cm. broad, brownish; fruit 2 cm. to 3 cm.
long, spineless; seeds nearly globular, 4 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Bacuachi, Sonora, Mexico.
Distribution: Western coast of Mexico.
Opuntia thurberi has long been one of our least-known species. he type, which is but
a fragment, has not been clearly associated with any recent collections, but we are disposed
now to believe that specimens collected on the west coast of Mexico by Dr. Rose in 1910
belong here. If we are correct, it ranges from Sonora to Sinaloa, Mexico. It is sometimes
associated with Opuntia versicolor in its northern range, but is not so stout and has fewer
and longer spines.
Figure 63 is from a photograph of the type specimen.
12. Opuntia clavellina Engelmann in Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 444. 1896.
Plant 1 meter high or less, rather openly branched; ultimate joints slender, spreading or ascending, somewhat clavate, 5 to 10 cm. long, a little over 1 cm. in diameter; tubercles prominent,
elongated; spines 3 to 6 in a cluster, very long, covered with loose straw-colored or brown sheaths,
the central one much longer and porrect; flowers yellow; fruit clavate, short, tuberculate.
Type locality: Near Misión Purísima, Lower California.
Distribution: Interior of central Lower California.
he above description is based on the original one and on the type. If the plant illustrated as cited below belongs here, this is a very distinct species, which was referred, however,
by Mrs. Brandegee to Opuntia molesta Brandegee.
Illustration: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 16: pl. 129, A.
Of this series there is another peculiar Lower California species, perhaps nearest O.
clavellina, but of diferent habit and spines. It also suggests O. tetracantha of Arizona. It was
obtained irst by Dr. Rose in 1911, but was without lowers or fruit. It may be characterized as follows:
Opuntia sp.
Stems slender (1 to 1.5 cm. in diameter), weak, often clambering over bushes, pale green in
color, terete, pointed, 6 to 7 dm. long; areoles set on low tubercles, circular; chief spines 2 to 6,
only slightly spreading, nearly equal, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, clothed with loose straw-colored sheaths
(rose-colored when very young); accessory spines 3 or 4, almost bristle-like, borne from the lower
parts of the areoles; glochids short, greenish when young, yellow in age; flowers and fruit not seen.
Collected by Dr. J. N. Rose on Cerralvo Island, of southern Lower California, April 19,
1911 (No. 16875), and also by Nelson and Goldman on the same island in 1906 (No. 7524).
13. Opuntia davisii Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 305. 1856.
Plants low, 3 to 5 dm. high, much branched, their dense covering of straw-colored spines
making them conspicuous objects in the landscape; terminal joints slender, 6 to 8 cm. long, about
1 cm. in diameter, strongly tuberculate; spines 6 to 12, unequal, the longest ones 4 to 5 cm. long,
acicular, covered with thin sheaths; glochids numerous, yellow; flowers, including ovary, 3.5 cm.
long; petals olive-green to yellow, broad, with rounded mucronate tips; ovary with large areoles
bearing a few spines each; fruit 3 cm. long, somewhat tuberculate, naked; seeds not known.
Type locality: Upper Canadian, about Tucumcari Hills, near the Llano Estacado.
Distribution: Western Texas and eastern New Mexico.
For many years this plant was not collected and the name was confused with other
species, so that at one time it was supposed to extend as far west as California. It is now
believed to have a rather circumscribed range. It is irst seen going west on the Texas &
Paciic Railroad about Colorado, Texas.
he plant was named for Jeferson Davis, who was Secretary of War when Whipple’s
report was made.
BRITTON AND ROSE
Krieger del. 1, 6
Kako Morita del. 2 to 5
1. Joint of Opuntia tetracantha.
2 to . Flowering joints of Opuntia versicolor.
6. Proliferous fruit of Opuntia fulgida.
(All natural size.)
PLATE IX
A HOEN & CO
55
OPUNTIA
Illustrations: Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 108: pl. 6652; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 16.
Figure 64 is copied from the second illustration above cited.
14. Opuntia viridiflora sp. nov.
A low, round, bushy plant 30 to 60 cm, high; terminal joints 5 to 7 cm. long, 1.5 to 2 cm. thick,
often quite fragile; areoles prominent, lattened from the sides; areoles circular, illed with short, yellow
or dull-gray wool; spines 5 to 7, somewhat spreading, the longest ones 2 cm. long, dark brown in
color; glochids numerous, very short, yellow; lowers at tips of branches in clusters of 3 to 8, 3.5 to
4.5 cm. long (including ovary), “green, tinged with red”; fruit strongly tuberculate, except for a few
long, deciduous bristles, with a deep umbilicus; seeds smooth, white, 3 mm. broad.
Fig. 64.—Opuntia davisii.
× 0.5.
Fig. 6 .—Opuntia viridiflora.
× 0.5.
Fig. 66.—Opuntia whipplei.
× 0.5
Collected in the vicinity of Santa Fe, New Mexico, altitude about 2,225 meters, by Paul
C. Standley, July 6, 1911 (No. 6493, type) and at the same locality by T. D. A. Cockerell in
1912, and by J. N. Rose in 1913 (No. 18776). It is quite common on the hills just north of
Santa Fe about Fort Marcy, where it is one of the dominant plants, but it was not observed
elsewhere in that region.
his species difers from Opuntia imbricata with which it is found, in its much lower
stature, more bushy habit, in its branches, spines, and smaller, diferently colored lowers,
diferent fruit, and smaller seeds.
Figure 65 represents two joints of a specimen collected by Dr. Rose at the type locality
in 1913.
15. Opuntia whipplei Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 307.
1856.
Opuntia whipplei laevior Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 307. 1856.
Low, much branched, with long, fibrous roots; areoles prominent, flattened laterally, 10 to
15 cm. long, circular, filled with light-brown wool; glochids pale yellow, short; spines about 12,
56
THE CACTACEAE.
the longest about 2 cm. long, dark brown, covered with
yellow, small (2 cm. broad); young ovary bearing brown
strongly tuberculate, spineless, 2.5 to 4 cm. long, with a
with only one seed but usually many; seeds small, 4 cm.
lighter colored papery sheaths; flowers
spines in the axils of the leaves; fruit
deeply depressed umbilicus, sometimes
broad, smooth.
Type locality: About Zuni, New Mexico.
Distribution: Northern New Mexico and Arizona to southwestern Colorado and probably southern Utah. Also reported by Coulter in southern California, Lower California, and
Sonora, but not to be expected there.
Illustration: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 24, f. 9, 10.
Figure 66 is copied from the illustration above cited.
Fig. 67.—Opuntia acanthocarpa in the foreground. Photograph by MacDougal.
Series 4. ECHINOCARPAE.
Dry-fruited, rather stout-jointed, bushy or depressed species, the areoles bearing several spines,
the flowers red, yellow, or yellowish. Four species, inhabiting the southwestern United States,
Sonora, and Lower California.
Key to Species.
Tubercles elongated, 2 to 3 times as long as wide.
Fruit long-spiny, strongly tuberculate . . . . . . . . .
Fruit short-spiny, little tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . .
Tubercles short, less than twice as long as wide.
Spines with white or straw-colored sheaths . . . .
Spines with yellow-brown sheaths . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16. O. acanthocarpa
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17. O. parryi
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18. O. echinocarpa
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19. O. serpentina
57
OPUNTIA
16. Opuntia acanthocarpa Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 308.
1856.
Much branched, 1.5 to 2 meters high; branches becoming woody, alternate, making a narrow
angle with the trunk; terminal joints 4 to 8 cm. long, strongly tuberculate; tubercles elongated, flattened laterally; spines 8 to 25, acicular, dark brown, covered with thin and lighter colored sheaths,
2 to 3 cm. long; glochids numerous, yellow; flowers large, red to yellow, 5 cm. long, and when fully
open nearly as broad; ovary rather short, turbinate, with few prominent tubercles; fruit dry, about
3 cm. long, naked below, tuberculate above, each tubercle crowned by a cluster of 10 to 12 stout
spines; umbilicus broad and somewhat depressed; seeds 5 to 6 cm. broad, sharply angular.
Type locality: On the mountains of Cactus Pass, Arizona, about 500 miles west of Santa
Fe, New Mexico.
Distribution: Arizona and California; reported also from Utah, Nevada, and Sonora.
Illustrations: N. Amer. Fauna 7: pl. 7, 8; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 18, f. 1 to 3; pl. 24, f. 11.
Figure 67 is from a photograph by Dr. MacDougal of a plant near Pictured Rocks,
Tucson Mountains, Arizona.
17. Opuntia parryi Engelmann, Amer. Journ. Sci. II. 14: 339.
1852.
Opuntia bernardina Engelmann in Parish, Bull. Torr. Club 19: 92. 1892.
Low and bush-like, 2 to 4 dm. high; joints cylindric, 7 to 30 cm. long by 1.5 to 2 cm. in
diameter, strongly tuberculate; tubercles 1 to 1.5 cm. long; areoles rather large, bearing lightbrown wool, yellow glochids, and spines; spines about 10, dark brown, the longer ones 3 cm.
long, covered with loose sheaths; flowers, several near together at ends of branches, 4 cm. long;
sepals greenish or dull red; petals yellow, obtuse; stigma-lobes cream-colored; ovary tuberculate;
fruit dry, ovoid, 2 cm. long, strongly umbilicate, when mature and fertile plump, otherwise more
or less tuberculate; areoles on the fruit large, filled with wool and glochids, those at top of fruit
often with short spines; seeds white, 4 to 6 mm. broad, beaked, the margins channeled.
Type locality: Near San Felipe, eastern slope of California Mountains-San Jacinto Mountains.
Distribution: Interior valleys of southern California.
his is common, in some of the interior valleys of southern California, although its
range has not been very deinitely determined. It was irst collected by Dr. C. C. Parry in
185 I and named for him by Dr. Engelmann in 1852; but when the latter again took up
this name a few years later, he associated it with a very diferent species, which most later
writers and dealers accepted as the true Opuntia parryi. Later on Dr. Engelmann segregated
a species which he named O. bernardina, including therein Parry’s specimen, but this was
not published until after his death. We therefore regard O. bernardina as a synonym of O.
parry, while the O. parryi of most collections becomes O. parishii. We are under obligation
to Mr. C. R. Orcutt for irst calling our attention to this confusion.
Mr. Orcutt thinks that this species is near O. serpentina; but the former has larger lowers, diferent spines, much less spiny fruit, and is of diferent habit.
Opuntia bernardina cristata Schumann (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 12: 20. 1902), an abnormal
form, has been described.
Plate vii, igure 3, is from a plant collected by W. T. Schaller at Pala, California, showing a leafy joint.
18. Opuntia echinocarpa Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 305.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1856.
echinocarpa major Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 305. 1856.
echinocarpa nuda Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 446. 1896.
echinocarpa parkeri Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 446. 1896.
echinocarpa robustior Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 446. 1896.
deserta Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 132. 1913.
Plant usually low, but sometimes 1.5 meters high, much branched and widely spreading, with
a short woody trunk 2 to 3 cm. in diameter, in age with nearly smooth bark; joints short, turgid,
strongly tuberculate; spines numerous, when young bright yellow, when older brownish, or in age
grayish, unequally covered with thin papery sheaths; flowers yellowish, but the sepals often tipped
with red; ovary short, turbinate, densely spiny especially in the upper part; fruit dry, very spiny;
seeds somewhat angular, 4 mm. broad.
58
THE CACTACEAE.
Type locality: In the Colorado Valley near the mouth of Bill Williams River.
Distribution: Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California, and Lower California.
Coulter has described three varieties of this species, none of which is quite typical, but
without seeing more specimens we can only refer them all to the species proper. His variety parkeri seems more like a very spiny form of O. parryi. O. parkeri Engelmann (Coulter,
Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 446. 1896) was published as a synonym.
Mrs. Brandegee thought Opuntia echinocarpa nuda very near O. alcahes, if not identical
with it (Erythea 5: 122).
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 18, f. 5 to 10; pl. 24, f. 8; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23:
132, the last as Opuntia deserta.
Plate vii, igure 4, is from a plant collected by Dr. Rose near the Salton Sink, California, showing a lowering joint.
19. Opuntia serpentina Engelmann, Amer. Journ. Sci. II. 14: 338.
1852.
Cereus californicus Torrey and Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 555. 1840. Not Opuntia californica Engelmann.
1848.
Opuntia californica Coville, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 13: 119. 1899.
Ascending, erect, or prostrate; branches slender, 2 to 2.5 cm. in diameter, bluish green, strongly
tuberculate; leaves minute; tubercles elevated, 1 to 1.5 cm. long, longer than broad, flattened; spines
7 to 20, brown, covered with yellowish-brown papery sheaths about 1 cm. long; glochids light brown;
flowers close together at the top of short branches, about 4 cm. broad, greenish yellow, the outer
petals tinged with red; ovary strongly tuberculate, spiny, with a depressed umbilicus; fruit dry, very
spiny.
Type locality: Near the seacoast about San Diego, California.
Distribution: Southern California and northern Lower California.
Cactus californicus Nuttall, although given in the Index Kewensis
(1 : 367), was never published by Nuttall, although he did have the
name in manuscript, as stated in Torrey and Gray’s “Flora” in the
place cited above, where it was taken up as a Cereus.
Figure 68 is from a plant collected by Mr. G. Sykes near San
Diego, California.
Series 5. BIGELOVIANAE.
We recognize two species in this series, natives of the southwestern
United States and Lower California. They are low, bushy plants, with
short definite trunks densely covered with short, stout, very spiny branches,
the spines white, straw-colored, or yellow, the tubercles, at least those of
young shoots, little if any longer than broad, and considerably elevated.
Their fruits are fleshy berries.
Key to Species.
Larger spines numerous; upper tubercles on f ruit larger than lower ones 20. O. bigelovii
Larger spines 4 to 6; tubercles on f ruit all alike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21. O. ciribe
20. Opuntia bigelovii Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 307.
1856.
Usually with a central, erect trunk, 1 meter high or less, with short
Fig. 68.—Opuntia serlateral branches, the upper ones erect; joints usually 5 to 15 cm. long,
pentina. × 0.66
very turgid, with closely set areoles and almost impenetrable armament;
tubercles slightly elevated, pale green, somewhat 4-sided, about as long as broad, 1 cm. broad or
less; spines, as well as their papery sheaths, pale yellow; flowers several, borne at the tips of the
branches, 4 cm. long including the ovary; sepals orbicular, about 1 cm. in diameter, tinged with
red; petals about 1.5 cm. long, pale magenta to crimson; ovary 2 cm. long, its large areoles bearing brown wool and several acicular spines; fruit usually naked, strongly tuberculate, the upper
tubercles larger than the lower.
59
OPUNTIA
Type locality: Bill Williams River, Arizona.
Distribution: Southern Nevada, Arizona, California, northern Sonora, and northern Lower
California.
Illustrations: Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn. 26: pl. 12; Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 16: pl. 128,
b; Hornaday, Camp-ires on Desert and Lava, facing p. 154 Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 5: f.
16; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 19; Plant World 1110: f. 10.
Figure 69 is from a photograph by Dr. MacDougal of a plant in Pima Canyon, Santa
Catalina Mountains, Arizona; igure 70 is copied from the Paciic Railroad Report above
cited.
21. Opuntia ciribe Engelmann in Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 445.
1896.
One meter high or less, with numerous stout branches densely armed; ultimate joints 4 to 5
cm. in diameter, strongly and regularly tuberculate, 3 cm. in diameter; tubercles about as long as
Fig. 69.—Opuntia bigelovii.
Fig. 70.—Opuntia bigelovii.
× 0.66.
broad (5 to 7 cm. broad); larger spines 4 to 6, stout, 2 to 3 cm. long, covered with loose yellow
sheaths, accompanied by several bristle-like spines or hairs; glochids numerous; flowers yellow;
ovary somewhat bristly; fruit strongly tuberculate, 3 to 4 cm. long, spineless.
Type locality: Comondu and Loreto northward to beyond Rosario, Lower California.
Distribution: Central Lower California.
Opuntia ciribe is near O. bigelovii, but difers from it in having less spiny stems and
globular, slightly diferent fruits.
Figure 71 is from a photograph of a plant collected by Dr. Rose at the head of Concepción
Bay, Lower California; igure 72 is from a drawing of a joint from the same plant.
60
THE CACTACEAE.
Fig. 71.—Opuntia ciribe.
Fig. 72.—Opuntia ciribe.
× 0.8.
Series 6. IMBRICATAE.
The typical species are tall, much branched, very spiny. The terminal joints are fleshy and
strongly tuberculate, the tubercles large and flattened laterally. The fruit is either smooth or
strongly tuberculate. We recognize 8 species, natives of Mexico and southwestern United States.
Key to Species.
Joints cylindric; tubercles much flattened laterally.
Fruit smooth or but slightly tuberculate.
Branches very stout, 5 cm. thick or more . . . . . . . . . . .
Branches relatively slender, 2 cm. thick or less.
Plant glaucous; spines 4 at an areole . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant not glaucous; spines more than 4 at an areole
Fruit manifestly tuberculate.
Tall species, up to 2 or 4 meters high.
Flowers small; petals 1.5 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers large; petals 2 to 3 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . .
Low species, 6 dm. high or less.
Flowers yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers rose-colored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints clavate; tubercles not much flattened laterally . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22. O. cholla
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23. O. calmalliana
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24. O. versicolor
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25. O. lloydii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26. O. imbricata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27. O. tunicata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28. O. pallida
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29. O. molesta
22. Opuntia cholla Weber, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 320.
1895.
Usually tree-like, 1 to 3 meters high, with a definite trunk 7 to 15 cm. in diameter; trunk
very spiny at first and becoming more spiny each year for some time, but in age spineless and
developing a smooth, brownish yellow bark; top of plant often dense and broad; joints often in
whorls, horizontal, pale, with large compressed tubercles; spines usually numerous, more or less
porrect, covered with loose brownish sheaths; glochids numerous, yellow; flowers rather small, 3
cm. broad, deep purple; fruit often 4 to 5 cm. long, usually proliferous, often in long chains of
8 to 12 individuals or forming compound clusters; seeds numerous, very small, often abortive.
OPUNTIA
61
Type locality: In Lower California.
Distribution: Lower California.
his is one of the commonest opuntias in southern Lower California and was usually seen
by Dr. Rose at every locality visited south of Magdalena Bay on the west coast and on the
east coast as far north as Muleje. It is undoubtedly the plant referred to O. prolifera by Mr.
Brandegee, but it difers in habit and armament from that species; the fruit of O. prolifera
is nearly or quite devoid of seeds, while this species often has numerous small ones. In this
species, as in a few other opuntias, the fruits are quite proliferous, hanging on for a number
of years and usually remaining green. hey are, however, easily detached, and on falling to
the ground, readily take root and
start new colonies. Our illustration
shows some of the fruits which
have already rooted and have developed young joints.
he plant here described is
the true “cholla” of the people of
Lower California, and is the plant
cultivated under that name by A.
Berger at La Mortola from a cutting of Weber’s type specimen, and
by the late Mr. Darrah at Manchester, England.
Illustrations: Contr. U. S. Nat.
Herb. 16: pl. 128, a; Karsten and
Schenk, Vegetationsbilder 13: pl.
17, b.
Figure 73 is from a photograph of a plant collected by Dr.
Rose at Cape San Lucas; igure
74 represents a joint of the same
plant; igures 75 and 76 represent
its proliferous fruits developing
new joints.
23. Opuntia calmalliana Coulter,
Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 453.
1896.
“Habit and height unknown;
joints cylindrical, 1 to 2 cm. in
Fig. 73.—Opuntia cholla.
diameter, glaucous, with linearoblong crested (mostly distinct) tubercles 20 to 25 mm. long; pulvini densely covered with
yellowish wool, and with a penicillate tuft of whitish bristles at upper edge; spines usually 4,
the upper one stout and porrect, reddish with yellowish tip (as are all the spines), 2 to 2.5
cm. long (occasionally 1 to 2 short upper ones added), the usually 3 (sometimes 4) lower
ones more slender and sharply delexed, 1 to 1.5 cm. long (occasionally one of them longer);
lowers apparently purple; ovary covered with very prominent woolly pulvini which are more
or less bristly and spiny, but ripening into a smooth juicy obovate fruit; seeds discoid and
beaked, irregularly angular, with broad commissure, about mm. broad.” (Coulter, l.c.)
Type locality: Calmalli, Lower California.
Distribution: Lower California.
Type in the Brandegee Herbarium, University of California.
62
THE CACTACEAE.
Referred by Mrs. Brandegee (Erythea 5: 122) to O. molesta Brandegee. It is closely
related to O. molesta, but its spines are diferent, though on the same general plan, and its
seeds are quite diferent.
Figs. 74, 75, 76.—Opuntia cholla.
× 0.66.
24. Opuntia versicolor Engelmann in Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 452.
1896.
Opuntia arborescens versicolor E. Dams, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 14: 3. 1904.
Bush or tree-like, 2 to 4 meters high, with a large, open top sometimes 5 meters broad;
trunk and larger stems woody throughout, except the younger branches; terminal joints 10 to 20
cm. long, 2.5 cm. in diameter, variously colored, not strongly tuberculate when living; tubercles
1.5 cm. long; spines 5 to 11, 5 to 25 mm. long, dark colored, with close-fitting sheaths; glochids
reddish brown; flowers variously colored, yellow, greenish, reddish, or brown, 3 to 5.5 cm. broad;
ovary tuberculate, with large areoles bearing wool, glochids, and long deciduous bristles; fruit
persisting for months, sometimes for a year, 2.5 to 4 cm. long, at first somewhat tuberculate,
becoming pear-shaped or globose, sometimes proliferous; seeds white, 5 mm. broad.
Type locality: Tucson, Arizona.
Distribution: Arizona and northern Mexico.
his species is common on the lower foothills and is only rarely found on the mesas.
It is of slow growth, propagating almost entirely from seed. As the name suggests, it has
lowers of many colors; each plant has its own color and the color of the lowers is to a
greater or less extent paralleled in that of the branches. he contrast in color shown by a
colony of these plants is very striking and one’s irst impression is that more than one species exists.
Named specimens of this species were distributed by the late Dr. C. G. Pringle in 1881,
but the species was not published until 1896.
Illustrations: Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67: pl. 6, f. 1; Bull. Torrey Club 32: pl. 9, f. 4 to
8; Hornaday, Camp-ires on Desert and Lava, pl. facing p. 18, 116, 320; N. Mex. Agr. Exp.
Sta. Bull. 60: pl. 6, f. 1; Plant World 1110: f. 8; Sargent, Man. Trees N. Amer. f. 561.
Plate vii, igure 5, represents a fruiting joint; plate viii, igure 2, is from a photograph
taken by Dr. MacDougal near the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona; plate
ix, igures 2 to 5, are paintings made at the Desert Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona, by Kako
Monita, showing the range in color of the lowers.
63
OPUNTIA
25. Opuntia lloydii Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 292.
1909.
Much branched, 2 to 3 meters high and nearly as broad; joints terete, 2 cm. in diameter;
tubercles prominent, oblong; spines few, on last year’s joints 3, reddish, 1.5 cm. long leaves terete,
6 to 8 mm. long; flowers 3 cm. long, opening after midday; petals 15 mm. long, dull purple; filaments olive-green below, purplish above; style rose-colored; stigma-lobes white; ovary yellowish,
strongly tuberculate, naked; fruit 3 cm. long, yellow to orange, slightly tuberculate.
Type locality: On foot slopes, Hacienda de Cedros, Zacatecas, Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico.
According to F. E. Lloyd, for whom this species was named, it is known to the Mexicans as tasajo macho.
We have had this plant in cultivation for several years, but it does not grow well
under glass; these specimens have white areoles; no glochids are developed the first year,
Fig. 77.—Opuntia lloydii.
Fig. 78.—Opuntia lloydii. Photograph by F. E. Lloyd.
but on old branches dark-brown bunches of glochids are developed in the upper edges
of the areoles, and the several brownish spines are acicular.
Illustration: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: f. 34; pl. 25.
Figure 77 represents two joints of the type specimen; igure 78 is from a photograph
of the type plant.
26. Opuntia imbricata (Haworth) De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 471.
1828.
Cereus imbricatus Haworth, Rev. Pl. Succ. 70. 1821.
Cactus cylindricus James, Cat. 182. 1825. Not Lamarck. 1783.
Cactus bleo Torrey, Ann. Lyc. N. Y. 2: 202. 1828. Not Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth. 1823.
Opuntia rosea De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 471. 1828.
Opuntia decipiens De Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 118. 1828.
Opuntia exuviata De Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 118. 1828.
Opuntia exuviata angustior De Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 118. 1828.
Opuntia exuviata spinosior De Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 118. 1828.
Opuntia exuviata stellata Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 67. 1839.
Opuntia exuviata viridior Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 48. 1845.
Opuntia arborescens Engelmann in Wislizenus, Mem. Tour North. Mex. 90. 1848.
Opuntia imbricata crassior Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 249. 1850.
64
THE CACTACEAE.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
imbricata ramosior Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 73. 1850.
imbricata tenuior Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 73. 1850.
vexans Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 28. 1912.
magna Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 23. 1914.
spinotecta Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 24. 1914.
Tree-like, often 3 meters high or higher, with a more or less definite woody trunk 2.5 cm.
in diameter; ultimate joints 2 to 3 cm. in diameter, strongly tuberculate; leaves 8 to 24 mm. long,
terete; tubercles 2 to 2.5 cm. long, flattened laterally; spines 8 to 30, 2 to 3 cm. long, brown,
covered with papery sheaths; flowers borne at ends of branches, 4 to 6 cm. long, sometimes 8
to 9 cm. broad, purple; ovary tuberculate, bearing a few bristles from some of the upper areoles;
fruit naked, yellow, 2.5 to 3 cm. long, strongly tuberculate or, when long persistent, smooth; seeds
2.5 to 3.5 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Unknown; introduced into England by Loddiges in 1820.
Distribution: Central Colorado to Texas, New Mexico, and central Mexico.
he plant is hardy in southwestern Kansas, and has been recorded as a native of that
State; it has existed through three winters out of doors at the New York Botanical Garden,
but has made little growth.
We have followed Schumann and Weber in uniting Opuntia arborescens and O. imbricata.
As thus treated, the species has a wide geographic distribution, and in our view consists of
many slightly difering races. In its northern limits it is much smaller than in its southern
range.
Opuntia cristata tenuior Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 49. 1845, name only), O.
decipiens major Hort. in Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 49. 1845, as synonym), O. cristata Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 50. 1842), and O. stellata Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck.
50. 1842) are unpublished names. O. ruthei is a garden name mentioned by Berger.
Opuntia exuviata major (Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 49. 1845) is an unpublished name.
Opuntia cardenche Griiths (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 259. pl. 21, in part. 1908) is described as standing between Opuntia kleiniae and O. imbricata, being stouter than the
Fig. 79.—Opuntia imbricata.
65
OPUNTIA
one and more slender than the other. It resembles very closely specimens collected by
Dr. Rose at Ixmiquilpan, Mexico, in 1905, which we have referred to O. kleiniae.
Opuntia galeottii de Smet (Miquel, Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. 4: 337. 1858) and O. costigera
Miquel (Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. 4: 338. 1858), if really from Mexico, may belong here, but
the descriptions are indeinite. Dr. Schumann did not know them.
Opuntia mendocienses (Cat. Darrah Succ. Manchester 56. 1908) is said to be “probably
only a form of O. imbricata.”
Opuntia undulata Link and Otto (Verh. Ver. Beförd. Gartenb. 6: 434. 1830) was not
published. According to Pfeifer, it is the same as O. exuviata, which we refer here.
Opuntia decipiens minor (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 172. 1837) is unpublished.
Cactus subquadrifolius Mocilo and Sessé (De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 471. 1828) was given
as a synonym of Opuntia rosea and therefore belongs here.
Fig. 80.—Opuntia tunicata.
Fig. 81.—Opuntia pallida.
Illustrations: Agr. Gaz. N. S. W. 22: pl. opp. p. 696; Bull. U. S. Dept. Agr. 31: pl. 5;
pl. 6, f. 1; Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 73, f. 7, 8; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 135: pl. 8290; N. Mex.
Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pl. 7, f. 2; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 134; Mém. Mus. Hist.
Nat. Paris 17: pl. 15; W. Watson, Cact. Cult. f. 85, the last three as Opuntia rosea. W.
Watson, Cact. Cult. f. 8, in part, this as Opuntia decipiens. Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethn.
26: pl. 8, f. a; Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 75, f. 16, 17; Gard. Chron. III. 34: 1. 36; Gard.
and For. 9: f. 1; Illustr. Fl. 2: f. 2533 ed. 2. 2: f. 2992; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 78:
pl. [10]; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 17, f. 5, 6; pl. 18, f. 4; pl. 24, f. 12; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22:
pl. 7, in part; all as Opuntia arborescens. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: pl. 6, 7, in part, these
two as Opuntia vexans.
Plate xi, igure 1, represents a joint of a plant collected by W. L. Bray in western Texas.
Figure 79 is from a photograph taken by Professor F. E. Lloyd in Zacatecas. Mexico, in
1908.
27. Opuntia tunicata (Lehmann) Link and Otto in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 170.
Cactus tunicatus Lehmann, Ind. Sem. Hort. Hamb. 6. 1827.
Opuntia stapeliae De Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 117. 1828.
Opuntia hystrix Grisebach, Cat. Pl. Cub. 117. 1866.
Opuntia perrita Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 3. 1912.
1837.
66
THE CACTACEAE.
Very variable, sometimes low and spreading from the base and forming broad clumps, at other
times 5 to 6 dm. high, with a more or less definite woody stem and numerous lateral branches;
joints easily detached, sometimes short and nearly globular to narrowly oblong, 10 to 15 cm. long,
strongly tuberculate; spines reddish, normally 6 to 10, elongated, 4 to 5 cm. long, covered with
thin, white, papery sheaths; flowers 3 cm. long, yellow; petals obtuse; ovary often bearing long
spines at the areoles, but usually naked.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Highlands of central Mexico; also in Ecuador, Peru, and northern Chile.
Opuntia stapeliae has long puzzled collectors and students of cacti. We are convinced now
that it is only starved or stunted greenhouse specimens of the common O. tunicata. When
grown in cultivation, O. tunicata takes on abnormal shapes, for the joints, which break of
easily, rarely grow to their full size. In its native home many small dwarf plants are found
everywhere about the larger plants. We have discussed this explanation of O. stapeliae with
Mr. A. Berger, and he agrees with our conclusion.
No specimens of the type of O. stapeliae are preserved in the De Candolle Herbarium.
he plant igured as Opuntia stapeliae (?) by Goebel in Planzenbiologische (f. 36) does not
belong here. It is erect, has strongly tuberculate joints, very short spines and narrow elongated leaves.
Cereus tunicatus (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 170. 1837) is given as a synonym of Opuntia
tunicata, but has never been formally taken up.
We believe Opuntia hystrix Grisebach, collected by C. Wright in Cuba, belongs here,
probably being an escape from a garden. Dr. Rose examined the specimens in the Krug and
Urban Herbarium in Berlin in 1912; the loose sheaths of the spines of these specimens are
now brown, while the lowers seemed a little smaller than those of the Mexican specimens.
he lowers were described as red.
Opuntia furiosa Wendland (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 170. 1837) referred to O. tunicata by
Pfeifer, while Salm-Dyck refers it to his variety O. tunicata laevior (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849.
73. 1850).
Illustrations: Bull. U. S. Dept. Agr. 31: pl. 4; Cact. Journ. 1: October; he Garden 62:
425; Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 1908: pl. 10, f. 5; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 2;
Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: pl. 13, 14, these two as Opuntia perrita.
Plate x, igure 1, represents a joint of a plant collected by Dr. Rose near Cuzco, Peru.
Figure 80 is from a photograph of the same plant.
28. Opuntia pallida Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50: 507. 1908.
Stems 5 cm. in diameter, about 1 meter high, with widely spreading branches, the whole plant
often broader than high; old areoles very spiny, often bearing 20 spines or more, often 3 to 4 cm.
long, with white, papery sheaths; young areoles bearing few spines; ovary tuberculate, the areoles
either naked or bearing a few bristly spines; flowers pale rose-colored; petals 15 mm. long.
Type locality: Near Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico.
Distribution: State of Hidalgo, Mexico.
his species is known only from near Tula, Mexico, where it was discovered by Dr. J.
N. Rose in 1905, and afterwards collected near the same station by Mr. K W. Nelson. It
grows interspersed with O. imbricata, but is much lower in stature and has smaller leaves
and lighter-colored lowers. It is much like O. tunicata, but that species has yellow lowers
and is always smaller.
Illustration: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 10: pl. 17, a.
Figure 81 is from a photograph of the type specimen.
29. Opuntia molesta Brandegee, Proc. Cal. Acad. II. 2: 164. 1889.
Stems 1 to 2 meters high, or in cultivation only 6 dm. high, with few, long, spreading branches;
joints clavate to subcylindric, 10 to 40 cm. long, sometimes as much as 4 cm. in diameter at the
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE X
M. E. Eaton del. 1, 4, 5
Kako Morita del. 2, 3
A HOEN & CO
1. Joint of Opuntia tunicata.
2 to . Joints of Opuntia spinosior.
(All natural size.)
OPUNTIA
67
top, pale green, with low, broad tubercles, these elongated and often 4 cm. long or more; leaves
linear, 10 mm. long or less; spines few, 6 to 10, unequal, the longest ones 2.5 to 5 cm. long,
straw-colored, with loose, papery sheaths; flowers purple, 5 cm. in diameter; fruit ovoid, 2.5 cm.
long, somewhat spiny or naked; seeds 6 mm. in diameter, irregular in shape.
Type locality: San Ignacio, Lower California.
Distribution: Lower California.
he type of the species is deposited in the Brandegee Herbarium, now a part of the
herbarium of the University of California. Living plants have been distributed by A. Berger
from La Mortola, Italy, and are now to be found in various collections.
In the Index Kewensis, irst supplement, this species is wrongly entered as Opuntia
modesta!
Figure 82 is from a photograph of a plant sent
from La Mortola, Italy, to the New York Botanical
Garden in 1913.
Series 7. FULGIDAE.
Much branched, bushy plants, usually with the terminal
joints very fleshy, the tubercles broad and low, about as broad
as long. The species, of which we recognize five, inhabit
the southwestern United States and western Mexico.
Key to Species.
Joints very readily detached, f reely falling . . .
Joints not very readily detached, persistent.
Spines brown or reddish, at least at base.
Branches slender; f ruit not proliferous .
Branches stout; f ruit proliferous . . . . . .
Spines white or yellow.
Spines white; petals greenish yellow, 1 cm.
long or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines yellow; petals red, 2 cm. long . . . . .
. . . . 30. O. fulgida
. . . . 31. O. spinosior
. . . . 32. O. prolifera
. . . . 33. O. alcahes
. . . . 34. O. burrageana
30. Opuntia fulgida Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 306.
1856.
Opuntia mamillata Schott in Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad.
3: 308. 1856.
Opuntia fulgida mamillata Coulter, contr. U. S. Nat. Herb.
3: 449. 1896.
Plant sometimes 3 meters high or even more, with
a rather definite woody trunk 10 to 20 cm. in diameter,
much branched, sometimes almost from the base, and forming a compact flattened crown; terminal joints 10 to 20
cm. long, 3 to 5 cm. in diameter, very succulent, strongly
tuberculate, easily breaking off; spines 2 to 12, yellowish
to brown, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, acicular, covered with loose,
papery sheaths; glochids small, whitish to light yellow;
Fig. 82.—Opuntia molesta.
flowers light rose, 2.5 to 3 cm. broad; petals few, obtuse;
stamens and style very short; fruit at first tuberculate, in age smooth, somewhat pear-shaped, 2
to 5 cm. long, green, usually very proliferous; seeds rather small, 4 mm. broad, often wanting.
Type locality: Mountains of western Sonora, Mexico.
Distribution: Gravelly and sandy situations, southern Arizona, Sonora, and Sinaloa.
We consider O. mamillata as synonymous with O. fulgida; in herbarium and greenhouse
specimens we can find no constant differences. Professor J. J. Thornber, who has long studied this group, says there is no difference between the flowers and fruits, and that there
is no difference in distribution (Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67: 501). In the field, however,
one can see two rather distinct forms which differ in armament, the typical plant being
the more spiny.
his is one of the most characteristic opuntias of southern Arizona, being very abundant on the valley slopes and lower foothills. It often forms dense colonies almost to the
exclusion of other cacti, or it may be associated with other species, especially of Opuntia. It
68
THE CACTACEAE.
is a most troublesome plant to come in contact with, for, as the sharp, barbed spines pierce
the lesh, the joints easily break loose from the plant and are detached with diiculty from
the unfortunate victim.
he lowering season extends from early spring to September. he fruit is markedly
proliferous, often developing in chains, and so persisting for several years, possibly eight or
ten years, as suggested by Professor D. S. Johnson. hey grow in chains of 8 or 9 fruits
(12 to 14 have been reported), several chains hanging from a single joint and forming a
large cluster. We have seen as many as 38 fruits (40 to 50 have been reported) in a single
cluster, and doubtless under favorable conditions many more would be found. hese juicy
fruits, usually spineless, are much sought by grazing animals.
According to Professor Johnson, who has studied this species several years, the seeds
are not known to germinate in nature. Only by cutting away a part of the hard, bony coat
could they be made to germinate in the greenhouse. he species is propagated easily by
the terminal joints, which come of readily and are transported far and wide like burs, and
soon strike root on reaching the soil. New plants are also started occasionally by the fruits
themselves.
his species appears to hybridize with O. spinosior.
Illustrations: Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67: pl. 1, f. 2; Bull. Torr. Club 32: pl. 9, f. 1;
Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 75, f. 18; Gard. and For. 8: f. 46; Hornaday, Camp-ires on Desert
and Lava opp. p. 42, 320; Lumholtz, New Trails in Mex. opp. p. 18; Monatsschr. Kakteenk.
18: 153; Nat. Geogr. Mag. 21: 710; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pl. 6, f. 2; Plant World
116: f. 1, in part; 1110: f. 9, in part; Sargent, Man. Trees N. Amer. f. 559; Ariz. Agr. Exp.
Sta. Bull. 67: pl. 5, f. 1; Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 75, f. 19; Lumholtz, New Trails in Mex.
opp. p. 152; Nat. Geogr. Mag. 21: 710; Plant World 116: f. 1, in part; 1110: f. 9, in part,
the last six as Opuntia mamillata; Carnegie Inst. Wash. 269: Frontispiece; pl. 1 to 7; pl. 8,
f. 76 to 79; pl. 12.
Plate ix, igure 6, represents the proliferous fruit; plate xii, igure 1, is from a photograph taken by Dr. MacDougal near Tucson, Arizona, showing the typical plant to the left
and the less spiny plant to the right.
31. Opuntia spinosior (Engelmann) Tourney, Bot. Gaz. 25: 119.
1898.
Opuntia whipplei spinosior Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 307. 1856.
Plants 2 to 4 meters high, tree-like in habit, with a more or less definite, woody trunk,
openly branched; ultimate joints 1 to 3 dm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. in diameter, often bright purple,
strongly tuberculate; tubercles about 6 to 12 mm. long, longer than broad, more or less flattened
laterally; spines 6 to 12, but on old branches sometimes as many as 25, 10 to 15 mm. long, divergent, gray to brownish, covered with thin sheaths; glochids yellowish white; flower-buds short,
acute; flowers 5 to 6 cm. broad, purple to pink, yellow, or even white; petals about 10, broad at
apex, narrowed at base; style thick, cream-colored or pinkish; ovary tuberculate, bearing small,
purple leaves and long, white, easily detached bristles; fruit strongly tuberculate, spineless, yellow,
globose to broadly oblong, 2.5 to 4 cm. long, with a depressed umbilicus; seeds white, 4 mm.
broad, smooth, with a very indistinct marginal band.
Type locality: South of the Gila River.
Distribution: Arizona, western New Mexico, and northern Mexico.
Opuntia spinosior neomexicana (Toumey, Bot. Gaz. 25: 119. 1898) seems to be a yellowlowered form of this species. Mr. Toumey writes that his original material of this variety
came from the low foothills north of the Rillito River near Tucson.
Opuntia spinosior was described by Engelmann in 1856 as a variety of O. whipplei, to
which it is only remotely related, but it was not separated until 1898, when it was described
as distinct by Professor J. W. Toumey.
Illustrations: Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67: pl. 1, f. 1; pl. 5, f. 2; Gard. and For. 9: 1;
N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pl. 7, f. 1; Plant World 1110: f. 7; Sargent, Man. Trees N.
Amer. f. 560.
BRITTON AND ROSE
M. E. Eaton del.
PLATE XI
A HOEN & CO
1. Leafy branch of Opuntia imbricata.
2 to . Forms of Opuntia alcahes.
1. Flowering branch of Opuntia prolifera.
2 to . Opuntia vestita.
(All natural size.)
OPUNTIA
69
Plate x, igures 2 and 3, are from paintings showing diferent lower-colors, made at
the Desert Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona; igure 4 represents a fruiting joint of a plant collected by F. Gilman at Sacaton, Arizona; and igure 5 represents a leaf-bearing joint of the
same plant; plate xii, igure 2, is from a photograph of the plant in the Tucson Mountains,
Arizona, by Dr. MacDougal.
32. Opuntia prolifera Engelmann, Amer. Journ. Sci. II. 14: 338. 1852.
Stems 1 to 2 meters high, the trunk and old branches terete and woody; terminal joints 3 to
12 cm. long, easily breaking off, fleshy, covered with short, more or less turgid tubercles; spines 6
to 12, brown, 10 to 12 mm. long; glochids pale; flowers small; sepals orbicular, obtuse, dark red;
petals red; filaments yellow; style stout; stigma-lobes red; ovary 1 cm. long, strongly tuberculate;
upper areoles bearing 2 to 6 reddish spines or the joints naked throughout; fruit proliferous, 3
to 3.5 cm. long and often without seeds; seeds, if present, large, regular, 6 mm. broad.
Type locality: Arid hills about San Diego, California.
Distribution: Southern California and coast of Lower California.
he range of this species is not well known. We have referred here, with some doubt,
specimens collected by Dr. Rose on Guadalupe Island, of the coast of Lower California, as
well as specimens from the south end of Lower California, but we have seen no lowers from
these Lower California collections. A peculiar form less than 5 dm. high with bluish-green
joints and small seeds, from near Newport, Orange County, California, deserves further study.
his species, although common in southern California, has never been fully and accurately described. It is often confused in collections with O. serpentina, with which it grows,
although they are very diferent.
In greenhouse specimens the joints and spines are not well developed.
Illustration: Meehan’s Monthly 3: pl. 1.
Plate xi, igure 2, represents a lowering joint of a plant collected
by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman in Lower California, which
bloomed at the New York Botanical Garden in April 1914. Figure
83 represents a joint of a plant sent from La Mortola, Italy, in 1912;
igure 84 is from a photograph of this plant.
Of this relationship, but of very diferent habit, is the species collected by Dr. Rose on West San Benito Island in 1911. Unfortunately
no lowers or fruits could be obtained, and hence we have not named
it here. It may be briely characterized as follows:
Opuntia sp.
Low, much branched plants; joints short (10 cm. long), thick, and
fleshy; leaves cylindric, 10 mm. long, acute; areoles distant, circular, bearing
brown wool, tawny glochids and numerous spines; spines 6 to 8, often 4
cm. long, slender, reddish brown, inclosed in loose, thin, brownish sheaths.
Collected by Dr. J. N. Rose on West San Benito Island, off the west
coast of Lower California, March 9, 1911 (No. 16043).
33. Opuntia alcahes Weber, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 321. 1895.
Plant about 1 meter high, much branched, very spiny, especially when Fig. 83.—Opuntia prolifera.
old; branches terete; spines on young joints about 12, short, covered with
white or very pale sheaths; tubercles prominent, diamond-shaped; leaves small, 1 cm. long, terete,
somewhat bronzed; sepals small, brownish, closely imbricated, hardly spreading at tips; petals
sometimes wanting, or, if present, about 1 cm. long, greenish yellow, obtuse; stamens numerous;
stigma-lobes very short, 6 to 8, at first exserted beyond the sepals, yellowish; fruit globular, small,
becoming turgid in age, yellowish, more or less proliferous, the umbilicus truncated or slightly
depressed.
Type locality: In Lower California.
Distribution: Lower California.
70
THE CACTACEAE.
Plate xi, igure 3, represents a leaf-bearing joint of a plant obtained by the same collector on Espíritu Santo Island, Lower California; igure 4 is from a plant sent to the New
York Botanical Garden from La Mortola, Italy, in 1906. Figure 85 is from a photograph of
a plant collected by Dr. Rose at San Francisquito, Lower California.
34. Opuntia burrageana sp. nov.
Usually low and bushy, rarely 1 meter high; stems slender, 1 to 2 cm. in diameter, densely
spiny; leaves small, 2 mm. long, green, early deciduous; old stem and branches terete; young joints
Fig. 84.—Opuntia prolifera
Fig. 85.—Opuntia alcahes.
cylindric to narrow- clavate, 15 cm. long or less; areoles closely set; tubercles rather low, not much
broader than long; spines numerous, similar, spreading, rarely 2 cm. long, all covered with thin,
bright-yellow sheaths; wool in areoles short, brown; glochids, when present, short, light yellow;
flower 3 to 4 cm. broad; petals few, brownish red with green bases; filaments green; stigma-lobes
white; ovary very spiny; fruit not proliferous, globular, 2 cm. in diameter, somewhat tuberculate,
probably dry; seeds pale, 4 mm. in diameter.
Common on the hills along the coast of southern Lower California.
BR I T TO N AN D R O SE
1. Plants of Opuntia fulgida.
PLAT E XI I
2. A very open plant of Opuntia spinosior.
71
OPUNTIA
he following specimens were collected by Dr. J. N. Rose in 19 11: Near Pichilinque
Island (No. 16533, type); near San José del Cabo (No. 16468); near Cape San Lucas (No.
16379); on Carmen Island (No. 16630); on San Josef Island (No. 16552).
Plate xiv, igure 1, is from a plant collected by Dr. Rose on San Josef Island, Lower
California, in 1911, which lowered the next year at the New York Botanical Garden.
Series 8. VESTITAE.
The series Vestitae contains three or perhaps four species, two of which possibly represent
greenhouse forms of species of Tephrocactus, natives of the high Andes. They are low species
with elongated cylindric joints sometimes arising from subglobose ones, and form a connecting
link between the true species of Tephrocactus and Cylindropuntia. Opuntia vestita in the field was
supposed to be a form of O. pentlandii, but in cultivation it has developed quite differently: O.
floccosa, a Tephrocactus, sometimes develops like the Vestitae; one specimen which we have grown
shows a slender cylindric stem with few long hairs or none. Opuntia boliviana and O. pentlandii,
both from Bolivia and described at the same time by Salm-Dyck, and which we have united, seem
to represent two forms of the same species, O. pentlandii being the abnormal form. The same
condition seems to exist in O. verschaffeltii and its variety digitalis, the variety being the normal
form. Schumann had these species in his series Teretes (our series Subulatae), but O. subulata and
O. cylindrica are tall woody, much branched plants.
Key to Species.
Areoles with hairs; joints not or scarcely tuberculate.
Joints 1 to 1.5 cm. thick; spines 2.5 cm. long or less; f ruit mostly sterile
Joints 2.5 to 3 cm. thick; spines up to 5 cm. long; f ruit many-seeded . . .
Areoles without hairs; joints distinctly tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Of this series? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35. Opuntia vestita Salm-Dyck, Allg. Gartenz. 13: 388.
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O.
O.
O.
O.
vestita
shaferi
verschaffeltii
hypsophila
1845.
Opuntia teres Cels in Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 898. 1898.
Roots fibrous; stems much branched, weak, forming small clumps 3 dm. broad or less and
nearly as high, fragile; joints short or elongated, becoming in greenhouse cultivation 2 dm. long
or more, oblong or cylindric, 1 to 1.5 cm. thick, very spiny, easily breaking apart; areoles circular,
conspicuous, bearing short wool, spines, and several long hairs; spines about 6 in each cluster,
acicular, brownish, 2 to 2.5 cm. long; leaves minute, acute; flowers small, including the ovary; 2
cm. long, deep red; petals 1 cm. long; areoles on ovary conspicuous, filled with white wool and
long hairs; fruit red, usually sterile, globular or a little longer than broad, usually naked, generally
truncate at apex, often bearing small spiny joints at the areoles.
Type locality: In Bolivia.
Distribution: Common on the sterile hills about La Paz, Bolivia.
Specimens were collected by Miguel Bang some years ago and segregated as a new
species by the late Karl Schumann, but this was never published; others were obtained by
Dr. H. H. Rusby in 1885, and by R. S. Williams in 1901. It was again collected by Dr.
Rose in 1914, and living plants are now growing at the New York Botanical Garden. As
seen wild, it is a strange little plant, growing in low clumps, its fragile stems easily breaking apart, especially at the terminal joints. he bright red fruits remain on the parent plant
until they produce a number of spiny joints, often as many as ive, which, after falling of,
strike roots and start new colonies.
Dr. Rose suspected at the time he collected his material that it might be Opuntia vestita,
and suggested that it should be carefully compared with it. his he was not able deinitely
to-prove in the ield, but the living specimens sent to the New York Botanical Garden put
out new branches which are long, slender, and cylindric, and are devoid of long acicular
spines, quite unlike the wild plants but almost identical with the specimens received from
La Mortola, Italy, some years ago as O. vestita.
Opuntia teres Cels must belong here, at least in part. Weber states that the lowers are
very similar to O. vestita, while the fruit is said to be small, red, and proliferous, just as
found in O. vestita. he leaves are described as 2 cm. long, however, and there is a possibility
that O. exaltata may be partly represented in the description, as we ind herbarium material
of both species, from Bolivia, mounted on the same sheet.
72
THE CACTACEAE.
Plate xi, igure 5, shows the plant collected by Dr. Rose in 1914; igure 6 is from a
plant received from La Mortola, Italy, in 1912.
36. Opuntia shaferi sp. nov.
Plants in clusters of 2 to 4, erect, about 3 dm. high; joints terete, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. in diameter,
elongated, very spiny; tubercles low, often indistinct; leaves deciduous, 6 mm. long; areoles 1 cm.
apart or less, circular, white-felted; glochids numerous, whitish from the upper margin
of the areole; spines about 6 at an areole, brownish, acicular, often 4 to 5 cm. long
and associated with long white hairs; flowers not known; fruit globular, about 2 cm.
in diameter, bearing numerous large areoles, the areoles white-felted, with glochids
and hairs, but no spines; seeds turgid, pointed at base, mm. long.
Collected by J. A. Shafer among stones between Purmamarca and Tumbaya,
Argentina, February 6, 1917 (No. 90).
Nearest O. vestita but less cespitose, taller and larger, and with fertile fruit.
37. Opuntia verschaffeltii Cels in Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 898.
1898.
Opuntia verschaffeltii digitalis Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 898. 1898.
Forms low, in dense clumps, much branched; joints globular to short-cylindric,
1 to 4 cm. long, somewhat tuberculate, pale green; spines 1 to 3, yellowish, weak,
and bristle-like, 1 to 3 cm. long; in cultivated plants joints elongated, 6 to 21 cm.
long, slender, 1 to 1.5 cm. in diameter, strongly tuberculate, spineless; glochids few,
white; areoles narrow, longer than broad, filled with short white wool.
Type locality: In Bolivia.
Distribution: Bolivia.
In 1914 Dr. Rose collected this species on the barren hills about La Paz,
Bolivia, and from his observations it seemed to be only a form of Opuntia
pentlandii. In cultivation, however, it behaves very diferently from his specimens
of the latter, and in fact has developed a phase very unlike its normal type but
identical with other greenhouse specimens sent out by Mr. Berger some years
ago under the name of O. verschaffeltii.
Opuntia digitalis Weber (Dict. Hort. Bois 898. 1898) was given as a synonym of O. verschaffeltii digitalis.
Figure 86 represents an elongated joint, from a greenhouse specimen; this
grew from the short normal joint, collected by Dr. Rose near La Paz, Bolivia,
in 1914.
38. Opuntia hypsophila Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 509.
Cespitose, branching, small, 5 to 10 cm. high, pale green; joints
globose to cylindric, 1.5 to 3 cm. long; tubercles depressed; spines
3 to 5, subulate, weak, spreading, white at first, in age brownish;
flowers and fruit unknown.
Type locality: In the Province of Salta, Argentina, in the
Andes, at an altitude of 2,500 to 4,000 meters.
Distribution: Salta, Argentina.
We do not know this species, but Dr. Spegazzini thought
it might be a Tephrocactus and associated it with Opuntia
verschaffeltii digitalis.
1905
Fig. 86.—Opuntia verschaffeltii.
× 0.66.
Series 9. CLAVARIOIDES.
This series is the same as the Etuberculatae of Schumann and contains but a single species,
recorded as a native of Chile. According to Schumann, the stems are cylindric to clavate, not
tuberculate, the leaves are small and caducous, and the spines are very small and appressed. The
fruit is said to contain one woolly seed.
39. Opuntia clavarioides Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 173. 1837.
Low, much branched, grayish brown, 4 dm. high or less, truncate or cristate at apex; joints
not tuberculate, rather fragile, short-cylindric or clavate, 1.5 cm. in diameter; leaves minute, 1.5
73
OPUNTIA
mm. long, reddish, caducous; areoles minute, closely set, filled with wool and minute spines;
spines 4 to 10, white, appressed; flowers 6 to 6.5 cm. long; sepals linear, pointed, reddish; petals
light brown, narrowly spatulate, slightly crenate; ovary bearing minute leaves with wool and short
bristles in their axils; filaments white, shorter than the petals; style white, with 7 stigma-lobes;
fruit ellipsoid, 1.5 cm. long, one-seeded.
Type locality: In Chile.
Distribution: Originally described from Chile, but often referred to Mexico.
Very little is known of this species, although it was described as long ago as 1837, and
it is rare in collections. We have never seen it in lower and have seen only one record
of its lowering in cultivation. he peculiar structure of the stem, narrow petals and single
lanate seed, join a combination of characters separating it from other opuntias, and lead
Schumann to refer it to a distinct series which he calls Etuberculatae. he question has been
raised in our own minds if this-is a true Opuntia. In cultivation the plant is usually grafted
on some Platyopuntia.
Variety cristata is ofered in the trade journals.
Opuntia microthele, Cereus clavarioides, and Cereus sericeus are usually given as synonyms, but all these were cited by Pfeiffer (Enum. Cact. 173. 1837) as synonyms of this
species at the place commonly given as their first publication. The varieties fasciata Schumann (Monatsschr.
Kakteenk. 10: 159. 1900), fastigiata Mundt (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 3: 30. 1893), and monstruosa Monville
(Labouret, Monogr. Cact. 489. 1853) are anomalous
greenhouse forms.
Illustrations: Gartenlora 44: f. 7; Monatsschr. Kakteenk.
3: 9; 16: 169; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 104; Gard.
Chron. III. 30: f. 75, this last as Opuntia clavarioides cristata.
Figure 87 is copied from the illustration used by
Schumann cited above.
Series 10. SALMIANAE.
This series (Frutescentes of Schumann), by some supposed to be composed of five species but here treated as Fig. 87.—Opuntia clavarioides grafted on
another species.
containing but one, is confined to central South America.
It is characterized by slender, bushy, often vine-like habit, terete branches, and red f ruit, the
latter crowned by proliferous spiny joints. Seeds are unknown. Greenhouse specimens often
resemble Opuntia leptocaulis, but the flowers are somewhat larger, and the spines are not
sheathed.
40. Opuntia salmiana Parmentier in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 172.
1837.
Opuntia spegazzinii Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 898. 1898.
Opuntia albiflora Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen Nachtr. 152. 1903.
A bushy plant, 3 dm. to 2 meters high, much branched at base; branches often weak, terete,
1.5 cm. in diameter or less, often purplish, etuberculate; areoles small, bearing wool, yellow glochids,
and spines; spines sometimes wanting, usually several, 1.5 cm. long or less, white; flowers 2 to 3.5
cm. broad, scattered along the stem; buds pinkish or even scarlet; petals obovate, pale yellow to
white, sometimes tinged with pink; stamens and style short; stigma-lobes yellowish green; fruits
sterile, clavate, scarlet, with few or no spines.
Type locality: In Brazil.
Distribution: Southern Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina.
After careful consideration, we have combined three species of Schumann’s series Frutescentes into one. We have examined considerable living material and all the illustrations,
but have found no grounds for separating the group into species. All were described as
proliferous and sterile. O. spegazzinii was supposed to be unarmed, but this
74
THE CACTACEAE.
character is not constant; lower diferences are described, but these are inconstant. One
species, O. albiflora, has already been referred to synonymy.
Opuntia salmiana is said to have come from Brazil, but no deinite locality is given for
it, and it has not been collected there in recent times. If really from Brazil, and there is no
good reason to question this reference, it is doubtless from the southern part, possibly on
the border of Paraguay; indeed, O. albiflora, one of the three, was described from a Paraguay
collection; the other, O. spegazzinii, is a native of the deserts of northern Argentina.
Cactus salmianus Lemaire (Cact. 87. 1868, name only) has been referred here as a synonym; as has also O. floribunda Lemaire (Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 68. 1839).
Opuntia schickendantzii Weber, included by Schumann in this relationship, we refer to
our series Aurantiacae.
Fig. 88.—Opuntia salmiana.
Fig. 89—O. salmiana. × 0.6.
Opuntia wagneri Weber in Gosselin (Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 393. 1904), described
without lower or fruit, is probably to be referred here; at least Roland-Gosselin believed it
to be of this group. We have not seen any of the specimens from Chaco, Argentina, obtained
by M. Emile Wagner in 1902.
Illustrations: Blühende Kakteen 3: pl. 123; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 76: pl. 4542; Fl. Serr. 7:
pl. 670; Jard. Fleur. 2: pl. 194; Loudon, Encycl. pl. ed. 3. f. 19406; Pfeifer and Otto, Abbild. Beschr. Cact. 1: pl. 6; Castle, Cactaceous plants f. 15; Blühende Kakteen 2: pl. 103,
this last as Opuntia spegazzinii; Hogg, Veg. King. 340. f. 111.
Figure 88 is from a plant in the greenhouses of the United States Department of
Agriculture at Washington; igure 89 represents a joint of a plant collected by Dr. Rose at
Córdoba, Argentina, in 1915.
75
OPUNTIA
Opuntia maldonadensis Arechavaleta, Anal. Mus. Nac. Montevideo 5: 286. 1905.
Cespitose, erect; branches cylindric, entangled or intertwined; joints 3 to 10 cm. long, about 2
cm. in diameter, the terminal ones obovate-spherical, dark green to olive-colored; areoles each surrounded by a violet blotch, small or prominent, orbicular; spines 5 or more, stout, spreading, elongated,
unequal, the longest one 2 to 2.5 cm. long, reddish to brown; flowers and fruit unknown.
Type locality: Punta Ballena, near Maldonado, Uruguay.
Distribution: Uruguay.
his species, referred to the subgenus Cylindropuntia by Arechavaleta, inhabits the coast
of Uruguay and is known to us only from description; we append it to the series Salmianae,
but its nearest relationship may be elsewhere.
Series 11. SUBULATAE.
This series is confined to South America and represents a very distinct group, differing greatly
from the tall cylindric-jointed species of North America. They lack sheaths to the spines, and the
typical species has elongated persistent leaves. Although several of the species have long been in
cultivation, at least two of them being known only from garden plants; for along time the flowers
were unknown and the plants were as frequently called Cereus or Pereskia as Opuntia.
Key to Species.
Leaves long-persisting, elongated.
Leaves up to 12 cm. long; spines yellowish white . .
Leaves I to 7 cm. long; spines brownish . . . . . . . . .
Leaves early deciduous, short.
Stem 1 meter high; leaves 4 mm. long . . . . . . . . . .
Stem 3 to 4 meters high; leaves 10 to 13 mm. long
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41. O. subulata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42. O. exaltata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43. O. pachypus
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44. O. cylindrica
41. Opuntia subulata (Mühlenpfordt) Engelmann, Gard. Chron. 1: 627.
1883.
Pereskia subulata Mühlenpfordt, Allg. Gartenz. 1: 347. 1845.
Opuntia ellemeetiana Miquel, Nederl. Krudk. Arch. 4: 337. 1858.*
Opuntia segethii Philippi, Bot. Zeit. 26: 861. 1868.
Either with a simple erect stem or with several main branches from the base, 2 to 4 meters
high; trunk 6 to 10 cm. in diameter, the old bark smooth and brown, its areoles bearing clusters
of 8 spines or more; branches numerous, more or less clustered but not whorled, at first almost
at right angles to main stem but soon erect, bright green; leaves persistent, green, nearly at right
angles to branch, straight or somewhat bowed above, nearly terete, pointed, 5 to 12.5 cm. long,
grooved on the under side; tubercles large, depressed, becoming obliterated on old branches,
arranged in longitudinal or spiral lines, more or less diamond-shaped, but retuse at apex and
pointed or attentuate below, 2 to 4 cm. long; areoles in the retuse grooves of the tubercles bearing a few short yellow spines or sometimes spineless, but usually having 1 or 2 slender spines;
flowers borne toward the ends of the branches; sepals reddish, minute, 4 to 8 mm. long or less;
petals broader than the sepals, orange or greenish yellow; style rose-red except the whitish base,
including the stigma-lobes about 3 cm. long, about as long as the longest stamens; stigma-lobes
5 or 6, slender, orange-yellow; fruit oblong, more or less persistent, 6 to 10 cm. long, leafy, with
a deep umbilicus, sometimes proliferous; seeds few, 10 to 12 mm. long.
Type locality: Valparaiso, Chile, but doubtless described from cultivated plants.
Distribution: Chile is usually given as the home of this plant, but it is not found wild
there. It may be a native in Argentina.
his species has long been in cultivation, it having originally been sent from Valparaiso,
but Dr. Rose did not ind it wild there or in any other part of Chile. It is rarely seen
in cultivation in Chile. For many years it passed as a species of Pereskia, but in 1883 Dr.
George Engelmann pointed out that it could not be retained in that genus and transferred
it to Opuntia. he leaves are the largest in the genus, and it has larger seeds than any other
Opuntia.
We have referred Opuntia ellemeetiana (originally described from Chile), a species with
very long leaves, to O. subulata, although we have never seen specimens. Schumann did not
know it and only lists it.
*Schumann says 1859.
76
THE CACTACEAE.
We have been able more deinitely to refer here Opuntia segethii, for we saw not only
Philippi’s type specimens in his herbarium, but also living specimens grown from Philippi’s
original stock. he type specimen was from plants cultivated at Santiago, but in a later publication he states that his species grows spontaneously near Arequipa. A part of this latter
material is preserved in his herbarium at Santiago, which Dr. Rose was able to study; he
also examined the Arequipa plant alive, and is convinced that it is quite diferent, being the
plant common in Peru and Bolivia described below as Opuntia exaltata.
Illustrations: Engler and Prantl, Planzenfam. 36a: f. 56, L; Gard. Chron. III. 34: 1. 33,
38; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 8: 7; 9: 183; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 103; Neub. Gart.
Mag. 1893: 291, this as Pereskia subulata; Bot. Zeit. 26: pl. 13, C. f. 1; Gartenlora 32: pl.
1129, f. 5, the last two as Opuntia segethii.
Figure 90 is from a photograph of a plant
at the New York Botanical Garden grown from
a cutting brought by Mrs. H. L. Britton from
the Riviera, Italy, in 1907.
42. Opuntia exaltata Berger, Hort. Mortol. 410.
1912.
Stem 2 to 5 meters high, with a definite trunk
5 to 30 cm. in diameter when well grown, much
branched; ultimate joints fleshy, easily detached,
somewhat curved upward, clavate, strongly tuberculate; tubercles large, 1.5 to 3 cm. long, more or
less diamond-shaped, elevated, and rounded; areoles
rounded, filled with short white wool; glochids
often wanting, when present brown; leaves fleshy,
terete, 1 to 7 cm. long; spines on young joints 1 to
5, mostly 1 to 3, dark yellow or brownish, unequal,
the longest ones 5 cm. long; spines on old wood
numerous, sometimes 12 or more, often 13 cm.
long, brown, with roughened tips; flowers, including
ovaries, 7 cm. long; sepals and petals brick-red;
outer sepals ovate, small, the inner ones passing
into petals; petals 2 cm. long, broadly obovate
to broadly spatulate, sometimes nearly truncate
at apex; stamens numerous, short, pinkish above,
nearly white below; style swollen below, pinkish;
stigma-lobes greenish; ovary 4 cm. long, deeply
umbilicate, with barge flat tubercles; areoles on
ovary circular, fibbed with short brown and white
wool, bong, loosely attached brown spines, and a few
shorter glochids, and subtended by small, tardily deciduous leaves; fruit greens pear-shaped, 9 cm. long,
usually sterile; seeds large, irregular, 10 mm. broad.
Fig. 90.—Opuntia subulata.
Type locality: Not cited; described from cultivated plants.
Distribution: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and probably northern Chile.
his Opuntia is called pataquisca by the Cuzco and Arequipa Indians, and is also known
as espina.
his species was the most widely distributed Opuntia seen by Dr. Rose on the west
coast of South America; but it is diicult to decide whether it is really native there, for it
is widely cultivated as a hedge plant in many places. It seems to be native along the upper
Rimac of central Peru; at least it is well established on the hills. Although very common
in southern Peru and about La Paz, Bolivia, it is probably introduced for it grows only
about towns and cultivated ields and seems never to produce fertile fruit. About Cuzco it
is likewise cultivated, but maybe a native there also, for the fruit is generally fertile.
BRITTON AND ROSE
P L AT E X I I I
1. Opuntia fulgida as seen in the highlands of Peru.
2. Clump of Opuntia spinosior as it grows in the valleys of the Andes of eastern Peru.
77
OPUNTIA
Opuntia maxillare Roezl (Morren, Belg. Hort. 24: 39. 1874), published without description and probably collected in the high mountains above Lima, may belong here.
Opuntia cumingii, of European gardens, belongs here. It was briely mentioned in the
journal of the Berlin Cactus Society (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 7: 160. 1897), but not formally
described. Schumann referred it to O. pentlandii.
his species is near Opuntia subulata, but probably is distinct, although it is not always
easy to distinguish them in greenhouse plants. Berger speaks of the similarity of the two
as follows:
“This new species stands very close to O. subulata, and may be easily mistaken for it, but
when grown side by side the differences are quite obvious. O. exaltata is a taller plant with
generally longer branches, and somewhat glaucous instead of grass-green. The tubercles are more
elongated and differently marked. The leaves are shorter, the spines, when young, are not white,
but yellowish brown, generally stouter and stiffer. I have not yet seen a
flower of it. It is an old inhabitant of our gardens.”
Plate xiii, figure 1, is f rom a photograph taken by Hiram
Bingham, July 7, 1912, near Tipon, Cuzco Valley, Peru, showing
the plant near the upper left-hand corner; plate xv, figure 1, represents a leaf-bearing joint of a plant sent to the New York Botanical
Garden f rom La Mortola, Italy, in 1915; figure 2 represents the
lower part of a f ruiting branch obtained by Dr. Rose at Cuzco,
Peru, in 1914.
43. Opuntia pachypus Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 14: 26.
1904.
Plant about 1 meter high, much branched and candelabrum-like; branches
cylindric, 3 to 5 cm. in diameter, either straight or curved, marked with
broad tubercles; leaves subulate, pointed, constricted at the base, 4 mm. long,
early deciduous; areoles circular, borne at the upper edges of the tubercles, 4
mm. in diameter, filled with short wool; spines 20 to 30, subulate, 5 to 20
mm. long; glochids yellow; flowers scarlet, 7 cm. long, including the ovary;
petals variable, the longest ones 1.4 cm. long; style very thick, 9 mm. long;
stigma-lobes 5 mm. long; ovary more or less spiny.
Type locality: Near Santa Clara, Peru.
Distribution: Central Peru, near the coast.
We know this species only from the description and illustrations.
In 1914 Dr. Rose made several unsuccessful eforts to ind it at Santa
Clara, the type locality.
Fig. 91.—Opuntia pachypus.
Illustrations: Engler and Drude, Veg. Erde 12: pl. 5b Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 14: 27.
Figure 91 is copied from the second illustration above cited.
44. Opuntia cylindrica (Lamarck) De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 471.
1828.
Cactus cylindricus Lamarck, Encycl. 1: 539. 1783.
Cereus cylindricus Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 183. 1812.
More or less branched, 3 to 4 meters high, the old trunk becoming smooth; joints cylindric,
obtuse at apex, green, with slightly elevated tubercles; leaves deciduous, 10 to 13 mm. long, terete,
acute; areoles depressed, filled with white wool, bearing some long hairs and at first 2 or 3, afterwards
more, short white spines (spines often wanting on greenhouse plants); flowers appearing just below
the ends of the terminal branches, small, inconspicuous, about 2.5 cm. broad, scarlet; petals small,
erect, obtuse; stamens numerous; style slender, 2.5 cm. long; ovary strongly tuberculate, depressed at
apex; fruit about 5 cm. long, yellowish green; seeds more or less angled, 4 to 6 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: In Peru.
Distribution: Highlands of Ecuador and Peru.
he home of this species is usually given by recent writers as Chile, but Lamarck, who
described it irst in 1783, said it came from Peru. Dr. Rose, who visited Peru and Chile in
78
THE CACTACEAE.
1914, was not able to ind it wild in either country but found it abundant in Ecuador, in
1918. his species was introduced into England in 1799, but lowers were not known until
about 1834.
here are two abnormal forms in cultivation which are ofered under the names variety cristata and monstruosa. Several varieties of this species are given in catalogues: cristata
(Haage and Schmidt, Haupt-Verzeichnis 1908: 228. 1908); cristata minor Haage and Schmidt
(Verzeichnis Blumenzwiebeln 1913: 37. 1913); and robustior (Haage and Schmidt, HauptVerzeichnis 1908: 228. 1908).
Illustration: Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 61: pl. 3301; Carnegie Inst. Wash. 269: pl. 10, f. 88.
Plate xiv, igure 2, shows a leaf-bearing top of a plant grown at the New York Botanical Garden.
Series 12. MIQUELIANAE.
Bushy plants, with elongated cylindric bluish joints; tubercles large, elevated; leaves minute, early
deciduous. The series consists of but one species, confined to the deserts of northern Chile.
45. Opuntia miquelii Monville, Hort. Univ. 1: 218.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
184o.*
pulverulenta Pfeiffer, Allg. Gartenz. 8: 407. 1840.
pulverulenta miquelii Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 49. 1845.
geissei Philippi, Anal. Univ. Chile 85: 492. 1894.
rosiflora Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 686. 1898.
Often growing in colonies 2 to 5 meters broad; stems cylindric, much branched, usually less
than I meter high, but occasionally 1.5 meters high, with numerous lateral branches; branches
rather short, usually only 8 to 20 cm. long, thick (5 to 6 cm. in diameter); old branches bluish
green, with low tubercles sometimes 2 cm. long; young joints bright green, with high tubercles
flattened laterally; spines tardily developing, but formidable on old branches, very unequal, in
clusters of 10 or more, the longest ones nearly 10 cm. long, whitish in age; glochids numerous,
brownish, caducous; leaves minute, 2 to 3 mm. long; areoles circular, when young filled with
white wool, in age somewhat elevated on the areoles; flowers rather variable in length, to 8 cm.
long including the ovary, rose-colored to nearly white; petals broad, apiculate, 2 to 2.5 cm. long;
filaments rose-colored; ovary strongly tuberculate; areoles filled with numerous brown glochids
and subtended by minute leaves; style white; stigma-lobes green; fruit ovoid to oblong in outline,
nearly white; umbilicus truncate; seeds small, 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: In South America, but no deinite locality.
Distribution: Province of Atacama, Chile.
Opuntia miquelii and O. pulverulenta have long been considered identical. We have not
seen the types of either, but are following such authorities as Salm-Dyck (in 1850), Labouret (1853), and Rümpler (1885) in uniting them. hey seem to have been published in
the same year.
Opuntia geissei, according to a statement made to Dr. Rose by Juan Söhrens, of Santiago, is the same as O. miquelii, and this the former was able to verify by later herbarium
and ield studies.
Opuntia rosiflora Schumann was based on Philippi’s unpublished name O. rosea; while
O. rosea was made by Philippi the type of O. geissei. his is clearly shown by Philippi’s
herbarium, where he has erased the name O. rosea and substituted O. geissei. Dr. Rose also
obtained from William Geisse a part of Philippi’s original specimen, which came, as the label
states, from near Bandurrias, in the valley of Carrizal, in the Province of Atacama. Later
on, while making ield observations in Atacama, Dr. Rose found this species very common
from north of Castillo to Vallenar. his is in the general region of O. geissei (O. rosea and
O. rosiflora) and in the river valley of the Huasco. Huasco, the type locality of O. miquelii,
is 25 miles lower down this valley, and we have no hesitancy in uniting them all.
Although this species is not uncommon in cultivation, it has rarely been seen in lower,
and we believe that the fruit has not heretofore been described.
*Schumann states that this book was published in 1839.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XIV
M. E. Eaton del.
1.
2.
Flowering branch of Opuntia burrageana.
3, 4. Joints of Opuntia stanlyi.
Opuntia cylindrica.
. Flowering joint of Opuntia macrorhiza.
(All natural size.)
A HOEN & CO
79
OPUNTIA
Dr. Rose observed a single plant infested by Loranthus aphyllus, the parasite which is
so abundant on Cereus chiloensis.
Opuntia heteromorpha Philippi (Anal. Mus. Nac. Chile 18912: 28. 1891) we refer here
on the authority of Schumann, but we have seen no specimens, the type specimen being
missing from the Philippi herbarium in Santiago; it was collected at Chiquito, Tarapaca,
Chile.
Dr. Weber thought that Opuntia segethii belonged here, but we have referred it to O.
subulata.
Opuntia carrizalensis Philippi is only mentioned by Schumann (Gesamtb. Kakteen Nachtr.
152. 1903). It is doubtless to be referred here.
Plate xvi, igure 1, is from a plant collected by Dr. Rose at Vallenar, Chile, in 1914.
Series 13. CLAVATAE.
Here we include nine prostrate or spreading, low species, natives of the southwestern United
States and Mexico, characterized by clavate joints and by sheathless spines, although rudimentary
sheaths have been observed on young spines in some of the species; they appear to form a transition between the subgenus Cylindropuntia and the South American subgenus Tephrocactus, from
which they differ essentially in having clavate joints.
Key to Species.
Spines flattened.
Stems very stout.
Stems hardly clavate; ovary very prickly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stems strictly clavate; ovary only slightly prickly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stems more slender and weak.
Spines brown, slender, long (4 to 6 cm. long) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines stout, white, when old very flat.
Bristles on ovary and f ruit white . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bristles on ovary and f ruit brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines terete, elongated, and flexible, or the central ones somewhat flattened.
Flowers pinkish or purple.
Bristles on ovary numerous, brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bristles on ovary few, white . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers yellow.
Spines comparatively short, swollen at base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines long and flexible, not swollen at base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46. O. invicta
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47. O. stanlyi
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48. O. schottii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49. O. clavata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50. O. parishii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51. O. pulchella
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52. O. vilis
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53. O. bulbispina
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54. O. grahamii
46. Opuntia invicta Brandegee, Proc. Calif. Acad. II. 2: 163. 1889.
Plants growing in large clusters 2 meters in diameter and 2 to 5 dm. high, with many ascending or spreading branches; joints obovoid to clavate, dark green, 8 to 10 cm. long, strongly
tuberculate; tubercles large, flattened laterally, 3 to 4 cm. long; areoles large, 1 to 1.5 cm. in
diameter; leaves linear, 8 to 14 mm. long, reddish, curved, acute, deciduous; spines very formidable, when young reddish or purple with carmine-red bases, chestnut-brown at tips and grayish
between, but in age dull in color; radial spines 6 to 10; central spines 10 to 12, much stouter
than the radials, strongly flattened; wool white; glochids few, white, 2 to 4 mm. long; flowers
yellow, 5 cm. in diameter; sepals ovate, acuminate; ovary 2 cm. in diameter, almost hidden by the
numerous reddish, acicular spines; seeds yellowish, 2 mm. broad.
Type locality: About San Juanico, Lower California.
Distribution: Central Lower California, at low elevations.
Mr. Brandegee has called attention to the strong resemblance in habit of this species
to some of the species of Echinocereus, and Dr. Rose states that when he irst saw it he
supposed it to be some strange Echinocereus. It grows in great tufted masses and does not
suggest in the remotest degree any of our North American opuntias. he species clearly
belongs to Engelmann’s series Clavatae, where it was placed by Schumann, who associated
it with O. cereiformis, but it is undoubtedly much nearer to O. stanlyi. So far as we know,
the plant has never been in the trade; it does not succeed well in cultivation. Considerable
living material was brought back by the Albatross in 1911, most of which was sent to the
New York Botanical Garden; but some of the plants were sent to collections at St. Louis,
Washington, and Los Angeles.
Illustration: Cact. Journ. 1: February.
80
THE CACTACEAE.
Plate xvi, igure 2, represents a plant collected by Dr. Rose at San Francisquito, Lower
California, in 1911.
47. Opuntia stanlyi Engelmann in Emory, Mil. Reconn. 158.
1848.
Opuntia emoryi Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 303. 1856.
Opuntia kunzei Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 505. 1908.
Stems low, usually less than 3 dm. high, much branched, creeping, forming broad, impenetrable
masses 2 to 3 meters in diameter; joints 10 to 15 cm. long, clavate, more or less curved, strongly
tuberculate; tubercles 3 to 4 cm. long, flattened laterally, 4 to 6 cm. apart; spines numerous, stout,
elongated, somewhat roughened, reddish brown, the larger ones strongly flattened, 3.5 to 6 cm.
long; flowers yellow, 5 to 6 cm. broad; fruit ovate, clavate at base, yellow, 5 to 6 cm. long, very
spiny, with a depressed umbilicus; seeds flattened, 4.5 to 6.5 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: On the del Norte and Gila, New Mexico.
Distribution: Southwestern New Mexico to eastern Arizona and adjacent Mexico.
O. stanlyi was irst found October 22, 1846, by W. H. Emory on his irst trip across the
continent; he reported the plant as abundant on the Del Norte and Gila. here has been
much speculation as to what this species is, for no specimens were preserved. Dr. George
Engelmann, who named the species, based it upon a sketch made by the artist of the expedition, Mr. J. M. Stanly. By a reference to Emory’s itinerary we ind that on October
22, 1846, he was in southwestern New Mexico. In 1908 Dr. Rose visited this region where
he collected the various species of cacti to be found there. he only plant which we know
from that part of New Mexico which could represent O. stanlyi is Opuntia emoryi; this was
the conclusion reached by Wooton and Standley, who, in their Flora of New Mexico, have
restored the name O. stanlyi.
We have referred Opuntia kunzei here because recent specimens sent in by Dr. Kunze
have taken on a phase very much like the true O. stanlyi. here is a possibility that O. kunzei should be maintained, for we are not altogether convinced that certain material we have
seen should be merged into O. stanlyi. To clear up this point, it is hoped that someone will
collect and preserve a full series of specimens showing lowers, fruits, and seeds.
Illustrations: Emory, Mil. Reconn. App. 2. f. 9; Amer. Garden 11: 531?; Cact. Journ. 1:
154; Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 70, 71, these last three as Opuntia emoryi; Hornaday, Campires
on Desert and Lava opp. p. 116, this as Opuntia kunzei.
Plate xiv, igure 3, represents a plant collected by Dr. R. E. Kunze near Gunsight
Mountains, Arizona, in 1912; igure 4 shows a leaf-bearing joint of the same plant.
48. Opuntia schottii Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 304. 1856.
Prostrate, rooting from the areoles, forming dense clusters sometimes 2 or 3 meters in diameter; joints clavate, curved, ascending, easily breaking off, 6 to 7 cm. long, 2 cm. in diameter
at thickest part, strongly tuberculate; leaves subulate, bronze-colored, 6 to 8 mm. long, acuminate;
areoles 1 to 1.5 cm. apart; spines white and sheathed when young, soon brown, the larger ones
sometimes as many as 12, very slender, sometimes 6 cm. long, somewhat flattened; wool white
when young, turning brown; glochids white when young, turning brown, 4 mm. long or less; flowers yellow, 4 cm. long including ovary; sepals narrow, acuminate; petals acuminate; fruit yellow,
narrowly oblong in outline, a little narrowed at base, 4 cm. long, closely set with areoles bearing
numerous short spines, bristles, and white wool, the umbilicus depressed; seeds yellow, flattened,
4 mm. in diameter, notched at base.
Type locality: Arid soil near the mouth of the San Pedro and Pecos, western Texas.
Distribution: Southern and western Texas and northern Mexico.
Opuntia schottii greggii Engelmann (Cact. Mex. Bound. 68. pl. 73, f. 4. 1859), which came
from near San Luis Potosí, Mexico, where it was collected by Dr. J. Gregg, in December
1848, is much out of the range of the normal form and probably belongs elsewhere; but no
specimens have been examined except the type, which is fragmentary. Engelmann at irst
considered it a distinct species.
Illustration: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 73, f. 1 to 3.
Figure 92 represents joints of a plant collected by Dr. Rose at Langtry, Texas, in 1908.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XV
A HOEN & CO
M. E. Eaton del.
1, 2. Parts of joints of Opuntia exaltata.
3. Upper part of joints of Opuntia macrarthra.
2. Upper part of joints of Opuntia tortispina. (All natural size.)
81
OPUNTIA
49. Opuntia clavata Engelmann in Wislizenus, Mem. Tour North. Mex. 95.
1848.
Plants low, not over 1.5 dm. high, much branched at base, spreading, forming large patches
sometimes 2 meters in diameter; joints short, 3 to 7 cm. long, turgid, ascending, clavate; areoles
close together; leaves subulate, 4 to 5 mm. long; spines pale, somewhat roughened, the radial
ones 6 to 12, slender and acicular, 4 to 16 mm. long; central spines 4 to 7, much longer than
the radials, more or less flattened, the largest one dagger-like; glochids numerous, yellowish, 3
to 5 mm. long; flowers yellow, 3.5 to 4 cm. long; f ruit 4 to 5 cm. long, with numerous areoles
filled with yellow, radiating glochids; seeds white, 5 mm. broad.
Type locality: Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Distribution: New Mexico, chiely in the central part of the State.
his is one of the most characteristic species of the genus and has no near relative except
O. parishii, of the deserts of California and Nevada. It is a great pest to grazing stock.
Illustrations: Bull. Agr. Exper. Station N. Mex. 78: pl. [1, 2], Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 22, f.
1 to 3; pl. 24, f. 6.
Figure 93 represents joints of a plant collected by W. T. H. Long at Albuquerque, New
Mexico, in 1915.
Fig. 92.—Opuntia schottii.
× 0.75.
Fig. 93.—Opuntia clavata.
50. Opuntia parishii Orcutt, West Amer. Sci. 10: 81.
× 0.75
1896.
Stems low, creeping, rooting along the under surface and forming dense, broad clusters;
terminal joints short, clavate, ascending but almost hidden under the dense armament; tubercles
prominent but short, 5 to 7 mm. long; spines at first reddish but soon grayish and finally nearly
white; radial spines numerous, slender; central spines about 4, strongly angled and more or less
flattened, 2 to 4 cm. long; glochids numerous; flowers not known; fruit 5 cm. long, the numerous
large areoles bearing many long yellow glochids and short spines forming a radiating band about
the margin; seeds dark, 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: Mohave Desert.
Distribution: Southern California and Nevada.
he species here described is the Opuntia parryi as described by Engelmann in 1856,
although he then suspected it was diferent from that species. It has been renamed Opuntia
parishii by Orcutt, who wrote as follows:
“We propose this name for that interesting plant of the Mohave desert region, hitherto called
O. parryi, and under which it has been well described. The Messrs. Parish have hardly earned this
light honor in many laborious trips through these desert regions, and I take pleasure in dedicating
this species to them; Opuntia parryi (type from San Felipe), along with bernardina and echinocarpa,
and a bewildering host of nameless forms, I unhesitatingly class under serpentina!”
Illustrations: Cact. Journ. 1: 132; N. Amer. Fauna 7: pl. 10; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 22, f. 4
to 7; pl. 24, f. 7, all as Opuntia parryi.
Figure 94 represents joints of a plant collected by S. B. Parish in southern California.
82
THE CACTACEAE.
51. Opuntia pulchella Engelmann, Trans. St. Louis Acad. 2: 201.
1863.
Low, 10 to 20 cm. high, densely branched, sometimes forming compact heads 6 dm. in diameter; main stem more or less definite, covered with areoles bearing yellow glochids 10 to 12
mm. long; lateral joints 5 to 6 cm. long, narrowly clavate, strongly tuberculate, purplish; areoles
6 to 8 mm. apart, 2 to 3 mm. broad; spines 10 to 16, slender, reddish, the longer ones 5 to 6
cm. long, somewhat flattened; flower 5 cm. long, when open, fully as broad; petals purple, 3 cm.
long; ovary 2 cm. long, bearing numerous areoles filled with white wool and purple glochids 10
to 12 mm. long; fruit about 2.5 cm. long; seeds (according to Coulter) thick and round, 4 mm.
in diameter, with broad flat commissure.
Type locality: Sandy deserts on Walker River, Nevada.
Distribution: Nevada and Arizona.
he plant was irst collected by Henry Engelmann in 1859, and brought to his brother,
Dr. George Engelmann. he species does not succeed well in cultivation under glass.
Illustration: Simpson’s Rep. pl. 3.
Figure 95 is from an herbarium specimen collected by homas H. Means at Fallon,
Churchill County, Nevada, in 1909.
Fig. 94.—Opuntia parishii.
× 0.66.
52. Opuntia vilis Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 293.
Fig. 95.—Opuntia pulchella.
× 0.66.
1909.
Low, creeping, often forming mats several meters in diameter and only 10 to 15 cm. high;
joints prostrate, becoming erect or ascending, the ultimate vertical ones clavate, 5 cm. long, the
others 2 to 4 cm. long, very turgid, pale green, with low tubercles; leaves terete, 2 to 3 mm. long,
acute, red; young areoles bearing white wool; radial spines upward of 12, the number increasing
with age by the addition of very small whitish ones; central spines on prostrate joints 4, reddish,
white-tipped, 1 to 4 cm. long, terete, slightly scabrous, with a sheath 5 mm. long, those of clavate
joints white, reddish on the upper surface at the base, and along the whole of the lower surface
flattened; flowers 4 cm. long; petals brilliant purplish, 2 cm. long; filaments bright yellow with
green bases; style white; stigma-lobes yellow; fruit pale green, blackening in drying, 2 to 2.5 cm.
in diameter, 2.5 to 3 cm. long, tuberculate, especially about the margin of the umbilicus, spiny,
fluted above, somewhat dry, with large white seeds.
Type locality: Foot-slopes and plains of Zacatecas, Mexico.
Distribution: State of Zacatecas, Mexico.
Illustrations: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: pl. 27; f. 36.
Figure 96 is from a photograph of the type plant taken by F. E. Lloyd in Zacatecas,
Mexico, in 1907.
83
OPUNTIA
Fig. 96.—Opuntia vilis.
53. Opuntia bulbispina Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 304.
1856.
Stems low, forming wide-spreading clumps 6 to 12 dm. broad; joints ovoid in outline, 2 to 2.5
cm. long by 10 to 12 mm. in diameter; tubercles prominent, 6 to 8 mm. long; radial spines 8 to
12, acicular, 3 to 6 mm. long; central spines 4, much stouter than the radials, 8 to 12 mm. long,
bulbose at base; flower and fruit not described in original description and as yet unknown.
Type locality: Near Perros Bravos, north of Saltillo,
Mexico.
Distribution: Coahuila and probably into Durango,
Mexico.
The type of this species was collected by Josiah
Gregg in 1848 and it has not with certainty been found
since; it has been reported f rom one or two localities,
but doubtless erroneously. At one time we supposed
certain plants collected by Dr. Palmer in Chihuahua
were to be thus referred. It is possible that specimens
collected by Dr. Chaffey near Lerdo, Durango, may
be referred here, as they have the short joints of this
species, but the central spines are much longer, often
reaching 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long. The type is deposited in
the Engelmann Herbarium at St. Louis, and although
the material is poor, it may yet serve to clear up this
species definitely.
As stated by Coulter, this species has been regarded
as the same as O. tunicata, a plant to which it is very
remotely related.
Illustration: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 73, f. 5, 6.
Figure 97 is copied from the illustration above cited.
Fig. 97.—Opuntia bulbispina.
54. Opuntia grahamii Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3:
304. 1856.
Roots at irst thick and leshy, becoming woody, 2 cm. thick or more; plant low, much branched,
spreading, forming low mounds often half buried in the sand, sometimes giving of roots at the areoles;
terminal joints erect, clavate, bright green, 3 to 5 cm. long, with large oblong tubercles; leaves thick,
bronze-colored, ovate, acute, 3 to 4 mm. long; areoles about 3 mm. broad; wool white; spines 8 to
15, slender, slightly scabrous, terete or some of the larger ones slightly compressed, white when young,
soon reddish, the longest 3.5 to 6 cm. long; glochids numerous, slender, 4 mm. long or less, white,
84
THE CACTACEAE.
turning brown, persistent on the old stems; lowers yellow, 5 cm. broad; sepals ovate, acute, about 5
mm. long; fruit oblong to ovoid, 3 to 4.5 cm. long, its numerous areoles bearing white glochids and
some slender spines; seeds beakless, 5 to 5.5 mm. in diameter, the commissure indistinct, linear.
Type locality: Near El Paso, Texas.
Distribution: Western Texas, New Mexico, and
adjacent parts of Mexico.
This species was named for James Duncan Graham, Colonel, Corps of Engineers, United States
Army, who died December 28, 1865, at Boston,
Massachusetts. Colonel Graham was for a time
chief of the scientific corps of the United States
and Mexican Boundary Commission, and caused the
Fig. 98.—Opuntia grahamii. × 0.75.
specimens of this plant to be transmitted to Dr.
George Engelmann.
he plant succeeds rather well in cultivation under glass.
Illustrations: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 72; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 102.
Figure 98 represents joints of a plant collected by Dr. Rose on hills near Sierra Blanca,
Texas, in 1913.
Subgenus 2. TEPHROCACTUS.
Includes all the South American species of Opuntia which have short, oblong, or globular
joints. It is hardly to be distinguished from the North American series Clavatae. Four series are
recognized. The plants are confined to Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. (See key to series, p. 44.)
Series 1. WEBERIANAE.
Plants low, forming dense clumps; joints subcylindric, strongly tuberculate and bearing numerous spines. This series suggests Platyopuntia, while the other series show closer relationship with
the Cylindropuntia. Only one species known, inhabiting the dry part of northern Argentina.
55. Opuntia weberi Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 509. 1905.
Densely cespitose, forming clumps 2 to 3 dm. in diameter and 10 to 18 cm. high; joints
yellowish green, erect, cylindric, strongly tuberculate, 2 to 6 cm. long, 1.5 to 2 cm. in diameter,
Fig. 99.—Opuntia weberi as it grows wild.
OPUNTIA
85
densely spiny; leaves described as wanting; tubercles spirally, arranged, obtuse, somewhat 4-angled,
5 to 6 mm. broad; areoles somewhat depressed; spines 5 to 7, brown, 3 to 5 cm. long, flexuous,
the upper ones erect; flowers borne near the top of the plant, small, solitary; ovary, somewhat
woolly below and with short spines above; flower rotate, yellow; fruit dry, white, 10 mm. in diameter; seeds somewhat contorted, bony, glabrous.
Type locality: In Sierra Pie de Palo, Province of San Juan, Argentina.
Distribution: Mountains of Provinces of San Juan and Salta, Argentina.
his description, though largely drawn from Dr. Spegazzini’s full account of this species, has been ampliied from examination made of the type. Dr. Spegazzini refers it to the
Fig. 100.—Opuntia weberi. Natural size.
subgenus Tephrocactus, and we have followed him in this; but it difers widely from any
other known species of that group and its true ainity may be elsewhere. If the plant is
lealess, as Dr. Spegazzini’s description implies, this is a most interesting exception to the
character of Opuntia.
Figure 99 is from a photograph of the plant at Molinos, Argentina; igure 100 is from
a photograph of the type specimen in the collection of Dr. Spegazzini, to whom we are
indebted for both of these illustrations.
86
THE CACTACEAE.
Series 2. FLOCCOSAE.
Low plants, forming dense clumps or mounds; joints short, thick, and fleshy, usually covered
with long, white, silky hairs. The two species are common in the high valleys of the Andes of
Peru and Bolivia.
Key to Species.
Spines yellow, stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56. O. floccosa
Spines white, acicular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57. O. lagopus
56. Opuntia floccosa Salm-Dyck, Allg. Gartenz. 13: 388.
1845.
Opuntia senilis Roezl in Morren, Belg. Hort. 24: 39. 1874.
Opuntia floccosa denudata Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 897. 1898.
Opuntia hempeliana Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 690. 1898.
Plant growing in clumps or low mounds sometimes 1 to 2 meters in diameter, with hundreds
of short, erect branches; joints oblong, 5 to 10 cm. long, usually hidden under a mass of long white
hairs coming from the areoles; spines usually one from an areole, sometimes as many as three, yellow, 1 to 3 cm. long; leaves minute, green or pinkish; tubercles somewhat elevated, elongated; lowers, small, 3 cm. long, yellow; fruit globular, 3 cm. in diameter: seeds 4 mm. in diameter, with very
narrow margins.
Fig. 101.—Opuntia floccosa.
Type locality: Said to be from vicinity of Lima, Peru, but doubtless only from the high
mountains east of Lima.
Distribution: High mountain valleys and hills of the Andes from central Peru to central
Bolivia.
O. floccosa is one of the most unusual and striking species of all the opuntias. One who
is familiar only with the opuntias of North America would not suspect that it belongs to
the genus. It does not grow on the hot mesas in the low country, as one would expect, but
in the high, cold valleys and hills near the top of the Andes. he following paragraph, taken
from John Ball’s notes, is interesting in this connection:
Reserving some remarks on the botany of this excursion, there is yet to be mentioned here
one plant of the upper region so singular that it must attract the notice of every traveler. As we
ascended from Casapalta we noticed patches of white, which from a distance looked like snow.
87
OPUNTIA
Seen nearer at hand, they had the appearance of large, rounded, flattened cushions, some five or
six feet in diameter, and a foot high, covered with dense masses of floss silk that glistened with
a silvery lustre. The unwary stranger who should be tempted to use one of these for a seat would
suffer from the experiment. The plant is of the cactus family, and the silky covering conceals a
host of long, slender, needle-like spines, that penetrate the flesh, easily break, and are most difficult
to extract. Unfortunately, the living specimen which I sent to Kew did not survive the journey.
Dr. Rose found the plant very abundant in the Andes from 3,600 to 4,260 meters
altitude, while others have reported it as high as 4,570 meters altitude. It is very common,
forming everywhere great, conspicuous, usually white mounds. Dr. Rose also found it quite
common between Cuzco and Juliaca, in southwestern Peru.
Mr. 0. F. Cook, in the Journal of Heredity (8: 113. 1917), who has named this plant
the polar bear cactus, wrote of it as follows:
Many exposed slopes on the bleak plateaus of the high Andes are dotted with clumps of pure
white cacti that look from a distance like small masses of snow. On closer view, the shaggy white
hair of these cacti make them appear like small sheep or poodle-dogs, or like reduced caricatures
of the denizens of the arctic regions. We are so accustomed to think of cacti primarily as desert
plants, peculiarly adapted to hot, dry deserts, that they seem distinctly out of place on the cold
plateaus of the high Andes of southern Peru.
While most of the plants are covered with long white hairs, plants without hairs are
not uncommon. hese naked plants, which are characteristic of the whole clump or colony,
appear at irst sight very unlike the other forms, but they grow in the same region and
have the same kind of lowers and fruits. In cultivated plants few hairs are developed. he
variety denudata Weber seems to be only one of these naked forms.
Opuntia involuta Otto (Förster, Handb. Cact. 505. 1846) was not published, but was
given as a synonym of this species. It was used the year before (Salm-Dyck, Allg. Gartenz.
13: 388. 1845) as a synonym of O. vestita.
Illustrations: Engler and Drude, Veg. Erde 12: pl. 14; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 11: 41, 44,
these last two as Opuntia hempeliana; Journ. Heredity 8: f. 3 to 8.
Plate xiii, igure 2, is from a photograph taken by Mr. O. F. Cook in the high mountains of eastern Peru. Figure 101 is from a photograph of a fragment of the plant collected
by Dr. Rose in 1914, at Araranca, Peru.
57. Opuntia lagopus Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen Nachtr. 151.
1903.
Plants cespitose, growing in compact mounds; joints stout, cylindric, 10 cm. long, 3 to 3.5
cm. in diameter, densely covered with long white hairs; leaves minute, hidden under the wool, 7
mm. long; spines solitary, white, 2 cm. long, slender; glochids white, bristle-like; flowers probably
red; fruit not known.
Type locality: Mountains of Bolivia above Arequipa, Peru.
Distribution: On the plains of the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia (altitude 4,000
meters).
his species is related to O. floccosa, with which it often grows, but it takes on a very
diferent habit, growing in very dense, peculiar rounded mounds much higher than those
formed by O. floccosa.
Illustration: Engler and Drude, Veg. Erde 12: pl. 14.
Figure 102 is from a photograph by H. L. Tucker, near Laxsa, Peru, in 1911.
Series 3. GLOMERATAE.
Plants low, composed of globose or oblong joints, the spines, or some of them, modified into
flat papery processes. We recognize two species, confined to western Argentina.
Key to Species.
Central spines papery; radial spines subulate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58. O. australis
Spines, when present, all developed into long papery processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59. O. glomerata
88
THE CACTACEAE.
Fig. 102.—Opuntia lagopus, growing in a mound.
58. Opuntia australis Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois
896. 1898.
Pterocactus valentinii Spegazzini, Anal. Soc.
Cient. Argentina 48: 51. 1899.
Plants often with large roots, these 5 to 8
cm. long by 2 to 3 cm. in diameter and larger
than the parts above ground; joints described
as cucumber-shaped, usually 6 to 8 cm. long
by 1 to 2 cm. in diameter, but apparently often
much smaller, tuberculate; radial spines 10 to 15,
spreading, white, short, 3 to 4 cm. long; central
spines 1 or 2, much longer than the radials, 2
cm. long, erect, flattened, and somewhat papery;
flowers yellow, 2 to 3 cm. broad; seeds said to
be rugose.
Type locality: Between Santa Cruz River
and the Strait of Magellan, Argentina.
Distribution: he southernmost parts of
Argentina.
We have recently examined three collections of this plant made by Carl Skottsberg in the Territory of Santa Cruz, which in
the main agree with Weber’s description. We Fig. 103.—Opuntia australis. Showing large roots, joints,
and flower. Natural size.
have also seen Pterocactus valentinii, which is
the same as Skottsberg’s plant.
Dr. Spegazzini records this species as being in Santa Cruz, Argentina; but as he regards
the plant collected there by him as only a variety of O. darwinii, we are inclined to believe
he must have collected something else.
his species, which is found at the Strait of Magellan, extends farther south than any
other cactus known to us.
89
OPUNTIA
Figure 103 is from a photograph of an herbarium specimen collected by Carl Skottsberg
in the Territory of Santa Cruz, Patagonia, in 1908.
59. Opuntia glomerata Haworth, Phil. Mag. 7: 111.
1830.
Opuntia articulata Otto, Allg. Gartenz. 1: 116. 1833.
Cereus articulatus Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 103. 1837.
Cereus syringacanthus Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 103. 1837.
Opuntia platyacantha Salm-Dyck in Pfeiffer, Allg. Gartenz. 5: 371. 1837.
Opuntia tuberosa spinosa Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 146. 1837.
Opuntia andicola Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 145. 1837.
Opuntia diademata Lemaire, Cact. Aliq. Nov. 36. 1838.
Opuntia turpinii Lemaire, Cact. Aliq. Nov. 36. 1838.
Opuntia andicola elongata Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 72. 1839.
Opuntia andicola fulvispina Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 72. 1839.
Opuntia andicola major Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 72. 1839.
Opuntia calva Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 73. 1839.
Opuntia platyacantha gracilior Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 43. 1845.
Opuntia platyacantha monvillei Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 71. 1850.
Opuntia platyacantha deflexispina Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 245. 1850.
Opuntia papyracantha Philippi, Gartenflora 21: 129. 1872.
Opuntia syringacantha Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 6: 156. 1896.
Opuntia plumosa nivea Walton, Cact. Journ. 1: 105. 1898.
Forming low, spreading clumps, the branches either erect or prostrate; joints globular, 3 to 6
cm. in diameter, often in cultivated specimens even smaller, dull grayish brown, hardly tuberculate
except in drying; areoles large, bearing numerous long, brown glochids; spines often wanting, when
present 1 to 3, long, weak, thin and papery, hardly pungent, either white or brownish, sometimes
10 cm. long; flowers light yellow, small; fruit globose, 1 to 1.5 cm. long, dry; seeds corky.
Type locality: Brazil, according to Haworth,
but erroneously.
Distribution: Western Argentina. It has also
been referred to Brazil and Chile, but surely not
found in Brazil, and we should not expect it to
inhabit Chile.
he plant igured by Nicholson (Dict. Gard. 2:
f. 755) as O. platyacantha hardly belongs here.
O. glomerata, which is common on the dry
hills about Mendoza, is very variable, especially as
to whether it is spine-bearing or not; while the
spines—which are really not spines but thin ribbon-like processes—vary much as to their color,
markings, and length. These variations are partly
the cause of so many synonyms for the species. Dr. Rose, who visited the region in which
this species grows, found wide variation in the
size of the joints, as well as in the absence or
presence of spines.
Tephrocactus diadematus Lemaire (Cact. 88.
Fig. 104.—Opuntia glomerata × 0.5
1868), T. turpinii Lemaire (Cact. 88. 1868), Opuntia
polymorpha Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 103. 1837), and Opuntia turpinii polymorpha Salm-Dyck
(Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 71. 1850) are usually given as synonyms of Opuntia diademata, but
none of them was actually published. Opuntia polymorpha Pfeifer was used by Pfeifer as a
synonym for Cereus articulatus Pfeifer.
Tephrocactus andicolus, T. calvus, and T. platyacanthus, all of Lemaire (Cact. 88. 1868),
without descriptions, are referred here by inference.
Spegazzini (Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 511. 1905) describes three varieties
of this species under O. diademata, from Argentina, as follows: inermis, oligacantha, and
polyacantha; while Weber (Dict. Hort. Bois 896. 1898) under the same name describes var.
calva, but these all seem to be forms of this very variable species.
90
THE CACTACEAE.
he following varietal names, under Opuntia glomerata var. albispina Förster (Handb.
Cact. 472. 1846), var. flavispina Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 43. 1845), and var.
minor Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 71. 1850), are mentioned in the places cited,
but not described.
Opuntia horizontalis Gillies (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 145. 1837) was used as a synonym of
Opuntia andicola, and should be referred here.
Opuntia pelaguensis (Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 71. 1850) was published as a
synonym of Opuntia platyacantha deflexispina.
Opuntia andicola minor, an unpublished variety, is mentioned by name only in Monatsschrift für Kakteenkunde (10: 48. 1900).
Illustrations: Cact. Journ. 1: 100, as Opuntia andicola: Engler and Prantl, Pflanzenfam. 3 6a: f. 56, K.; Gard. Chron. III. 34: f. 39; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 13: 23, these
three as Opuntia diademata. Cact. Journ. 1: February; Dict. Gard. Nicholson Suppl. f.
607; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 125; Gard. Chron. III. 23: f. 129; 29: f. 63; Gartenflora 21: pl. 721, f. 2, all as Opuntia papyracantha; Cact. Journ. 1: 105, as Opuntia
plumosa nivea.
Figure 104 represents a plant collected by Dr. Rose at Mendoza, Argentina, in 1915.
Opuntia schumannii Spegazzini (Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 511. 1905, not
Berger, 1904) is a homonym, and we hesitate to give it a new name until it is better known.
he type comes from Salta, Argentina, from a region where we already have a number of
species of Tephrocactus. Spegazzini, who described it, says it is related to O. diademata,
which is now referred to O. glomerata, but is very distinct. It is without spines and the
lowers are unknown.
Series 4. PENTLANDIANAE.
Plants often growing in large mounds; joints globular to oblong; spines usually slender, acicular
to subulate. Seventeen species are here recognized.
Key to Species.
Spines very long and stout, up to 15 to 20 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines slender, 10 cm. long or less.
Spines appressed to the joints.
Spines 12 to 20, flexuous; joints 7 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines 6 or 7; joints 2 to 4 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines straight, not appressed.
Spines flat or semiterete.
Spines 7 to 10 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines 6 cm. long or less.
Longer spines 1 to 3.
Joints ellipsoid, 4 to 5 cm. thick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints oblong, 1 cm. thick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Longer spines 4 or 5.
Spines gray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines terete.
Spines white, at least when young.
Joints tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints not tuberculate.
Joints oblong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints globose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines yellow to brown or nearly black.
Roots large and woody; spines nearly black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Roots fibrous.
Spines purple-black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines yellow to brown.
Plants forming large clumps.
Fruit about 2.5 cm. long, nearly unarmed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fruit 5 to 6 cm. long, copiously armed with long spines above
Plants isolated, not forming clumps.
Old joints globose; spines acicular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints all oblong; spines subulate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 60. O. aoracantha
. . . . . . . . . . . 61. O. rauppiana
. . . . . . . . . . . 62. O. subterranea
. . . . . . . . . . . 63. O. hickenii
. . . . . . . . . . . 64. O. darwinii
. . . . . . . . . . . 65. O. tarapacana
. . . . . . . . . . . 66. O. atacamensis
. . . . . . . . . . . 67. O. russellii
. . . . . . . . . . . 68. O. corrugata
. . . . . . . . . . . 69. O. ovata
. . . . . . . . . . . 70. O. sphaerica
. . . . . . . . . . . 71. O. skottsbergii
. . . . . . . . . . . 72. O. nigrispina
. . . . . . . . . . . 73. O. pentlandii
. . . . . . . . . . . 74. O. ignescens
. . . . . . . . . . . 75. O. campestris
. . . . . . . . . . . 76. O. ignota
91
OPUNTIA
60. Opuntia aoracantha Lemaire, Cact. Aliq. Nov. 34.
1838.
Cereus ovatus Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 102 1837. Not Opuntia ovata Pfeiffer, l. c. 144. 1837.
Opuntia formidabilis Walton, Cact. Journ. 1: 105. 1898.
Usually low, cespitose, forming clumps 2 to 5 dm. in diameter and sometimes 1 to 2 dm.
high; branches grayish, either erect or prostrate, made up of 5 to 10, perhaps even more, globular
joints; joints easily detached, freely rooting and starting new colonies, 5 to 8 cm. in diameter,
strongly tuberculate especially when young, the lower part spineless, the upper areoles large, spinebearing; spines brown or blackish, 1 to 7, the longer ones 13 cm. long, straight, a little flattened,
roughish to the touch; flowers white; fruit short-oblong, 3 cm. long, red, weakly tuberculate,
bearing numerous areoles, usually naked but sometimes bearing a few short spines near the top,
becoming dry; umbilicus of fruit broad and depressed; seeds white, flattened, to 5 mm. broad,
the margins thick and corky.
Fig. 105.—Opuntia aoracantha.
× 0.66.
Type locality: Not cited, but doubtless from Mendoza.
Distribution: Western provinces of Argentina, from Mendoza to Jujuy.
Opuntia gilliesii Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 102. 1837, as synonym) and Tephrocactus aoracanthus
Lemaire (Cact. 89. 1868) are usually given as synonyms of this species, but they were not
described in the places usually cited, and as here given. Opuntia acracantha Walpers (Repert.
Bot. 2: 354. 1843) is a typographical error.
O. aoracantha, although described nearly 80 years ago, is practically unknown in collections
and has been very poorly described. he fruit has heretofore been unknown. Dr. Rose found
it in 1915, great abundance growing on dry, rocky hills west of Mendoza,
92
THE CACTACEAE.
although in but one locality. A bountiful supply of living material was sent home, several
photographs were taken, and fruit and seeds obtained.
Opuntia tuberiformis Philippi (Anal. Mus. Nac. Chile 18912: 28. 1891), referred here by
Schumann, doubtless belongs elsewhere. It may possibly belong to some Platyopuntia, for it
is described as having ovate joints only 5 mm. thick. It comes from the foot of the Andes
in the Province of Tarapaca, Chile.
Illustrations: Gard. Chron. III. 34: f. 40; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 12: 172; Cact. Journ. 1:
105, the last as O. formidabilis.
Figure 105 represents a joint of a plant collected by Dr. Rose at Mendoza, Argentina,
in 1915.
61. Opuntia rauppiana Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 9: 118.
1899.
Joints ellipsoid, rounded at each end, somewhat tuberculate,
dark green or becoming grayish green, 7 cm. long by 4 cm. in
greatest diameter; glochids yellow, 5 cm. long; spines 12 to 14,
sometimes as many as 20, very weak, almost bristle-like, 2 cm.
long, hardly pungent.
Type locality: In the Andes.
Distribution: Bolivia, according to Schumann.
Little is known of the habit of this plant, as only one
joint is igured and this appears to be a sickly greenhouse
specimen. It suggests some of the species which grow in
Fig. 106.—Opuntia rauppiana.
large clumps like the one igured as Opuntia grata by Fries.
Illustrations: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 9: 118; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen Nachtr. f. 36
(same).
Figure 106 is copied from the illustration above cited.
62. Opuntia subterranea R. E. Fries, Nov. Act. Soc. Sci. Upsal. IV. 1 1: 122. 1905.
Almost buried in the sand, simple or few-branched from a thick root 7 to 12 cm. deep;
joints terete, 2 to 4 cm. long; tubercles low; spines 1 to 7, all radial, short, whitish, recurved,
Fig. 107.—Opuntia subterranea
Fig. 108.—Opuntia hickenii.
× 0.6.
OPUNTIA
93
appressed; flowers lateral, brownish; ovary small, with a depressed umbilicus, its areoles bearing
small glochids and a little wool; fruit 12 to 15 mm. long; seeds 3 mm. broad, irregular.
Type locality: Near Moreno, Jujuy, Argentina.
Distribution: Northern Argentina and adjacent Bolivia.
his peculiar little plant, heretofore known only from the type collection, was obtained by
Dr. Shafer on stony plains at Villazón, Bolivia, in February 1917, but was not in bloom.
Illustration: Nov. Act. Soc. Sci. Upsal. IV. 11: pl. 8, f. 4 to 8.
Figure 107 is copied from the illustration above cited.
63. Opuntia hickenii sp. nov.
Low, cespitose, forming clusters 1 meter in diameter; joints globular, 3 to 5 cm. in diameter,
strongly tuberculate, the lower tubercles usually spineless; areoles rather large, circular; spines 2
to 5, flat and thin, narrow, weak, pungent, 5 to 12 cm. long, silvery-colored but nearly black in
age; flowers yellow; fruit not known.
Type in United States National Herbarium, No. 603229, from Puerto Madryn, Chubut,
Argentina, collected by Cristóbal M. Hicken.
Common in Chubut and Rio Negro, southern Argentina, where it was collected several
times by Dr. Hicken.
Figure 108 represents the type specimen above cited.
A photograph of a plant from San Juan, Argentina, communicated by Dr. Spegazzini,
indicates another species of this relationship.
64. Opuntia darwinii Henslow, Mag. Zool. Bot. 1: 466. 1837.
Low, perhaps not more than 2 to 4 cm. high, much branched at base from a more or less
elongated woody root; joints normally few, nearly globular, about 3 cm. in diameter, or often nearly
cylindric, frequently numerous and small and growing out from the main axis, then only 5 to 10
mm. in diameter; areoles large, filled with wool, the lower ones spineless; spines 1 to 3, nearly erect,
the longest one 3 to 3.5 cm. long, yellow or reddish yellow, decidedly flattened; flowers originally
described as larger than the joints, but certainly often much smaller; petals yellow, broad, with a truncate or depressed top and usually with a mucronate tip; ovary, in specimens seen, only 2 cm. long,
covered with large woolly areoles; styles described as stout, with 9 thick radiating stigma-lobes.
Type locality: Port Desire, Patagonia, latitude 47° south.
Distribution: Southern Argentina.
his species seems to be common in that part of Patagonia known now as the Territory
of Santa Cruz, Argentina. We have recently examined four separate collections made in
this region, especially one from about Lake Buenos Aires and on the Fenix River by Carl
Skottsberg, in 1907-1909.
he plant is in cultivation in Europe and is ofered for sale by cactus dealers.
It was irst collected by Charles Darwin, but only a single joint was taken, which was
described and igured by Rev. J.. S. Henslow. he illustration of the lowers seems too large,
but otherwise represents fairly well the plant as we know it. he following interesting note
is taken from Mr. Henslow’s article as it appeared in the Magazine of Zoology and Botany,
volume 1, page 467:
I have named this interesting Cactus after my friend C. Darwin, Esq., who has recently returned to England, after a five years’ absence on board H. M. S. Beagle, whilst she was employed
in surveying the southernmost parts of South America. The specimen figured was gathered in the
month of January, at Port Desire, lat. 47° S. in Patagonia. He recollects also to have seen the
same plant in flower as far south as Port St. Julian in lat. 49° S. It is a small species growing
close to the ground on arid gravelly plains, at no great distance from the sea. The flowers had
one day arrested his attention by the great irritability which their stamens manifested upon his
inserting a piece of straw into the tube, when they immediately collapsed round the pistil, and
the segments of the perianth soon after closed also. He had intended to procure fresh specimens
on the following day, and returned to the ship with the one now figured, but unfortunately she
sailed immediately afterwards, and he was prevented from obtaining any more. The geographical
94
THE CACTACEAE.
position of this species is beyond the limits hitherto assigned to any of the order, which are
not recorded as growing much south of the tropic of Capricorn. The climate is remarkably dry
and clear, hot in summer, but with sharp frosts during the winter nights. He found Cacti both
abundant and of a large size, a little farther to the north at Rio-Negro in latitude 410 S.
Illustration: Mag. Zool. Bot. 1: pl. 14, f. 1.
Figure 109 is copied from a photograph of an herbarium specimen collected by Carl
Skottsberg in Patagonia in 1908.
65. Opuntia tarapacana Philippi, Anal. Mus. Nac. Chile 1891 2: 27.
1891.
Opuntia rahmeri Philippi, Anal. Mus. Nac. Chile 1891 2: 27. 1891.
Low, cespitose plants; joints small, ovoid, about 2 cm. long by 1 cm. thick, bearing spines
from white woolly areoles at tips; spines usually 3, straight, 12 to 15 mm. long, white with yellowish tips; flowers yellow; petals 21 mm. long; ovary elongated, 2 cm. long.
Type locality: Calalaste, Chile.
Distribution: Known only from type locality, although Schumann in his Keys refers this
species to Bolivia.
Although the type of this species is preserved in the Museum at Santiago, Chile, it
is insuicient to enable us to give a very full description. It seems distinct from the other
species of the group.
Fig. 109.—O. darwinii.
× 0.6.
Fig. 110.—O. atacamensis.
66. Opuntia atacamensis Philippi, Fl. Atac. 24.
× 0.6.
Fig. 111—O. russellii.
× 0.6.
1860.
? Pereskia glomerata Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 179. 1837. Not Opuntia glomerata Haworth. 1830.
Growing in large, dense clusters sometimes 6 dm. broad and 3 dm. high; joints ovoid, 2.5
cm. long by 2 cm. in diameter; areoles in 5 to 7 series, the lower ones with wool and very short
spines; upper areoles each bearing 1 erect central spine 18 to 25 mm. long, yellow or reddish;
radial spines 2 to 4, strongly appressed, 2 mm. long; flowers yellow.
Type locality: Profetas, Chile; also Puquios, 23° 50´ south latitude.
Distribution: On the high central deserts of northern Chile at an altitude of 2,700 to
3,300 meters.
We have not seen the type of this species, and our reference of Pereskia glomerata here
may not be correct.
Illustration: Nov. Act. Soc. Set. Upsal. IV. 11: pl. 1, as Opuntia grata.
Figure 110 represents a plant obtained by Dr. Rose at the Botanical Garden, Santiago,
Chile, in 1914.
67. Opuntia russellii sp. nov.
Forming small, compact clumps 1 to 2 dm. in diameter; joints small, globular to obovoid,
dull green to more or less purplish, 2 to 4 cm. long, very spiny near the top; leaves minute,
acute, soon falling; prominent spines 3 to 6, yellow, 2 to 3 cm. long, slightly flattened; accessory
95
OPUNTIA
spines 1 to several, 1 cm. long or less; glochids at first inconspicuous, but in time very abundant,
sometimes 2 cm. long, somewhat persistent; flowers not known; fruit globular, 2 to 2.5 cm. in
diameter, spineless; seeds pale, 4 mm. broad.
Collected by J. N. Rose and Paul G. Russell on the dry hills at Potrerillos, Mendoza,
Argentina, September 2, 1915 (No. 21002).
his is a common species in the foothills of the Andes, in the Province of Mendoza,
where it forms low mounds along with other cacti.
Figure 111 represents joints of the type specimen above cited.
68. Opuntia corrugata Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 360.
1834.
Opuntia eburnea Lemaire, Cact. Aliq. Nov. 35. 1838.
Opuntia retrospinosa Lemaire, Cact. Aliq. Nov. 35. 1838.
Opuntia armentieri Pfeiffer, Allg. Gartenz. 6: 276. 1838.
More or less cespitose; joints 3.5 cm. long, 8 to 12 mm. in diameter, orbicular to cylindric,
often erect, attenuate at both ends, light green, the terminal one often flattened; glochids minute,
yellowish; spines 6 to 8, acicular, 8 to 12 mm. long, white; flowers reddish; fruit red.
Type locality: None given.
Distribution: Northwestern Argentina, according to later writers.
Lemaire (Cact. 88. 1868) uses the names Cactus corrugatus and C. eburneus, both of
which Schumann refers here.
Tephrocactus retrospinosus Lemaire (Cact. 88. 1868) is placed by Lemaire in his third
section of Tephrocactus, but it is without description. It is doubtless the same as Opuntia
retrospinosa Lemaire, which belongs here.
Opuntia aulacothele Weber (Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 392. 1904), which
was described without lowers or fruit, may be of this alliance. It comes from San Rafael,
Argentina.
Opuntia cornigata, mentioned in Bailey’s Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture (4: 2367.
1916), is a misspelling of this name.
Opuntia corrugata monvillei Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 72. 1850) was not
described.
Opuntia longispina Haworth (Phil. Mag. 7: 111. 11830), when irst described, was supposed to have come from Brazil; the Index Kewensis refers it to Chile; while Schumann
treats it in a note under O. corrugata as an Argentine species. It may not be an Opuntia
but a Maihuenia.
69. Opuntia ovata Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 144.
1837.
Opuntia ovallei Remy in Gay, Fl. Chilena 3: 29. 1847.
Opuntia grata Philippi, Linnaea 30: 211. 1859.
Opuntia monticola Philippi, Linnaea 33: 82. 1864.
Low, branching, cespitose plants; joints yellowish green,
some deep purple when young, subcylindric to ellipsoid, 3 cm.
long; spines 5 to 9, 4 to 10 mm. long, when young brownish,
in age white; fruit ovoid; umbilicus curved outward.
Type locality: Mendoza, Argentina.
Fig. 112.—Opuntia ovata. × 0.5.
Distribution: Mountains of Argentina and Chile.
Opuntia ovoides Lemaire (Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 73. 1839) and Cactus ovoides Lemaire (Cact.
88. 1868) are usually cited as synonyms for Opuntia ovata; they are unpublished names.
his species forms low clumps, each branch consisting of 2 to 5 joints. Dr. Rose found
it abundant in the Andes above Mendoza and it has also been reported from the Chilean
side of the Andes. Colonies difer in armament. In cultivation some of the joints are elongated and club-shaped.
Illustration: Schumann Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 105, as Opuntia grata.
Figure 112 shows joints of the plant collected by Dr. Rose in 1915 at Potrerillos,
Argentina.
96
THE CACTACEAE.
70. Opuntia sphaerica Förster, Hamb. Gartenz. 17: 167.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1861.
dimorpha Förster, Hamb. Gartenz. 17: 167. 1861.
leonina Haage and Schmidt in Regel and Schmidt, Gartenflora 30: 413. 1881.
leucophaea Philippi, Anal. Mus. Nac. Chile 1891 2: 27. 1891.
corotilla Schumann in Vaupel, Bot. Jahrb. Engler Beibl. 111: 28. 1913.
Plants often erect, always low, usually few-branched, often forming large patches; joints usually globular, 12 to 40 cm. in diameter; areoles large, numerous, sometimes nearly hiding the
surfaces of the joints with their short brown wool; spines variable as to number, sometimes few,
sometimes numerous, brown at first, in age sometimes gray, 1 to 4 cm. long, usually stiff; flowers
4 cm. long, deep orange; petals obtuse; fruit globular, often very spiny; seed globular, white, 4
mm. in diameter, surrounded by a thin, broad band.
Type locality: Near Arequipa, Peru
Distribution: Central Peru to central Chile.
The three illustrations cited below were made f rom the same cultivated plant. They
look very much like a poor specimen of Opuntia glomerata, and, if such it should prove,
the name O. leonina should be referred to the synonymy of that
species.
We have referred Opuntia dimorpha here with some hesitancy.
his plant often passes for
Opuntia ovata and, from herbarium
specimens we have seen, it has been
so identiied by Rudolph Philippi.
This species is very common
in sandy places on hills, dry flats,
and in mountain valleys, often
covering the ground to the exclusion of all other plants. The joints
readily break loose and, falling to
the ground, start new colonies. We
found the species very common
both above and below Arequipa,
Peru, where it is called corotilla;
in central Chile it grows at lower
Fig. 113 .—Opuntia sphaerica.
altitudes but in similar situations.
In Chile it is called leon or leoncito, which is probably the origin of the name Opuntia
leonina.
Opuntia phyllacantha Haage and Schmidt (Regel and Schmidt, Gartenlora 30: 414. 1881),
if it actually came from Chile, as stated, may belong here. he joints are more elongated,
although the habit is somewhat similar. he illustration is poor and has doubtless been made
from a greenhouse specimen. his name was given, with Salm-Dyck as authority, by Förster
(Handb. Cact. 508. 1846), but without any description.
Illustrations: Cact. Journ. 1: 100; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 133; Gartenlora 30:
413, all as Opuntia leonina.
Figure 113 is from a photograph of joints of the plant collected by Dr. Rose above
Arequipa, Peru, in 1914.
71. Opuntia skottsbergii sp. nov.
Roots thick and fleshy, sometimes 10 cm. long, the plant doubtless more or less cespitose;
joints, at least some of them, globular, 3 cm. in diameter, almost hidden by the numerous closely
set spines; areoles close together, small, at times producing long tufts of white wool; spines about
10, black except the yellowish tips, 1 to 2 cm. long; glochids numerous, elongated; flowers, includ-
97
OPUNTIA
ing the very spiny ovary, about 6 cm. long; petals about 3 cm. long, drying reddish or reddish
green; areoles of the ovary bearing 5 to 7 spines, which are brown or blackish below and with
more or less yellowish tips; fruit not known.
Collected near Lake Buenos Aires, Territory of Santa Cruz, Argentina, December 12,
1908, by Carl Skottsberg (No. 675); and again on the Rio Fenix, north of the locality above
given, December 10, 1908 (No. 625, type).
his species belongs to the subgenus Tephrocactus, but is not closely related to any of
the described species. he lower resembles very much the one igured by Henslow as O.
darwinii, and it is possible that he may have had some of this species in his O. darwinii;
the plant bodies, however, are so diferent that one could hardly confuse the two.
Figure 114 is copied from a photograph of the type specimen above cited.
72. Opuntia nigrispina Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 695.
1898.
Opuntia purpurea R. E Fries, Nov. Act. Soc. Sci. Upsal. IV. 1 1: 123. 1905.
Described as a shrub, 1 to 2 dm. high and much branched, the branches upright; joints dull
green or reddish violet, 2 to 4 cm. long, 1 to 2 cm. in diameter, oblong-ellipsoid, terete, when
young bearing decurrent, spirally arranged tubercles; areoles 2 to 3 mm. in diameter, bearing abun-
Fig. 114.—Opuntia skottsbergii. Fig. 115.—Opuntia nigrispina.
× 0.8.
Fig. 116.—Opuntia pentlandii.
× 0.4.
dant wool and glochids; spines 3 to 5 from upper areoles, 2.5 to 3 cm. long, straight, spreading,
subterete, weak, purplish black; flowers small, purple, 2.2 to 2.5 cm. long; petals spatulate, 1.5
cm. long, 6 mm. broad; stigma-lobes 5; ovary 1 cm. long, obovoid, nearly smooth.
Type locality: On the puna of Humahuaca, Argentina.
Distribution: Rare in stony mountains, altitude 3,500 meters, Jujuy, Argentina, and southern Bolivia.
Figure 115 represents a fruiting joint collected by J. A. Shafer at La Quiaca, Argentina,
February 2, 1917 (No. 79).
73. Opuntia pentlandii Salm-Dyck, Allg. Gartenz. 13: 387.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1845.
boliviana Salm-Dyck, Allg. Gartenz. 13: 388. 1845.
pyrrhacantha Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 694. 1898.
dactylifera Vaupel, Bot. Jahrb. Engler Beibl. 111: 29. 1913.
cucumiformis Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 524. 1916. (From the description.)
Plant much branched, forming low, rounded, compact mounds sometimes a meter broad with
hundreds of short stubby branches; joints obovoid to oblong-cylindric, plump, 2 to 10 cm. long,
sometimes 4 dm. in diameter, more or less pointed, pale green or sometimes purplish, tuberculate;
areoles small, circular, filled with short wool and yellow glochids, the upper ones sometimes also having
spines; spines sometimes wanting, when present mostly from the upper areoles, erect, 2 to 10, usually
bright yellow, sometimes brownish becoming dull brown, the longest one 7 cm. long; flowers very
98
THE CACTACEAE.
variable in color and size, lemon-yellow to deep red, 2 to 3 cm. long, sometimes 5 cm. broad when
fully expanded; petals obtuse; filaments short; style thick; stigma-lobes very short; ovary short with
few areoles; areoles on ovary subtended by minute leaves, filled with short wool, the upper ones with
bristle-like spines; fruit globular to short-oblong, 2 to 3 cm. long, dry; seeds numerous, 4 to 5 mm. long.
Type locality: In Bolivia.
Distribution: Very common on the high pampas of southeastern
Peru and Bolivia, and adjacent Argentina.
Cactus pentlandii Lemaire (Cact. 88. 1868), name only, is supposed
to apply to this species.
his is one of the most characteristic plants of the high pampas
of the Andean region, mostly growing at elevations of 12,000 feet
or higher, forming low, broad, compact clumps, sometimes made up
of a hundred plants or more.
Illustrations: ?Dict. Gard. Nicholson 2: f. 751; ?Förster, Handb.
Cact. ed. 2. f. 124; ?W. Watson, Cact. Cult. f. 77, all as Opuntia boliviana; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 24: 175, as Opuntia dactylifera.
Figure 116 represents a joint of the plant collected in 1914
by Dr. Rose at Comanche, Bolivia; igure 117 shows a lowering joint collected by Dr. Rose in 1914, at Juliaca, Peru.
Fig. 117.—Opuntia pentlandii. × 0.4.
74. Opuntia ignescens Vaupel, Bot. Jahrb. Engler Beibl. 111: 30.
1913.
Plants forming clumps 2 dm. high or less, with hundreds of
erector spreading joints; joints bluish green, 8 to 10 cm. long, very
fleshy, naked below; upper areoles very spiny; spines 6 to 15 from
each areole, nearly equal, 4 to 5 cm. long, erect, acicular, yellow;
flowers very showy, deep red; ovary oblong, 3 to 4 cm. long,
naked below, but the upper areoles producing numerous spines 4
to 7 cm. long; fruit red, 7 cm. long, spiny and tuberculate above,
terete below, with a deep umbilicus; seeds nearly globular, about
5 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Near Sumbay, southern Peru.
Distribution: On the pampas of southern Peru and northern
Chile, at altitude of 3,000 to 3,600 meters.
Fig. 118.—Opuntia ignescens.
Fig. 119.—Opuntia ignescens forming large mounds.
× 0.5.
BRITTON AND ROSE
M. E. Eaton del.
PLATE XVI
A HOEN & CO
1. Top of Opuntia miquelii.
2. Old and young joints of Opuntia invicta.
3. Upper part of joints of Opuntia ignescens.
(All natural size.)
99
OPUNTIA
Plate xvi, igure 3, represents old and young joints of the plant collected above Ayrampal, Peru, by Dr. Rose in 1914. Figure 118 shows a fruit from the same plant; igure 119
is from a photograph taken by H. L. Tucker at Coropuna, Peru, in 1911.
75. Opuntia campestris sp. nov.
Much branched, often forming low, dense masses, 3 to 6 dm. in diameter; terminal joints readily
breaking off; joints globular or a little longer than thick, 3 to 5 cm. long, with numerous prominent
areoles, the tubercles conspicuous when young; leaves minute, 1 to 1.5 mm. long, caducous; glochids
conspicuous, numerous, yellow; spines usually wanting at the lower areoles, present above, very unequal, 5 to 10, acicular, the longest ones 3.5 cm. long; flowers rosy white to light yellow, 2 to 3 cm.
long; ovary naked or spiny; fruit thicker than long, 2.5 cm. long, with deep umbilicus, often very
spiny.
Common just below railroad station at
Pampa de Arrieros, Peru, where it was collected
by Dr. Rose, August 23, 1914 (No. 18957).
Figure 120 represents joints of the type
specimen above cited.
Fig. 120.—Opuntia campestris.
× 0.8.
Fig. 121.—Opuntia ignota.
× 0.8.
76. Opuntia ignota sp. nov.
Low, much branched, spreading; joints small, narrow, 2 to 3 cm. long, more or less purplish;
leaves minute, often purplish; spines 2 to 7 from an areole, brownish, acicular, the longest ones
4 to 5 cm. long; glochids, when present, yellow; areoles large, full of grayish wool; flowers and
fruit not seen.
Collected by Dr. Rose on the hills below the railroad station at Pampa de Arrieros,
Peru, August 23, 1914 (No. 18974).
Plants grown in greenhouses are dark green and develop few spines or none.
his plant grows in the same region as O. campestris, but is quite diferent from it.
Figure 121 shows joints of the type specimen above cited.
Subgenus 3. PLATYOPUNTIA.
Includes all the species with lattened joints; a few species have nearly terete joints;
others have some of the joints terete. Twenty-eight series are recognized. he species are
most abundant in North America, but several series are found only in South America, while
others have representatives in both Americas. (See Key to the Series, p. 45.)
100
THE CACTACEAE.
Series 1. PUMILAE.
Low, spiny species, with slightly flattened, narrowly cylindric or linear-oblong, readily detached ultimate joints, the main stem terete We know three species, the typical one in Mexico
and Guatemala, one from Oaxaca, Mexico, and one Peruvian. In the structure of their joints
they form a transitional series between Cylindropuntia and Platyopuntia, and might be included
in either of these subgenera with about equal reason.
Key to Species.
Young areoles with only 1 to 3 spines; joints 2 to 3 cm. thick.
Plant 1 to 5 meters high; joints tubercled; spines yellowish . . . . . . . . .
Plants about 2 dm. high; joints not tubercled; spines reddish to brown
Areoles with 3 to 7 spines; plants 1 to 4 dm. high.
Joints 1 to 1.5 cm. thick; areoles not blotched; spines brownish . . . . .
Joints 2 to 3 cm. thick; young areoles dark-blotched; spines yellowish .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77. O. pumila
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77a. O. depauperata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79.
O. pubescens
O. pascoensis
Fig. 122.—Opuntia pumila forming low thickets.
77. Opuntia pumila Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 521.
1908.
Stems low, very much branched, the joints readily falling off when touched, 6 to 20 cm. long,
velvety-pubescent, terete or sometimes slightly flattened, turgid, bearing more or less prominent
tubercles; areoles small, those of old stems bearing several slender spines, the longer ones 3 cm.
long; areoles of young joints usually bearing 2 yellowish spines; ovary pubescent, with few spines
or none; petals yellow, tinged with red, 15 mm. long; fruit globular, red, 15 mm. long.
Type locality: Near Oaxaca City, Mexico, on the road to Mitla.
Distribution: Central and southern Mexico.
When this species was described, attention was called to various forms which belonged
here or to one or more related species. hese we now refer to O. pubescens.
Figure 122 is from a photograph of the type; igure 123 represents joints of the same.
101
OPUNTIA
77a. Opuntia depauperata sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 216.)
78. Opuntia pubescens Wendland* in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 149.
1837.
Opuntia leptarthra Weber in Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 393. 1904.
Plants small, usually low, sometimes 4 dm. high, much branched; joints easily becoming detached, nearly terete, glabrous or pubescent, 3 to 7 cm. long; spines numerous, short, brownish;
flowers lemon-yellow but drying red; filaments greenish; style white; stigma-lobes cream-colored;
fruit small, 2 to 2.5 cm. long, red, a little spiny, with a depressed umbilicus; seeds small, 3 mm.
in diameter.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Northern Mexico to Guatemala.
This species was sent to the Exposition
Universelle at Paris by the Mexican Government in 1889, and was there seen and described by Dr. Weber as O. leptarthra. A part
of this material finally went to the Hanbury Garden at La Mortola, Italy, whence we
obtained specimens in 1913 which prove to
be identical with specimens obtained by Dr.
Rose and others in Mexico and Guatemala
in 1905 to 1909.
This is an insignificant species and hence
has generally been overlooked in the region
where so many more striking species are found.
It is widely distributed, extending f rom the
Fig. 123.—Opuntia pumila. × 0.4.
State of Tamaulipas, in Mexico, to Guatemala,
Fig. 124.—Opuntia pubescens. × 0.75.
a much greater range than that of most species. Its wide distribution is doubtless due to the fact that the joints, which are covered with barbed spines and are easily detached, fasten themselves to various animals
and are scattered like burs over the country; each little joint thus set f ree starts a new
center of distribution.
his is a diicult plant to grow in greenhouses, for the spreading or hanging branches
soon become entangled with other plants and break of in attempts to free or move them;
partly for this reason, doubtless, it rarely lowers in cultivation.
Opuntia angusta Meinshausen (Wochenschr. Gärtn. Planz. 1: 30. 1858) was unknown
to Schumann. It was originally described as similar to the South American species, O. aurantiaca, and, if so, it must be near O. pubescens, if not identical with it, being a native of
Mexico, where it was irst collected by Karwinsky.
Figure 124 represents joints of the Guatemalan plant, cultivated in the greenhouses of
the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, obtained in 1907 .
79. Opuntia pascoensis sp. nov.
Stems erect and rigid, up to 3 dm. high; joints easily breaking apart, erect or ascending,
terete or slightly flattened, 3 to 12 cm. long, 1.5 to 4 cm. broad, puberulent, hardly tuberculate
but with faint upturned lunate depressions between the dark-blotched areoles; leaves minute;
areoles somewhat elevated, filled with brown wool intermixed with longer white cobwebby hairs;
spines 4 to 8 on young joints, more on older joints, acicular, yellow, 2 cm. long or less; glochids
numerous, short, yellow, tardily developing; fruit globular, 1.5 cm. in diameter, naked below, spiny
above. Doubtless of wide distribution, for the joints are easily detached and are distributed like
burs, but so far only two collections have been reported.
*Pfeiffer (Enum. Cact. 1837) f requently refers several of Wendland’s species to Catal. h. Herrnh. 1835, but we
can find no references to Wendland having published a catalogue of the Herrenhausen Garden either in 1835 or
about that time. We have therefore cited all of Wendland’s species so referred by Pfeiffer to the pages given in his
Enumeratio.
102
THE CACTACEAE.
Collected by Dr. and Mrs. J. N. Rose in central and southern Peru, in 1914, irst from
just below Matucana (No. 18653), and later at Pasco (No. 18812, type).
Plate xvii, igure 1, represents a joint of the type specimen above cited.
Series 2. CURASSAVICAE.
This series is composed of 10, or perhaps 11, species of low plants, characterized by their
fragile branches, the small joints separating and becoming detached very readily, more or less
flattened or subterete. They mostly inhabit the southern United States and the West Indies; one
is known from Ecuador; the original home of one of the species recognized is unknown.
Key to Species.
Spines acicular.
Joints oval, mostly not more than twice as long as wide; plants prostrate, little branched. . . . . . 80.
Joints oblong to linear, 2 to 8 times as long as wide; plants ascending or erect, much branched.
Joints narrowly linear, 1 to 2 cm. wide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.
Joints oblong to linear-oblong or obovate-oblong, 2 to 4 cm. wide.
Joints oblong to linear, 4 to 8 times as long as wide; spines 1 to 3 cm. long.
Joints not tubercled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82.
Joints tubercled, at least when young . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82a.
Joints oblong to obovate-oblong, 2 to 3 times as long as wide; spines 3 to 5 cm. long . . . 83.
Spines subulate.
Spines white.
Roots fibrous; spines at most of the areoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84.
Roots tuberous; spines only at the upper areoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.
Spines brown.
Joints oval to oblong.
Joints scarcely repand; plant up to 2 dm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.
Joints strongly repand; plant 1 dm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.
Joints linear-lanceolate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88.
Affinity uncertain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89.
80. Opuntia curassavica (Linnaeus) Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 7.
O. curassavica
O. taylori
O. repens
O. pestifer
O. borinquensis
O. militaris
O. nemoralis
O.
O.
O.
O.
drummondii
tracyi
pusilla
darrahiana
1768.
Cactus curassavicus Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 469. 1753.
Stems low, 5-jointed, light green, prostrate
and creeping or hanging over rocks; joints
oval to oblong, decidedly flattened but thick,
2 to 5 cm. long, glabrous; leaves minute, soon
withering; areoles small, bearing short wool
and longer, white cobwebby hairs; spines 4 to
many, acicular, 2.5 cm. long or less, yellowish, becoming white in age; glochids tardily
developing.
Fig. 125.—Opuntia curassavica. × 0.75.
Type locality: Curacao Island.
Distribution: Curaçao, Bonaire, and Aruba.
Haworth (Syn. Pl. Succ. 196. 1812) describes three varieties, major, media, and minor,
and later (Rev. Pl. Succ. 71. 1821) also describes the variety longa. O. curassavica elongata
Haworth (Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 184. 1834), a name only, is supposed to be the same as
var. longa.
his is one of the oldest species of Opuntia, having been described and igured as early
as 1696. For a long time it has been unknown, the name having been transferred to a similar
species, O. repens. In 1913 Dr. Britton visited Curacao, its native home, and re-collected it.
Its lowers have not been described, and several residents informed him that they had never
seen it in lower; Dr. Britton did not ind it in lower on Curaçao, nor has it lowered with
us in cultivation; Haworth, who wrote about it in 1812, speaks of its being a shy bloomer,
saying he had seen it in lower but once. In early English books it is called pin pillow,
because its turgid joints suggest pincushions illed with pins.
Illustrations: Bradley, Hist. Succ. Pl. ed. 2. pl. 4, as Opuntia minima americana, etc.;
Commerson Hort. pl. 56, as Opuntia curassavica minima; Plukenet, Opera Bot. 3: pl. 281, f.
3, as Opuntia minor caulescens.
Figure 125 represents the plant collected on Curaçao by Dr. N. L. Britton and Dr. J.
A. Shafer in 1913.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XVII
M. E. Eaton del.
1. Joint of Opuntia pascoensis.
2. Joints of Opuntia taylori.
A HOEN & CO
3, 4. Forms of Opuntia repens.
. Flower of same.
6. Flowering joint of Opuntia drummondii.
(All natural size.)
103
OPUNTIA
81. Opuntia taylori Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 520.
1908.
Opuntia hattoniana Britton and Rose in Johnston and Tryon, Rep. Prickly-Pear Comm. 97. 1914.
Prostrate, widely branched; joints linear to linear-oblong, 12 cm. long or less, bright green,
1 to 2 cm. wide, turgid, glabrous or pubescent; areoles 1 to 1.5 cm. apart, not elevated; spines
acicular, 3 to 6 at each areole, yellowish brown, becoming white, 4 cm. long or less; glochids
yellowish brown, 3 mm. long; flowers yellow, small, the petals about 1 cm. long; ovary pyriform,
1 to 1.5 cm. long, its areoles with few bristles and spineless.
Type locality: Between Gonaives and La Hotte Rochée, on road to Terre Neuve,
Haiti.
Distribution: Deserts of Haiti and of Azua, Santo Domingo.
his species, while similar to O. repens, has more terete joints.
It was irst collected in 1905 in Haiti by Nash and Taylor, and upon this collection
the species was based. In 1913 Rose, Fitch, and Russell collected it in the Azua desert of
Santo Domingo. In this last collection the joints are pubescent, but otherwise the plants
seem to be the same, although we at one time thought they might be distinct; in fact, in
their report on the opuntias, Johnston and Tryon published the Santo Domingo plant as
new, from notes given to them.
Plate xvii, igure 2, represents joints of the plant collected by Rose, Fitch, and Russell
at Azua, Santo Domingo, in 1913.
82. Opuntia repens Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 277. 1881.
Stems erect or ascending, 5 dm. high or less, commonly much branched, often forming dense,
flat masses 4 meters in diameter, glabrous or pubescent, green or olive-green; joints oblong to
linear 5 to 16 cm. long, 3.5 cm. broad or less, usually strongly flattened; areoles small, bearing
brown wool and a few cobwebby white hairs; spines when very young pinkish, becoming brown,
afterwards fading out, acicular, numerous, 3.5 cm. long, or less; glochids numerous, yellow, tardily
developing; flowers 4 cm. broad, bright yellow, fading to salmon-colored; ovary and fruit with or
without spines; fruit red, 2 to 3 cm. long, 1 to few-seeded.
Type locality: Near Guanica, Porto Rico.
Distribution: Porto Rico and its islands, Mona, Muertos, Vieques, and Culebra, to Virgin
Gorda and St. Croix.
Opuntia repens has long been confused with O. curassavica. It was irst collected on St.
homas, where it is abundant and a troublesome weed, and was illustrated by Pfeifer and
Otto in the year 1843. It was described by Bello in 1881, who thought it might be a variety
of O. spinosissima. According to Bello, it is called olaga in Porto Rico, which is a corruption of ohulaga; the name suckers is used for it in the Virgin Islands. he plant is freely
distributed by its fragile, clinging joints. Unlike its relative, O. curassavica, this plant lowers
freely, blooming in late spring and summer.
Opuntia repens Karwinsky in Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck. 361. 1834) has been published
only as a synonym, and therefore does not invalidate the use of Bello’s name.
he plant is recorded by Johnston and Tryon (Rep. Prickly-Pear Comm. 95. 1914) as
O. curassavica taylori.
Illustration: Pfeifer and Otto, Abbild. Beschr. Cact. 1: pl. 6, f. 2, as Opuntia curassavica.
Plate xvii, igure 3, represents joints of the plant collected near Guanica, Porto Rico,
by Dr. Britton in 1913; igure 4 is from a plant obtained by the same collector the same
year on Virgin Gorda; igure 5 is copied from the illustration above cited.
82a. Opuntia pestifer sp. nov. (See Appendix p. 217.)
83. Opuntia borinquensis sp. nov.
Plants few-branched, forming colonies often 2 meters across, 5 dm. high or less; joints readily
detached, oblong to obovate-oblong, dull green, glabrous, compressed but turgid, 5 to 8 cm. long,
4 cm. wide or less, about 1.5 cm. thick; areoles small, 1 to 2 cm. apart, bearing 2 or 3 acicular
104
THE CACTACEAE.
spines, the larger up to 6 cm. long, brown when young, fading white; leaves subulate, acuminate,
1 to 2 mm. long; fruit obovoid, subtruncate, 1.5 cm. long.
Limestone swale, Morilios de Cabo Rojo, Porto Rico (Britton, Cowell, and Brown, No.
4741), growing with O. repens Bello, from which it difers by its larger, broader, and latter
joints and much longer spines.
he only locality known for this plant is at the extreme southwestern corner of Porto
Rico, where numerous colonies of it were observed. he region is a very dry one, rain falling
there only at long intervals; the associated vegetation is of a highly xerophytic character.
Figure 126 represents joints of the type specimen above cited.
84. Opuntia militaris sp. nov.
Stems 3 dm. tall, the branches weak and more or less spreading; joints thick, narrowly oblong to
obovate, 5 to 8 cm. long, somewhat shiny when young, easily breaking apart; spines 1 or 2 from an
areole, occasionally more, acicular, white, 1 to 2 cm. long; flower-buds pointed; flowers small, 3 cm.
long; petals greenish to cream-colored, tinged with pink; ovary small, its small areoles without spines.
Collected by Dr. N. L. Britton, March 17 to 30, 1909, at the U. S. Naval Station,
Guantánamo Bay, Oriente, Cuba (No. 1957).
Figure 127 represents joints of the type specimen above cited.
Fig. 126.—Opuntia borinquensis.
× 0.5.
Fig. 127.—Opuntia militaris.
85. Opuntia nemoralis Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 133.
× 0.5.
1913.
Plants low, usually prostrate, forming clumps 1 meter in diameter, sometimes 3 dm. high;
joints ovate to obovate, thick, 7 to 9 cm. long, green, but often with purple blotches about the
areoles; spines 1 or 2, only from the upper areoles, 2 to 2.5 cm. long, mostly erect; glochids yellow; flowers yellow; fruit obovoid to pyriform, small, 3 cm. long, light red, truncate.
Type locality: Longview, Texas.
Distribution: Pine woods and ields about Longview, Texas.
his species in habit, joints, and spines suggests the Tortispinae; but on account of having easily detached joints we have referred it to the Curassavicae, as indicated in the original
description, placing it between the Cuban species O. militaris and the United States species
O. drummondii. It is known only from the type specimens.
86. Opuntia drummondii Graham in Maund, Botanist 5: pl. 246.
1846.
Opuntia pes-corvi LeConte in Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 346. 1856.
Opuntia frustulenta Gibbes, Proc. Elliott Soc. Nat. Hist. 1: 273. 1859.
Plant prostrate or spreading, 2 dm. or less high, f rom thickened single or sometimes moniliform
roots; joints rather variable, narrowly linear to broadly oblong, with entire margins, sometimes 12
cm. long and 5 to 6 cm. broad, usually light green, sometimes darker about the areoles; leaves
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XVIII
M. E. Eaton del. 1 to 3
H. A. Wood del. 4, 5
A HOEN & CO
1. Two plants of Opuntia drummondii.
3. Joints of Opuntia triacantha.
2. Joints of Opuntia retrorsa with flower.
4, . Joint and section of fruit of Opuntia jamaicensis.
(All natural size.)
OPUNTIA
105
2 to 6 mm. long; spines (if present) solitary or 2 to 4, brownish red or gray, 2 to 4 cm. long; flowers yellow,
6 cm. broad; petals obovate; f ruit red, juicy but insipid, obovoid to clavate, 22 to 35 mm. long, 1.5 mm. in
diameter at thickest part, bearing few areoles and no spines; umbilicus slightly depressed in the center; seeds
1 to 8, about 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: Apalachicola, Florida.
Distribution: Sandy soil from northern Florida to Pamlico Sound, North Carolina.
In February 1916, Dr. J. K. Small visited the coastal islands near Charleston, South
Carolina, for the purpose of collecting Gibbes’s Opuntia frustulenta. He found this species
very common on Folly Island and on the Isle of Palms, where it grows abundantly in the
sand, and also very variable as to shape and size of joints. He says the joints break off
easily and attach themselves to one’s clothing like the sand spur, making progress over
these islands difficult and painful. It is the common belief that this species rarely flowers. It usually flowers when first brought
into cultivation, but rarely afterward, this
doubtless being due to unsuitable greenhouse conditions.
he fruit described was collected by
Dr. J. K. Small, December 10, 1917, at
Apalachicola, Florida, the type locality.
According to Professor L. R. Gibbes,
it is known as dildoes about Charleston.
Illustration: Maund, Botanist 5: pl.
246.
Plate xvii, figure 6, represents flowering joints of a plant sent from La Mortola, Italy, to the New York Botanical
Garden in 19 12; plate xviii, figure 1,
shows the plant collected by Dr. Small
on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina,
in 1916.
Herbarium specimens apparently
representing a related species, were collected by W. L. McAtee at Cameron
Louisiana, in 1910 (No. 1955).
87. Opuntia tracyi Britton, Torreya 11: 152.
Fig. 128.—Opuntia tracyi.
1911.
Low, diffusely much branched, pale green, about 2 dm. high or less; older joints oblong to
linear-oblong, flat, 6 to 8 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. wide, about 1 cm. thick; young joints scarcely
flattened or terete, 1 cm. thick; areoles elevated, 5 to 10 mm. apart; spines 1 to 4, acicular, light gray
with darker tips, 3.5 cm. long or less; glochids numerous, brownish; corolla pure yellow, 4 cm. broad;
ovary 1.5 cm. long, bearing a few triangular acute scales similar to the outermost sepals, which are
2 mm. long; sepals triangular-ovate, 5 to 15 mm. long, the outer green, the inner yellowish with a
green blotch; petals obovate, apiculate, 2 to 2.5 cm. long; filaments yellow, 1 cm. long; anthers white.
In sandy soil near the coast, Biloxi, Mississippi.
Figure 128 is from a photograph of the plant collected by S. M. Tracy at Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1911.
88. Opuntia pusilla Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 195.
1812.
Cactus pusillus Haworth, Misc. Nat. 188. 1803.
Cactus foliosus Willdenow, Enum. Pl. Suppl. 35. 1813.
Opuntia foliosa Salm-Dyck in De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 471. 1828.
Low, usually prostrate; joints narrow, more or less flattened, sometimes nearly terete, hardly
tuberculate, light green in color; leaves 6 mm. long, linear, early deciduous; areoles remote; spines
106
THE CACTACEAE.
1 or 2, subulate, usually brownish when young, in age straw-colored; flowers pale yellow, rather
large for the plant; petals few, about 8, spreading, acute.
Type locality: Not cited.
Distribution: Usually assigned to South America, but not known from any deinite locality; Schumann, in his Keys, however, says West Indies.
his species has usually passed under the name of O. foliosa, although all writers seem
to agree that the older name, O. pusilla, was given to the same species. It may belong in
the series Aurantiacae rather than in the Curassavicae.
Specimens distributed from European gardens as O. foliosa in recent years are not typical, and are probably referable to O. drummondii.
Tephrocactus pusillus Lemaire (Cact. 88. 1868), an unpublished name, referred by Lemaire to his third section of Tephrocactus, may belong here. he Index Kewensis refers it to
Opuntia pusilla.
Illustration: Pfeifer and Otto, Abbild. Beschr. Cact. 1: pl. 18, as Opuntia
foliosa.
Figure 129 is copied from the illustration above cited.
89. Opuntia darrahiana Weber in Gosselin,
Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 388.
1904.
Growing in masses, 2 to 2.5 dm. high 3.5
to 4 dm. broad, very much branched, joints 7
to 8 cm. long by 4 to 5 cm. broad, bright green to seagreen; areoles somewhat elevated, especially when young,
1 cm. apart; spines 6, the two uppermost the longest,
these 4 to 4.5 cm. long, all suberect, white or grayish
white, more or less brownish at tip; glochids said to be
wanting; flowers and fruit not known.
Type locality: Turks Islands.
Distribution: Known only from the type locality.
his species is known only from the Turks Islands, a small group at the southeastern end of the
Bahaman Archipelago. It was introduced into Europe
Fig. 129.—Opuntia pusilla.
by the late Charles Darrah.
We know the plant only from the above-cited description, and, so far as we have been
able to learn, it is not now in cultivation, nor have we been able to ind any herbarium
specimens preserved. he opuntias known to us to inhabit Turks Islands are O. dillenii, O.
nashii, and O. lucayana. he description of O. darrahiana does not agree with any of these. he
species is referred to the series Curassavicae with doubt, but as this series has representatives
in Florida, Cuba, and Hispaniola, the existence of one in the Bahamas is not improbable.
Series 3. AURANTIACAE.
The species of this series are low plants, mostly with readily detached joints; the main stems
are often terete or turgid, the ultimate joints narrow and flat. They inhabit southeastern South
America. During the expedition to Brazil and Argentina conducted by Dr. Rose in the summer
of 1915, only a few of the species here grouped were found; Dr. Shafer collected several of them
in the winter of 1916-17. Dr. Spegazzini has given us photographs of several.
We recognize 8 species, and have appended another, which may belong here.
107
OPUNTIA
Key to Species.
Joints not conspicuously purple-blotched under the areoles.
Joints linear, elongated.
Stem terete or subterete; branches mostly flat.
Joints dark green, not tubercled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints tubercled, bluish green when young . . . . . . . .
All the joints flat.
Joints elongated, linear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints linear-oblong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints short, elliptic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints with a long purplish blotch under each areole.
Joints more or less spiny.
Joints flattened.
Joints 2 to 3.5 cm. wide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints 3.5 to 6 cm. wide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints subterete, turgid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints spineless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Perhaps of this series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90. O. aurantiaca
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91. O. schickendantzii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92. O. kiska-loro
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93. O. canina
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94. O. montevidensis
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. 95.
. 96.
96a.
. 97.
. 98.
O.
O.
O.
O.
O.
retrorsa
utkilio
discolor
anacantha
grosseiana
90. Opuntia aurantiaca Lindley, Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 1:
pl. 1606. 1833.
Opuntia aurantiaca extensa Salm-Dyck in Förster, Handb.
Cact. 476. 1846.
Low, much branched, and spreading; stem terete or subterete, 1 to 2
cm. thick; joints very fragile, linear, 6
to 8 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. broad, almost terete at base, dark green, shining;
areoles somewhat elevated, filled with
white wool; spines 2 or 3, brownish, 1
to 3 cm. long; flowers yellow, 2.5 cm.
broad; fruit 2 to 2.5 cm. long.
Type locality: Chile (in error).
Distribution: Argentina and
Uruguay.
Cactus aurantiacus Lemaire
(Cact. 87. 1868) is usually cited in
synonymy, but Lemaire only mentions the name as a species of Cactus. It is in fact Gillies’s manuscript
name, irst published in the Botanical Register in 1833 as a synonym
of O. aurantiaca.
O. extensa Salm-Dyck (Pfeifer,
Enum. Cact. 147. 1837) is also given
as a synonym.
Remy states (Gay, Fl. Chilena
Fig. 130— O.
3: 25. 1847) that it grows in the
aurantiaca.
Fig 131.—O. schickendantzii.
central provinces of Chile, but he
probably had in mind some other plant, as O. aurantiaca is not known to be native of Chile
by resident botanists.
Illustrations: Anal. Mus. Nac. Montevideo 5: pl. 34; Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 19: pl. 1606.
Figure 130 represents a joint from a plant found by Dr. Rose, in Argentina, in 1915.
91. Opuntia schickendantzii Weber in Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 688. 1898.
Shrub-like, 1 to 2 meters high, much branched, grayish green; branches cylindric or flattened,
somewhat tuberculate; leaves minute, 2 mm. long, reddish; spines 1 or 2, subulate, 1 to 2 cm.
long; flowers 4 cm. in diameter, yellow; fruit green, sterile.
Type locality: In Tucuman, Argentina.
Distribution: Northern Argentina.
Figure 131 is from a photograph of a plant in Argentina contributed by Dr. Spegazzini.
108
THE CACTACEAE.
Fig. 132.—Opuntia kiska-loro.
92. Opuntia kiska-loro Spegazzini, Anal. Mus.
Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 516. 1905.
Prostrate, rooting, forming spreading
clumps 3 to 6 dm. high; joints flat, at first
very narrow, becoming lanceolate, 20 cm. long,
4 cm. broad, shining green; spines 2 to 4, unequal, whitish, 4 to 6 cm. long; flowers orange,
rather large, 3 to 6 cm. broad; filaments pale
orange; stigma-lobes 6, flesh-colored; fruit 5
cm. long, deep violet-purple without, white
within; seeds mm. broad, pubescent.
Type locality: Deserts of La Rioja, Catamarca, Argentina.
Distribution: Northwest Argentina.
Figure 132 is from a photograph of the
type plant sent by Dr. Spegazzini.
93. Opuntia canina Spegazzini, Anal. Mus.
Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 518. 1905.
At first erect, then decumbent, 1 to 3
meters broad; joints flat, very narrow, attenuate
at both ends, 2.5 to 3.5 dm. long, 4.5 cm.
broad, shining green; areoles on young joints
unarmed; spines of areoles of older joints 1 or
2, sometimes 3, 1.5 to 3.5 cm. long, reflexed,
subterete, grayish white with yellowish tips;
flowers numerous, medium sized; ovary obovoid; corolla rotate, yellowish orange, 4 to 5
cm. broad; petals obovate; filaments yellow;
stigma-lobes 5; fruit obovoid, 2.6 to 2.8 cm.
long, red without, white within; seeds 4 mm.
broad, white, lanate.
Type locality: Near Pampablanca, Jujuy,
Fig. 133.—Opuntia canina.
Argentina.
Distribution: Provinces of Jujuy and Tucuman, Argentina.
Figure 133 is from a photograph sent by Dr. Spegazzini.
109
OPUNTIA
94. Opuntia montevidensis Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 545. 1905.
Cespitose, the branches to dm. high; joints 5 to 10 cm. long, obovate to elliptic; areoles not
very prominent; spines usually , 3 longer and stouter, 2 very small, reflexed, and setiform, the 2
or 3 longer ones erect or spreading, 2 to 3 cm. long; flowers 4 to 5 cm. broad, orange-colored;
fruit dark purple, clavate, 3.5 to 4 cm. long; seeds lanate.
Type locality: Cerro de Montevideo, Uruguay.
Distribution: Cerro de Montevideo, and near La Colonia, Uruguay.
95. Opuntia retrorsa Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 517.
(?) Opuntia platynoda Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 526. 1916.
1905.
Stems prostrate, intricately branched, creeping, rooting at the nodes; joints linear-lanceolate,
more or less attenuate at each end, flattened; areoles somewhat prominent, each subtended by
a long, dull purplish blotch; spines 1 to 3, reflexed, white below, with pinkish tips; flowers yellowish, 4 to 5 cm. broad; fruit about 2 cm. long, violet-purple on the outside, light rose on the
inside; seeds 2 to 2.5 mm. broad, somewhat villous.
Fig. 134.—Opuntia retrorsa.
Type locality: In the Territory of the Chaco, Argentina.
Distribution: Northern Argentina.
Plate xviii, igure 2, represents a plant from Argentina which lowered at the New York
Botanical Garden in 1911. Figure 134 is from a photograph sent by Dr. Spegazzini.
96. Opuntia utkilio Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 516. 1905.
Low, creeping plant, rooting at the joints, with elongated branches to 1 dm. long; joints flat,
elliptic-linear, 1 to 30 cm. long, 5 to 6 cm. broad; spines at first 2 or 3, the upper one longer,
later more numerous, reflexed; flowers small, 3.5 to 4 cm. broad, yellowish; ovary obovoid, somewhat spiny; fruit small, 3 cm. long, fleshy, insipid, reddish violet both within and without; seeds
suborbicular, 4 mm. broad, lanate.
Type locality: Province of Tucuman, Argentina.
Distribution: Northern Argentina.
Figure 135 is from a photograph sent by Dr. Spegazzini.
96a. Opuntia discolor sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 218.)
97. Opuntia anacantha Spegazzini in Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 391. 1904.
Usually decumbent and rooting along the under surface, sometimes ascending and clambering, I to 2.5 meters long; joints unarmed, dark green except for purple spots under the areoles,
elliptic to lanceolate, narrowed toward each end, 1.5 to 4 dm. long, 3.5 to 7 cm. broad; areoles
small; flowers large, numerous, yellowish orange, 4 cm. long, to 6 cm. in diameter; sepals large,
reddish, obtuse, emarginate or even 2-lobed; petals 12; style white; stigma-lobes white or rosecolored; fruit 3 cm. long, red, the pulp yellowish or white.
Type locality: In the southern Chaco, Argentina.
Distribution: Northeastern Argentina.
Figure 136 is from a photograph of a part of the type plant, received from Dr. Spegazzini.
110
THE CACTACEAE.
98. Opuntia grosseiana Weber in Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 391. 1904.
Described as having joints intermediate between those of Opuntia elata and O. anacantha,
and resembling these species.
Type locality: In Paraguay.
Distribution: Paraguay.
Introduced from Paraguay by Hermann Grosse; known to us only from the description.
Series 4. TUNAE.
Bushy, ascending, depressed, or erect plants, with rather large and more or less readily detached joints, bearing acicular or subulate, often numerous, yellow or white spines. The species
inhabit the West Indies, Mexico, Guatemala, and northern South America.
Fig. 135.—Opuntia utkilio.
Fig. 136.—Opuntia anacantha.
Key to Species.
Joints glabrous.
Spines slender, acicular.
Spines white.
Joints dull.
Joints dark green, repand; areoles somewhat elevated . . . . . . . . .
Joints light green, not repand; areoles not elevated.
Spines several at the areoles; plant ascending . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines 1 to few at the areoles or often wanting; plant erect
Joints shining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines yellow, at least when young; plant bushy branched . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines stout, subulate.
Spines white; joints relatively thick, turgid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines yellow, at least when young; joints relatively thin.
Plants low, spreading, 2 dm. high or less.
Joints repand; spines bright yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints not repand; spines pale yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plants tall, 1 to 2 meters high.
Joints obovate or broadly elliptic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints narrowly oblong or oblong-obovate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99. O. bella
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. 100. O.
. 101. O.
101a. O.
. 102. O.
triacantha
jamaicensis
guatemalensis
tuna
. . . . . . . . . . . . 102a. O. pennellii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 103. O. antillana
. . . . . . . . . . . . 103a. O. caracasana
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 104. O. wentiana
. . . . . . . . . . . . 104a. O. aequatorialis
OPUNTIA
111
Joints pubescent.
Areoles surrounded by purplish spots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105. O. decumbens
Areoles not surrounded by purplish spots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106. O. depressa
99. Opuntia bella sp. nov.
Stems low, 10 to 12 dm. high, forming thickets; joints oblong, repand, 10 to 16 cm. long,
dull dark green; areoles 1 to 2 cm. apart, somewhat elevated, small, filled with short brown wool
and glochids; leaves minute, 1.5 to 2.5 mm. long; spines white, 2 to 6, unequal, acicular, the
longer ones about 2 cm. long; flowers 5 cm. long, “sulphur-yellow turning to orange-red;” petals
20 to 22 mm. long; ovary deeply umbilicate; “fruit small, greenish yellow.”
Fig. 137.—Opuntia bella in the foreground
Type locality: Venticas del Dagua, Dagua Valley, western cordillera of Colombia.
Distribution: Western Colombia.
he type is based upon plants collected by Mr. Henry Pittier in the State of Cauca,
Colombia, in 1906, and grown ever since in Washington and New York. he species is very
common in Cauca, forming with, other cacti impenetrable thickets.
Figure 137 is from a photograph by Mr. Pittier of the type plant, taken near Cauca,
Colombia, in 1906; igure 138 is from a photograph by the same collector, showing lowering and fruiting joints; igure 139 represents a single joint.
112
THE CACTACEAE.
100. Opuntia triacantha (Willdenow) Sweet, Hort. Brit. 172.
1826.
Cactus triacanthos Willdenow, Enum. Pl. Suppl. 34. 1813.
Stems half procumbent or clambering over rocks, sometimes even erect but always low; joints
turgid, oblong, 4 to 8 cm. long, the terminal and often the second and third ones breaking off
easily; spines usually 3, white but often drying yellowish, 4 cm. long or less; flowers, including
the ovaries, 5 cm. long, brownish yellow to cream-colored, tinged with pink; petals obtuse; filaments and style pale green; fruit 2.5 cm. long, red, spineless.
Type locality: Not cited; cultivated in the Berlin Garden.
Distribution: Desecheo Island, Porto Rico; Lesser Antilles, St. homas to Guadeloupe.
Fig. 138.—Opuntia bella.
× 0.75.
Fig. 139.—Opuntia bella.
× 0.66
When published, the origin of this species was uncertain. It has been referred to the
South American lora, but if our interpretation is correct it is a West Indian plant. It was
introduced into cultivation in 1796.
his species is very common on lats or low hills and, so far as our observation goes,
is never found very far inland in the Lesser Antilles.
Professor Schumann’s description includes two species, one of which belongs here and
one in the Streptacanthae, perhaps as Mr. Berger thinks to O. amyclaea—and a tall plant,
3.5 meters high, is now grown in Italy under that name. The Index Kewensis refers O.
triacantha as a synonym of O. curassavica, which is erroneous if our interpretation of it
is correct.
Plate xviii, igure 3, represents joints of the plant collected on Antigua by Rose, Fitch,
and Russell in 1913. Figure 140 is from a photograph taken on St. Christopher, British
West Indies, by Paul G. Russell in 1913.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XIX
A HOEN & CO
H. A. Wood del.
1.
Plant.
Opuntia jamaicensis.
2, 3.
Flower.
4.
Longitudinal section of flower.
, 6.
Stamen.
.
Style.
113
OPUNTIA
An Opuntia collected by H. Pittier in Costa Rica and now growing in the cactus house
of the U. S. Department of Agriculture has not been identiied. It resembles somewhat
Opuntia triacantha, but is much out of the range of that species and difers from it in some
important respects. he joints are small, obovate to oblong, rounded at apex, dark green with
purple blotches below the areoles, with low, broad tubercles; margin of the areole bearing
short white hairs; spines usually wanting, but cultivated specimens bear a single short spine
6 to 7 mm. long from an areole.
Fig. 140.—Opuntia triacantha.
101. Opuntia jamaicensis Britton and Harris, Torreya 11: 130.
1911.
Erect, 1 meter high, with a short subcylindric trunk; branches several, ascending, joints dull
green, obovate, much narrowed at base, fiat, rather thin, readily detached, 7 to 13 cm. long, 5 to
7.5 cm. wide; areoles about 2.5 cm. apart; spines 1 to 5, usually only 2, acicular, unequal, white,
2.5 cm. long or less; flowers 4 cm. broad; petals 16 to 18; filaments greenish white; style white;
stigma-lobes 7 or 8, creamy white; fruit pyriform, red, 3.5 to 4 cm. long; seeds 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: St. Catherine, Jamaica.
Distribution: Plain south of Spanish Town, Jamaica.
he following igures are from paintings by Miss H. A. Wood:
Plate xviii, igure 4, shows a fruiting joint; igure 5 is of a section of the fruit; plate
xix, igure 1, shows the type plant about one-third natural size; igures 2, 3, and 4 are of
the lowers; igures 5 and 6 show the stamens; igure ,_7 represents the style.
101a. Opuntia guatemalensis sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 218.)
102. Opuntia tuna (Linnaeus) Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 3.
1769.
Cactus tuna Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 468. 1753.
Cactus humus Haworth, Misc. Nat. 187. 1803.
Opuntia humus Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 189. 1812.
Opuntia polyantha Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 190. 1812.
Cactus polyanthos Sims, Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 53: pl. 2691. 1826.
Opuntia multiflora Nicholson, Dict. Gard. 2: 503. 1885.
Plants 6 to 9 dm. high or less; joints usually small, but sometimes up to 16 cm. long, obovate
to oblong, light green, except above the areoles and there brownish; leaves minute, fugacious;
areoles large; spines 2 to 6, usually only 3 to 5, slightly spreading, light yellow; glochids yellow;
flowers about 5 cm. broad; sepals orbicular, yellowish, with a purple stripe along the center; petals
114
THE CACTACEAE.
light yellow, slightly tinged with red, oblong, rounded at apex; filaments short, greenish below;
style and stigma-lobes cream-colored or yellowish; ovary bright green, narrowed downward; fruit
red, obovoid, about 3 cm. long; seeds 3 to 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: Jamaica.
Distribution: Southern side of Jamaica, West Indies.
Opuntia tuna is one of the old Cactus species. It was described by Linnaeus as Cactus tuna
and by Philip Miller as Opuntia tuna. In the early part of the Nineteenth Century it was
renamed Opuntia humilis and also O. polyantha, and has long passed under the latter name.
Opuntia tuna, however, is one of the commonest Opuntia names in our botanical literature.
his is due partly to the fact that the name was early transferred to Opuntia dillenii, one of
the most common species, both wild and cultivated, and partly because tuna is the common
Fig. 141.—Opuntia tuna.
Fig. 142.—Opuntia tuna.
× 0.5.
Mexican name for opuntias, and many species have therefore been identiied as O. tuna. So
far as our studies indicate, this species is conined to the Jamaica lowlands.
Opuntia multiflora is referred here, although we do not know the plant. It is igured by
Nicholson (Dict. Gard. Nicholson 2: f. 754); this igure is republished by Rümpler (Förster,
Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 130), and by Knippel (Kakteen, pl. 28), both calling it Opuntia polyantha; while W. Watson (Cact. Cult. f. 79) uses the same illustration, calling it O. dillenii.
Opuntia coccinea (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 161. 1837) is given as a synonym of O. tuna,
but it was never published; it is doubtless diferent from O. coccinea Rainesque (Med. Fl.
U. S. 2: 247. 1830), also unpublished. he following names seem to belong here, but were
not formally published: Opuntia flexibilis (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 161. 1837); O. tuna humilis
Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 46. 1845); O. tuna laevior Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck.
186. 1834); and O. tuna orbiculata Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 47. 1845).
Illustrations: Loudon, Encycl. Pl. ed. 3. f. 6878, as Cactus tuna; Wiener Illustr. Gartenz.
10: f. 114, as Opuntia humilis; Blühende Kakteen 2 pl. 75; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f.
OPUNTIA
115
130; Knippel, Kakteen 2: pl. 28, these three as Opuntia polyantha; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 53:
pl. 2691, as Cactus polyanthos; De Candolle, Pl. Succ. Hist. 2: pl. 138[d], as Cactus opuntia
polyanthos; Descourtilz, Fl. Med. Antil. pl. 513, as Cactus opuntia.
Figure 141 is from a photograph of a plant collected by William Harris, near Kingston,
Jamaica, in 1913; igure 142 represents a joint of the same plant.
102a. Opuntia pennellii sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 219.)
103. Opuntia antillana Britton and Rose, Brooklyn Bot. Gard. Mem. 1: 74. 1918.
Growing in dense clumps, often 1 meter broad, more or less prostrate; joints usually obovate,
7 to 20 cm. long, narrow and nearly terete at base; terminal joints easily breaking off; leaves
conic-subulate, about 2 mm. long; areoles large, 2 to 3 cm. apart, containing soft brown wool;
spines stout, terete, 3 to 6 at an areole, unequal, 1 to 6 cm. long, yellow but becoming gray to
nearly white in age; glochids numerous, yellow; flowers 5 to 7 cm. long; petals broad, obtuse,
yellow, turning reddish in age; fruit reddish purple, 4 cm. long.
Fig. 143.—Opuntia antillana forming thickets.
Type locality: Near Basse Terre, St. Christopher, Rose, Fitch and Russell, No. 3230,
February 2, 1913.
Distribution: St. Christopher, St. Croix, Tortola, St.
homas, Porto Rico, and Hispaniola.
This species is one of the most widely distributed
in the West Indies and, on some of the islands on
which it occurs, generally the most abundant. This is
partly due to the fact that the terminal joints are easily
detached and may thus be widely scattered.
The question has f requently been raised in our
minds whether this species may not be of hybrid origin.
It has some resemblance to O. dillenii, but has much
smaller joints and these very f ragile. What the other
parent would be is not so clear. The f ragile joints
would suggest O. triacantha or O. repens, but otherwise
there is no close alliance with either of these. Owing
Fig. 144.—Opuntia antillana. × 0.33
to the fact that it is more common than any of these
species, and is often not associated with any of them, we believe it to be distinct. In the
116
THE CACTACEAE.
desert of Azua, Santo Domingo, this is the dominant cactus, forming dense, impenetrable
thickets on the low coastal plain. In the wild state the Azua plant has the joints often
bronzed or purple. On Tortola and St. Thomas it occurs with O. dillenii and O. repens,
and is there called bull suckers.
Figure 143 is from a photograph taken by Paul G. Russell in 1913 near Azua, Santo
Domingo; igure 144 represents joints of the type plant.
103a. Opuntia caracasana Salm-Dyck. (See Appendix, p. 219.)
104. Opuntia wentiana sp. nov.
Opuntia tunoides Britton and Shafer in Boldingh, Fl. Ned. W. Ind. Eiland 300. 1913. Not O. tunoidea
Gibbes.
Plant erect, much branched, 1 to 2 meters high joints obovate to elliptic, rather thin, up to 25
cm. long, usually rounded at apex, pale green, slightly glaucous; terminal joints somewhat fragile;
leaves small and subulate; spines on young joints usually 3, afterwards 4 or 5, when young pale
yellow but soon white; flowers small, 6 to 7 cm. long including the ovary; petals pale yellow, 3
cm. long, obovate, acute; style cream-colored; fruit small, red.
Type locality: Curaçao.
Distribution: Venezuela, and the neighboring islands, Margarita, Bonaire, Curaçao, and
Aruba.
Dr. Rose found this plant repeatedly in Venezuela and writes of it as follows: Very
common not only on the savannas along the coast but also on the neighboring hills along
with Lemaireocereus, Cephalocereus, and other cactus genera; its more or less fragile joints,
yellowish spines, bushy stature, and structure of lowers ally it with the Tunae.
This species has been confused with the Jamaican Opuntia tuna (Linnaeus) Miller,
which it resembles. Named in honor of Professor F. A. F. C. Went, distinguished Dutch
botanist.
104a. Opuntia aequatorialis sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 219.)
105. Opuntia decumbens Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 361.
1834.
Opuntia puberula Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 156. 1837.
Stems low, often creeping or trailing, rarely over 4 dm. high; joints 1 to 2 dm. long, oval
to oblong, covered with a short, soft pubescence; areole usually small, surrounded by a purple
blotch, bearing yellow glochids and wool, the wool cobweb-like on very young joints; spines
often wanting, usually solitary but sometimes numerous, slender or rather stout, 4 cm. long and
yellow; flowers numerous, small, including the ovary about 4 cm. long; petals dark yellow; fruit
deep purple, very juicy; seeds about 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Guatemala and Mexico as far north as Mazatlan and Tamaulipas.
Opuntia repens Karwinsky (Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 361. 1834) and O. irrorata Martius
are usually given as synonyms of this species, but as they were printed without descriptions,
they should hardly be referred to synonymy.
he species has long been in cultivation, a colored illustration having been published in
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 1841. It grows luxuriously in greenhouses, lowering profusely
in the spring.
We have referred here Opuntia puberula Pfeifer, which seems to be diferent from the
plant now grown in collections under that name. Pleifer’s original description, based upon
sterile plants alone, may be paraphrased as follows: Joints thick, obovate, 7.5 to 12.5 cm. long
by 5 to 7.5 cm. broad, puberulent, green; areoles somewhat remote, each surrounded by a red
spot, bearing in the upper part a bunch of short glochids and below 2 to 4 slender, white,
divergent spines, the longer ones 8 mm. long; leaves 4 mm. long, acute, red at apex.
Labouret’s description of 1853, of O. puberula Pfeifer, is very similar to Pfeifer’s, except
that he states that the spines are 9 cm. long. Both these descriptions answer very well to
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XX
A HOEN & CO
M. E. Eaton del.
1, 2. Flowering and fruiting joint of Opuntia decumbens.
(All natural size.)
3.
Probable hybrid, with fruit and flower.
117
OPUNTIA
the plant which we know as Opuntia decumbens, originally described from plants growing in
the Botanical Garden in Vienna.
Opuntia decumbens irrorata Forbes (Hort. Tour. Germ. 158. 1837) is doubtless the
same as O. irrorata Martius (Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 154. 1837). These and O. decumbens
longispina Salm-Dyck (Haage and Schmidt, Haupt-Verzeichnis 1912: 230. 1912) presumably belong here.
Opuntia parvispina Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 238. 1850), described from
garden specimens of unknown origin, without flowers, has never been definitely placed.
Schumann lists it among his unknown species, but attributes it to Mexico. Salm-Dyck
states that it resembles O. puberula, but that it is glabrous.
Illustrations: Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 68: pl. 3914; Blühende Kakteen 3: pl. 132.
Fig. 145.—Opuntia decumbens.
Plate xx, igure 1, represents a lowering joint of a plant collected by Dr. MacDougal
and Dr. Rose at Tehuacán, Mexico, in 1906; igure 2 represents a fruiting joint of a plant
collected by William R. Maxon at El Rancho, Guatemala, in 1905. Figure 145 is from a
photograph of the plant taken at Tomellín, Mexico, by Dr. MacDougal in 1906.
106. Opuntia depressa Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 517.
1908.
Low, creeping or spreading plant, sometimes 60 cm. high and forming a patch 3 to 4 meters in
diameter; joints of a dark glossy yellowish green color, pubescent, when young, obovate, 20 cm. long,
usually with 1 long, somewhat curved spine at each areole, sometimes with 1 to 3 shorter ones, all
yellowish; old joints oblong, 30 cm. long, bearing 4 to 6 spines at each areole; lowers red; fruit small,
globular, with large clusters of brown glochids, when immature with a broad, deep umbilicus.
Type locality: Near Tehuacán, Mexico.
Distribution: Southern Mexico.
his plant is very common about Tehuacán growing with species of Agave, Beaucarnea,
and Echinocactus.
Figure 146 is from a photograph taken by Dr. MacDougal of the type plant.
118
THE CACTACEAE.
Fig. 146.—Opuntia depressa, in the foreground.
Series 5. BASILARES.
We recognize eight species as forming this series. They are low or bushy, much branched
plants, with flat, thin, broad joints, the areoles small, usually numerous and close together.
Joints papillose, not pubescent.
Fruit juicy, red . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fruit dry or nearly dry . . . . . . .
Joints mostly manifestly pubescent.
Spines none or few.
Flowers red . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers yellow to orange.
Joints bright green.
Glochids long . . . . . . .
Glochids short . . . . . . .
Joints grayish green . . . . .
Spines very numerous.
Areoles close together . . . . . .
Areoles distant . . . . . . . . . . .
Key to Species.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107. O. lubrica
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108. O. treleasei
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109. O. basilaris
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110. O. microdasys
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111. O. macrocalyx
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112. O. ruf ida
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113. O. pycnantha
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114. O. comonduensis
107. Opuntia lubrica Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 169.
1910.
“A low ascending, spreading species very similar in habit to O. microdasys, frequently 44 dm.
high and when well developed 10 dm. or more in diameter; joints sub-circular to obovate, about 15
by 20 cm., or in case of last joints of previous year about 12 by 15 cm., bright, glossy, leaf-green,
very evidently papillate but scarcely pubescent under a lens; leaves subulate, cuspidate-pointed, 6 to 9
mm. in length; areoles 15 to 22 mm. apart, 4 to 6 mm. in diameter, sub-circular, prominent; spicules
prominent, 4 to 5 mm. in length, erect, bushy, in crescentic tufts in upper portion of areoles, becoming much more numerous in age, and at 2 to 4 years completely illing the areole, and, like O. ruf ida
and some other species, becoming very abundant and conspicuous by proliferation of areolar tissue
into short raised or columnar structures; spines exceedingly variable, sometimes nearly absent, again
quite abundant and irregularly distributed, none to many, mostly 1 to 3, becoming more numerous
with age and in scattering areoles to as high as 16, mostly about 12 mm. long, but sometimes 21/2
cm., yellowish, translucent, bonelike, sometimes darker at base; fruits decidedly acid, light red without
with yellowish green rind and red pulp; seed small, thin shelled, about 3 mm. in diameter.”
Type locality: Near Alonzo, Mexico.
Distribution: Known only from the type locality.
119
OPUNTIA
Our examination of a painting of this plant in the collection made by Dr. Griiths
showed it to have great similarity to Opuntia ruf ida.
Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: pl. 23.
Figure 147 is copied from the illustration above
cited.
108. Opuntia treleasei Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3:
434. 1896.
Opuntia basilaris treleasei Toumey, Cycl. Amer. Hort. Bailey 3:
1147. 1901.
Opuntia treleasei kernii Griffiths and Hare, N. Mex. Agr. Exp.
Sta. Bull. 60: 81. 1906.
Low, sometimes 3 dm. high, spreading at base, some
of the branches of 2 to 4 erect joints; joints obovate, 15
cm. long or more, fleshy, pale bluish green, glabrous, terete
at base; areoles numerous, filled with dirty yellow glochids,
usually without spines, sometimes quite spiny; flowers rosecolored; fruit dry, subglobose, with large areoles filled with
glochids and sometimes bearing spines; seeds large, turgid,
7 cm. in diameter.
Type locality: Caliente, in the Tehachapi Mountains,
California.
Distribution: Southern California.
Figure 148 is from a photograph of the plant growing
on the mesa southeast of Bakersield, California, taken
by Dr. MacDougal in 1913.
109. Opuntia basilaris Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer.
Acad. 3: 298. 1856.
Opuntia basilaris ramosa Parish, Bull. Torr. Club 19: 92. 1892.
Opuntia intricata Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 10.
1916.
Fig. 147.—Opuntia lubrica.
Fig. 148.—Opuntia treleasei, Southern California.
120
THE CACTACEAE.
Stems low, growing in clumps, either prostrate or erect, sometimes 12 dm. high; joints broadly
obovate, 8 to 20 cm. long, slightly pubescent or glabrous, usually highly colored; leaves 2 to 5 mm.
long, subulate; areoles numerous, filled with white to brown wool and brownish glochids; spines
none or rarely a few at upper areoles; flowers large, 6 to 8 cm. long, deep purple or sometimes
white; filaments purple; fruit dry, globular to obovoid; seeds large, thick, 6 to 10 mm. broad.
Type locality: From Cactus Pass down the valley of the Bill Williams River.
Distribution: Northern Sonora, western Arizona, southern California, Nevada, and
southern Utah.
This is a variable species as to habit, size, pubescence, and color of flowers. The
variety ramosa described by Mr. Parish is more erect than the ordinary form and glabrous.
It has large, handsome flowers, and is a splendid plant for outdoor cultivation where
the climate is suitable, but does not live long in greenhouses. It is called beaver-tail in
Arizona.
Opuntia humistrata Griiths (Bull. Torr. Club 43: 83. 1916) we refer here from the
description; it is said to difer from O. basilaris “by its much smaller as well as diferent
shaped joints”; it was found in the San Bernardino Mountains, northern California, within
the range of O. basilaris.
he following varieties are listed, but have
not been described: albiflora, coerulea, nana, and
pfersdorff ii.
Opuntia basilaris cordata is a garden plant
briely described by F. Forbes (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 16: 46. 1906), of which we have seen
no specimens.
Illustrations: Cact. Journ. 1: 167; Dict.
Gard. Nicholson 2: f. 750; Förster, Handb.
Cact. ed. 2. f. 129; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 13, f.
1 to 5; pl. 23 , f. 14; Rümpler, Sukkulenten
f. 123; W. Watson, Cact. Cult. f. 76; Cact.
Journ. 1: pl. October, as Opuntia basilaris var.
cristata and var. nevadensis; Alverson, Cact. Cat.
Fig. 149.—Opuntia basilaris.
frontispiece, as Opuntia basilaris albiflora.
Figure 149 is copied from Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 13, f. 1, an illustration cited above.
Opuntia brachyclada Griiths (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 25. 1914) is an anomalous
plant with some of the joints terete and others somewhat lattened. It has been suggested
that it is a hybrid between a cylindric and a lat-jointed species; but, so far as we know,
natural hybrids do not occur between species of these subgenera. It is more likely to be
an anomalous form of Opuntia basilaris, a form of which is known in the same mountains
where it was found.
110. Opuntia microdasys (Lehmann) Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 154.
1837.
Cactus microdasys Lehmann, Ind. Sem. Hamburg. 16. 1827.
Opuntia pulvinata De Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 119. 1828.
Opuntia microdasys minor Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 186. 1834.
Opuntia microdasys laevior Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 241. 1850.
Often low and creeping but sometimes nearly erect and to 6 dm. high; joints oblong to orbicular,
10 to 15 cm. long, soft-velvety, usually pale green, spineless; areoles conspicuous, closely set, filled
with numerous yellow or brown glochids; flowers usually produced in abundance, 4 to 5 cm. long,
pure yellow or tinged with red;, sepals acuminate; petals broad, retuse; filaments and style white;
stigma-lobes 6 to 8, green; fruit dark red, juicy, nearly globular; seeds small, 2 to 3 mm. broad.
Type locality: In Mexico, but originally stated by Lehmann as coming from Brazil.
Distribution: Northern Mexico.
121
OPUNTIA
In spite of its troublesome glochids, which easily become detached, this species has long
been a greenhouse favorite. No cactus collection, however small, lacks one or more pots of
this species, which rarely grows large in cultivation.
Opuntia microdasys is usually credited to Lehmann, but he apparently published it as
Cactus microdasys, and this is the way it is cited in the Index Kewensis. Lehmann soon
republished this species (Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. 16: 317) where it appears as Cactus (Opuntia)
microdasys. The first use of the name of Opuntia microdasys was by Salm-Dyck (Hort.
Dyck. 186) in 1834, but was without description or synonymy. Pfeiffer in 1837, however, republishes Lehmann’s description under
Opuntia and is therefore cited as the author
of the binomial. Here it is first credited to
Mexico, although Lehmann stated definitely
that it comes f rom Brazil; this he does also
with regard to Opuntia tunicata and Cactus
bradypus, both Mexican species, while Cactus
Fig. 150.—Opuntia microdasys.
Fig. 151.—Opuntia, probable hybrid.
linkii and C. ottonis, both credited to Mexico, are known only f rom South America.
If this Opuntia really came originally f rom Brazil, it might very well be the same as
Opuntia inamoena.
As shown above (p. 116), Opuntia puberula is referred to O. decumbens. he O. puberula
of our gardens, however, is quite a diferent plant, and in all probability is of hybrid origin.
It is almost identical with a hybrid between O. microdasys and O. cantabrigiensis which Dr.
Rose collected in Hidalgo, Mexico, in 1905, and which is now grown in the collection in
Washington and in the New York Botanical Garden.
Illustrations: Agr. Gaz. N. S. W. 25: pl. opp. p. 138; p. 138; Gard. Chron. III. 30: f. 76;
Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 28, in part; 20: pl. 12, in part; Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst.
1908: pl. 10, f. 4; U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Pl. Ind. Bull. 262: pl. 5, f. 2.
Plate xxii, igure 1, represents joints of the plant grown in a garden at Riverside, California, received by Dr. Rose in 1905. Figure 150 is from a photograph taken by Professor
F. E. Lloyd in Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1908.
122
THE CACTACEAE.
Plate xx, igure 3, shows a lowering joint of a plant sent to the New York Botanical
Garden by M. Simon, of St. Ouen, Paris, France, in 1901 , as Opuntia puberula. Figure 151
is from a photograph of the plant sent from La Mortola, Italy, to the same institution in
1912, as Opuntia puberula.
111. Opuntia macrocalyx Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 268.
1908.
“A profusely, divaricately branched, ascending or erect, spreading plant, 9 to 10 dm. high
and about the same in diameter; joints long-obovate, variable but commonly 9 by 22 cm. for last
year’s growth, gray green, pubescent, velvety to the touch; areoles subcircular, usually 2 to 3 mm.
in diameter, very close to 1 cm. apart, slightly sunken; wool tawny, prominent, as long as spicules
and occupying lower half of areole; spicules reddish brown, about 1 mm. long, occupying upper
half of areole, easily separable and causing fully as much annoyance in handling as those of O.
microdasys, in age often appearing dirty yellow in situ but distinctly reddish brown when removed;
strictly spineless; flowers yellow, green outwardly, the leaves on ovary very long subulate and changing gradually into the sepals which are very long subulate, delicately pointed, loosely arranged or
often half recurved at apex, giving to the bud a rather ragged appearance; fruit red but both pulp
and rind greenish, long obovate to cylindrical, about 2 by 7 cm., with but few rather small seeds,
about 3 mm. in diameter.”
Fig. 152.—Opuntia macrocalyx.
× 0.75.
Fig. 153.—Opuntia rufida.
Type locality: In cultivation at Riverside, California.
Distribution: Known only from cultivated plants; perhaps also from Coahuila, Mexico.
Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 28, in part.
Figure 152 is drawn from a joint of the plant collected by Edward Palmer at Saltillo,
Mexico, in 1904.
112. Opuntia rufida Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 298.
1856.
Opuntia microdasys ruf ida Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 706. 1898.
More or less erect, 2 to 15 dm. high, with a somewhat definite trunk; joints nearly orbicular,
6 to 25 cm. in diameter, thickish, velvety-tomentose, dull grayish green; leaves subulate, caducous,
4 to 6 cm. long, green with reddish tips; areoles large, filled with numerous brown glochids;
123
OPUNTIA
flowers yellow to orange, 4 to 5 cm. long including the ovary; petals obovate, 2 to 2.5 cm. long;
filaments greenish white, short, 1 cm. long; style 1.5 cm. long, thick, bulbous just above the base;
stigma-lobes 5, deep green; ovary globular, 1.5 cm. in diameter, umbilicate, with large areoles;
fruit, according to field observation of Dr. Griffiths, bright red.
Type locality: About Presidio del Norte, on the Rio Grande.
Distribution: Texas and northern Mexico.
his species seems much less common than O. microdasys, with which it is often confused. he joints are gray or bluish green, and the glochids are brown. It does fairly well
under greenhouse conditions.
Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 3; Carnegie Inst. Wash. 269: pl. 11, f. 94.
Figure 153 is from a photograph of a plant brought from Mexico for the New York
Botanical Garden in 1896 by Mrs. N. L. Britton.
Fig. 154.—Opuntia pycnantha. Along the coastal plain of Lower California.
113. Opuntia pycnantha Engelmann in Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 423.
1896.
Opuntia pycnantha margaritana Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 424. 1896.
Often low and creeping, but sometimes forming a clump 2 dm. high; joints oblong to orbicular, often 20 cm. long, puberulent or papillose, usually nearly hidden by the thick mass of
spines; areoles large and closely set, the upper part filled with yellow or brown glochids, and
the lower part with 8 to 12 yellow or brown reflexed spines 2 to 3 cm. long; leaves and flowers
unknown; fruit cm. long, very spiny; seeds 2 cm. broad, very thick.
Type locality: Magdalena Bay, Lower California.
Distribution: Southern Lower California.
Coulter’s variety margaritana is known only from Margarita Island, while the species
proper is known only from an adjacent island, Magdalena. hey difer only in the color of
their spines and glochids. Both have been in cultivation in New York City and Washington,
but are not well suited for indoor plants.
his species grows in one of the driest parts of Lower California on islands where there
is no surface water and where there is no rain sometimes for ive or six years.
Figure 154 is from a photograph taken by Dr. Rose near Santa Maria Bay, Magdalena
Island, Lower California, in 1911.
124
THE CACTACEAE.
114. Opuntia comonduensis (Coulter) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 519.
1908.
Opuntia angustata comonduensis Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 425. 1896.
Low, spreading plants, sometimes 2 dm. high and forming broad clumps; joints obovate to
orbicular, 12 to 15 cm. long, softly pubescent; areoles large, filled with brown wool and yellow
glochids; lower areoles spineless, the upper ones bearing 1 or 2, rarely 3, or on old stems as
many as 10, slender spines, 3 to 5 cm. long or longer, yellow; flowers, including ovary, 6 cm.
long, yellow; fruit purple, 4 cm. long, spineless; seeds 4 to 4.5 mm. broad, thick.
Type locality: Comondu, Lower California.
Distribution: Southern Lower California.
As was pointed out by Mrs. K. Brandegee, this plant is not closely related to Opuntia
angustata.
Fig. 155.—Opuntia comonduensis.
This species has long been known only from herbarium specimens collected by Mr.
Brandegee in 1889. In 1911 Dr. Rose collected considerable material both near the town
of San Jose” and on Carmen Island which has since been in cultivation in the New York
Botanical Garden and in Washington. The above description is based largely on this
collection.
his species sometimes grows with O. tapona, in fact being confused in the original
material; except for its pubescent joints, they are not readily distinguished.
Figure 155 is from a photograph by Mr. T. W. Smillie of a plant collected by Mr. E.
W. Nelson and Mr. E. A. Goldman in Lower California in 1906.
OPUNTIA
125
Fig. 156.—Opuntia inamoena. A single plant. Photograph by P. H. Dorsett.
Series 6. INAMOENAE.
A single, prostrate or depressed, usually spineless, light-green
Brazilian species.
115. Opuntia inamoena Schumann in Martius, Fl. Bras. 4 2: 306.
1890.
Opuntia quipa Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 894. 1898.
Usually low, often prostrate, forming clumps 2 to 10 dm. broad,
or sometimes in sheltered situations 6 cm. high and forming dense,
extensive thickets; roots fibrous; joints bluish green, when young
bright green, orbicular to oblong, 8 to 16 cm. long, usually quite
thick, sometimes 3 cm. thick, usually quite spineless; leaves minute,
2 mm. long; areoles small, when young filled with numerous yellowish-brown glochids; glochids unequal, spreading, easily becoming detached; flowers small, brick-red; petals spreading; filaments orange;
style yellow; stigma-lobes pale green; fruit globular, yellowish, 2.5
to 3 cm. in diameter.
Type locality: Schumann cites Rio de Janeiro in original Fig. 157.—Opuntia inamoena.
× 0.66.
description.
Distribution: Pernambuco, Bahia, and Minas Geraes, Brazil.
his plant is known as quipa in Bahia, Brazil.
his species is very common in all the dry part of Bahia and, although abundant and
mostly spineless, is avoided by all kinds of grazing animals, even when the country is devoid of other suitable forage. It has been suggested that the plant may be bitter, or that the
glochids are troublesome; the glochids, however, are usually wanting on old joints.
he plant rarely develops acicular spines up to 3 cm. long on some joints, as shown by
specimens collected by Dr. Rose and Mr. Russell near Machado Portello, Brazil.
Figure 156 is from a photograph taken by Mr. P. H. Dorsett near Joazeiro, Brazil, in
1914; igure 157 is from a plant collected by Dr. Rose near Machado Portello, Bahia, Brazil,
in 1915.
126
THE CACTACEAE.
Series 7. TORTISPINAE.
Prostrate or spreading plants rarely erect, with mostly rather small, persistent, scarcely tuberculate, orbicular or oval joints, and large flowers; natives of the eastern, central, and southern
United States.
Plate 21 represents a group of hardy cacti, chiely species of this series, at the New
York Botanical Garden.
Key to Species.
Spines none or only 1 or 2 at an areole.
Joints bluish green; at least when young; roots tuber-like.
Fruit clavate; joints thin.
Fruit about 4.5 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fruit 5 to 7 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fruit obovoid; joints turgid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints green; roots not tuberous.
Flowers 8 cm. broad or less.
Joints orbicular or little longer than wide . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints oblong, much longer than wide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers 10 to 12 cm. broad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines mostly 2 or more at an areole.
Ovary obconic, 2 to 4 cm. long.
Roots tuberous.
Joints repand; plant suberect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints scarcely repand; plants nearly prostrate . . . . . . . . .
Roots not tuberous.
Flowers and f ruit small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers and f ruit large.
Spines white to light brown, slender.
Seeds acute-margined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Seeds obtuse-margined.
Fruit large, 4 to 5 cm. long; spines light colored . . . . . . .
Fruit small, 2 to 3 cm. long; spines brown . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines dark brown, stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ovary narrowly subcylindric, 5 to 6 cm. long . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116. O. allairei
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116a. O. lata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117. O. pollardii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118. O. opuntia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119. O. macrarthra
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120. O. grandiflora
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121. O. austrina
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122. O. macrorhiza
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123. O. plumbea
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124. O. tortispina
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116. Opuntia allairei Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 83.
A low, spreading, tuberous-rooted, prostrate
plant, with some of the joints ascending; joints
bluish green, obovate, usually 10 to 15 cm. long,
originally described as even longer, with or without
spines; spines, if present, 1 to 3, yellowish brown,
2.5 cm. long or less, slender but a little flattened;
glochids numerous, especially abundant at very old
areoles, yellow; leaves 6 to 8 mm. long; flowers 6
to 7 cm. broad, yellow with a red center; fruit to
5 cm. long, dark red.
. .125.
. .126.
. .127.
. 127a.
O.
O.
O.
O.
stenochila
delicata
fuscoatra
macateei
Fig. 158.—Opuntia
allairei. × 0.66.
1909.
Type locality: Mouth of Trinity River,
Texas.
Distribution: Southern Texas and western
Louisiana.
his species is perhaps nearest O. macrorhiza,
but difers in the usual absence of spines and
in diferently colored joints.
Illustrations: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 2,
f. 2; pl. 5; pl. 12, in part.
Figure 158 is copied from the second illustration above cited.
116a. Opuntia lata Small, Journ. N. V. Bot. Gard.
20: 26. 1919. (See Appendix, p. 220.)
Fig. 159.—Opuntia pollardii.
× 0.4.
117. Opuntia pollardii Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 523. 1908.
Prostrate, tuberiferous, related to Opuntia opuntia; young joints bluish green, glaucous, 5 to 16
cm. long, 1 to 2 cm. thick; areoles 1.5 to 3 cm. apart, bearing numerous yellow glochids 2 to 3 cm.
BRITTON AND ROSE
P L AT E X X I
Group of hardy preakly pears, mostly Opuntia tortispina, in the herbaceous grounds of the New York Botanical Garden.
127
OPUNTIA
long, those toward the top of the joint each with a single stout, stiff, pungent spine 2.5 to 4 cm.
long; fruit short-obovoid, 2.5 cm. long, 1.5 cm. thick, with a few areoles bearing tufts of brownish
wool but no spines and but few glochids; flowers yellow, 6 to 8 cm. broad; sepals deltoid to rhombic; fruit 2.5 to 4 cm. long; seeds 4 to 6 mm. wide, much thicker than those of Opuntia opuntia.
Type locality: Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi.
Distribution: Coastal plain, Church Island, North Carolina, to northern Florida, Alabama,
and Mississippi.
Figure 159 is from a photograph of fruiting joints collected by A. H. Howell on Petit
Bois Island, Alabama.
118. Opuntia opuntia (Linnaeus) Karsten, Deutsch. Fl. 888.
1882.
Cactus opuntia Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 468. 1753.
Cactus compressus Salisbury, Prodr. 348. 1796.
Cactus opuntia nana De Candolle, Pl. Succ. Hist. 2: pl. 138. [A]. 1799.
Cactus humifusus Rafinesque, Ann. Nat. 15. 1820.
Opuntia vulgaris major Salm-Dyck, Observ. Bot. 3: 9. 1822.
Opuntia vulgaris media* Salm-Dyck, Observ. Bot. 3: 9. 1822.
Opuntia humifusa Rafinesque, Med. Fl. U. S. 2: 247. 1830.
Opuntia mesacantha Rafinesque, Bull. Bot. Seringe 216. 1830.
Opuntia caespitosa Rafinesque, Bull. Bot. Seringe 216. 1830.
Opuntia intermedia Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 364. 1834.
Opuntia nana Visiani, Fl. Dalmatica 3: 143. 1852.
Opuntia raf inesquei† Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 295. 1856.
Opuntia raf inesquei microsperma Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 295. 1856.
Opuntia raf inesquei minor Engelmann and Bigelow, Pac. R. Rep. 4: 55. 1856.
Opuntia vulgaris raf inesquei Gray, Man. Bot. ed. 2. 136. 1856.
Opuntia raf inesquei arkansana Rümpler in Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. 922. 1885.
Opuntia mesacantha microsperma Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 429. 1896.
Opuntia mesacantha parva Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 429. 1896.
Opuntia vulgaris nana Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 715. 1898.
Opuntia humifusa microsperma Heller, Cat. N. Amer. Pl. ed. 2. 8. 1900.
Opuntia humifusa parva Heller, Cat. N. Amer. Pl. ed. 2. 8. 1900.
Low, spreading plants, sometimes ascending, with fibrous roots; joints orbicular to oblong, 3 to
13 cm. long, rarely longer, thick, dark green; areoles usually far apart; leaves subulate, appressed or
spreading, 4 to 8 mm. long, early deciduous; spines often wanting, when present usually one from
an areole, rarely two, 5 cm. long or less, brownish or sometimes nearly white, but on seedlings 5 to
12; glochids numerous, yellow to dark brown; flowers usually bright yellow, sometimes with reddish
centers, 5 to 8.5 cm. broad; petals 8 to 10, widely spreading; filaments yellow; stigma-lobes white;
fruit obovoid to oblong, red, juicy, 2.5 to 5 cm. long, edible; seeds to 5 mm. broad.
Type locality: In Virginia.
Distribution: Sandy and rocky places from Massachusetts to Virginia, the mountains of
Georgia and central Alabama extending north into southern Ontario, Canada (Point Pelee),
west in isolated colonies to northern Illinois, eastern Missouri and Tennessee, and long
established in the mountains of northern Italy and Switzerland.
Linnaeus undoubtedly had two species in his Cactus opuntia, one being the low Virginia plant commonly known as O. vulgaris, and the other a tall, branching plant igured by
Bauhin (p. 154). Upon Bauhin’s illustration Miller based his Opuntia vulgaris, a name which
was afterwards transferred to the low, procumbent plant of the eastern United States. For
this reason Burkill (Rec. Bot. Surv. India 4: 288. 1911) would displace the name O. vulgaris
and take up the name O. nana. We are quite in agreement with him as to the O. vulgaris
Miller, but we retain for the low plant the speciic name opuntia Linnaeus. he tall species
is O. monacantha, which we now call O. vulgaris, as suggested by Burkill.
It is to be noted that the southern Atlantic coast specimens of Opuntia opuntia have
yellow or greenish-yellow glochids, while those in its northern and western range have
brown glochids. Its southwestern limit is uncertain. It probably does not extend to Texas,
although two varieties have been reported from there; these we are disposed to treat as
species under the names Opuntia macrorhiza and O. grandiflora. It is reported from eastern
*Opuntia vulgaris minor (Labouret, Monogr. Cact. 476. 1853) was doubtless intended for this name.
†Sometimes spelled raf inesquiana.
128
THE CACTACEAE.
Kansas, but the plants found there are not like those found in Illinois and Indiana, having
more spines and a glaucous bloom, and are tuberous-rooted, and these are referred by us
to O. macrorhiza. he published western varieties of O. humifusa are speciically distinct; we
have referred them to O. tortispina.
Some of the joints of this plant elongate under shade conditions, reaching at least 2.5
dm. in length and not more than 5 cm. in width.
Opuntia arkansana (Hirscht, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 8: 115. 1898) has not been formally
described. he name should doubtless be referred here.
Opuntia prostrata Monville and Lemaire (Förster, Handb. Cact. 478. 1846) was given
only as a synonym of O. intermedia, while O. intermedia prostrata Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort.
Dyck 1849. 69. 1850) was based on O. prostrata.
O. raf inesquei parva Haage and Schmidt (Verzeichnis Blumenzwiebeln 1915: 29. 1915)
is a new name for O. mesacantha parva Coulter.
Under Opuntia vulgaris Michaele Gandoger in his Flora Europea (9: 145. 1886) has
proposed the following new binomials: O. recedens, O. morisii, O. cycloidea, O. inaequalis, O.
ligustica, and O. mediterranea. he following varieties cited under O. humifusa are in the
trade: cymochila, greenei, macrorhiza, oplocarpa and stenochila (Stand. Cycl. Hort. Bailey 4:
2363. 1916.)
Fig. 160.—Opuntia opuntia in its natural surroundings on Staten Island, New York.
Illustrations: Illustr. Fl. 2: f. 2527; ed. 2. 2: f. 2986; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 50: pl. 2393;
Loudon, Encycl. Pl. ed. 3. f. 6884, the last two as Cactus opuntia; De Candolle, Pl. Succ.
Hist. 2: pl. 138 [A]; DeTussac, Fl. Antill. 2: pl. 30, the last two as Cactus opuntia nana.
Dept. Agr. N. S. W. Misc. Publ. 253: pl. [1], f. 2; Engler and Prantl, Planzenfam. 36a: f.
57, G; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 12; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 10, f. 1, 2; 4: pl. 23, f. 13;
Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen Nachtr. f. 1, all as Opuntia vulgaris. Standard Cycl. Hort.
Bailey 4: f. 2602, in part as Opuntia humifusa. Amer. Entom. Bot. 2: f. 160; Amer. Garden
11: 462; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 115: pl. 7041; Dict. Gard. Nicholson 2: f. 756; Fl. Serr. 22: pl.
2328; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 2; Gard. Mag. 4: 280; Gartenlora 24: 218; Lemaire,
Cact. f. 9; Meehan’s Monthly 2: pl. 6; 10: 121; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 10, f. 4, 5; pl. 23, f. 7,
8; Rümpler, Sukkulenten f. 125; W. Watson, Cact. Cult. 1. 84, all as Opuntia raf inesquei;
Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 11, f. 1, as Opuntia raf inesquei minor; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. 1. 126,
BRITTON AND ROSE
M. E. Eaton del.
1.
2.
3.
Joint of Opuntia microdasys.
Flowering joint of Opuntia macrarthra.
Fruit of Opuntia macrarthra.
PLATE XXII
4. Seed of same.
. Flowering joint of Opuntia opuntia.
(All natural size except 4.)
A HOEN & CO
OPUNTIA
129
as Opuntia raf inesquei arkansana; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 14: 124, as Opuntia vulgaris nana;
Miller, Fig. Pl. Gard. Dict. 2: pl. 191, as Opuntia folio minori, etc., Dict. Hort. Bois f. 638;
Rev. Hort. 40: f. 10, 11; 66: f. 59, all as Opuntia raf inesquiana. Wiener Illustr. Gartenz. 10:
f. 112, as Opuntia raf inesquiana arkansana.
Plate xxii, igure 5, represents a lowering joint of the plant which grows naturally on
schistose rocks in the New York Botanical Garden. Figure 160 is from a photograph of the
plant growing on sand dunes at Crooke’s Point, Staten Island, New York, taken by Howard
H. Cleaves in 1914.
119. Opuntia macrarthra Gibbes, Proc. Elliott Soc. Nat. Hist. 1: 273. 1859.
Stems prostrate or ascending; joints narrowly oblong to obovate, 12 to 35 cm. long, thick, pale
green, somewhat shining; leaves subulate, 10 mm. long, green, sometimes with purplish tips; areoles
large, 2 to 3 cm. apart, filled with brown wool; spines wanting, or sometimes 1, up to 2.5 cm. long;
glochids when present yellow; flowers not known; fruit narrowly obovoid, red, fleshy, 4 to 6 cm. long.
Type locality: Near Charleston, South Carolina.
Distribution: Coast of South Carolina.
his species, long overlooked, has recently been collected
by Dr. J. K. Small in the vicinity of the type locality.
his is doubtless one of the species to which Elliott
called attention and which he said he expected to publish,
but never did.* he original description long remained unnoticed in the Proceedings of the Elliott Society of Natural
History; it is as follows:
“The second, which we will call Opuntia macrarthra, falls
under the same section with the preceding, and seems to be
near Opuntia angustata, of Engelmann, from the west of the Rio
Grande; a prostrate species, joints from ten to fifteen inches long
and three inches wide, one-third of an inch thick; no spines,
fruit two and a half inches long, slender, clavate.”
Plate xv, igure 3, represents a fruiting joint collected by
Dr. Small on James Island, South Carolina, in 1916; plate
xxii, igure 2, represents a lowering joint of the plant collected by Dr. Small on the Isle of Palms, near Charleston,
South Carolina, in 1916; igure 3 shows a fruit of the same
plant and igure 4 a seed, enlarged.
120. Opuntia grandiflora Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 295.
1856.
Figs. 161, 162.—Opuntia grandiflora.
Opuntia raf inesquei grandiflora Engelmann, Pac. R. Rep. 4: 55. 1856.
Opuntia mesacantha grandiflora Coulter Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 429. 1896.
Low, with somewhat ascending branches; joints 12.5 to 15 cm. long; areoles 2.5 cm. apart;
spines usually wanting; flowers very large, 11 to 12.5 cm. broad, yellow with a red center; petals
broad; fruit elongated, 6 cm. long.
Type locality: On the Brazos, Texas.
Distribution: Eastern Texas.
Although Dr. Engelmann formally described this as a species, he introduced it as “probably only a southern variety of O. raf inesquei.” A little later he actually used the name as
a variety. he position of the plant is still uncertain; if specimens collected by Mr. Wm.
R. Maxon at Victoria, Texas, and by Mr. C. V. Piper at Dallas, Texas, belong here, as they
appear to, we believe it to be a distinct species.
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 11, f. 2, 3, as Opuntia raf inesquei grandiflora.
Figures 161 and 162 are copied from the illustrations above cited.
*Cactus opuntia. “It is probable that there are now three distinct species on the sea coast of the Southern States
covered under this name.” Elliott, A Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia, 1: 537.
130
THE CACTACEAE.
121. Opuntia austrina Small, Fl. Southeast. U. S. 816.
1903.
Opuntia youngii C. Z. Nelson, Chicago Examiner. June 13, 1915.
Roots fusiform or tuberous, resembling sweet potatoes, often 4 to 6 cm. in diameter, 5 to 15
cm. long; stems erect or ascending; joints narrowly obovate to oblong-obovate, thick, tuberculate,
repand, bright green, to 12 cm. long; leaves, soon deciduous, less than 10 mm. long; glochids yellowish; spines usually on the upper half and margin of the joint, often 2, sometimes 1 to 6, from an
areole, whitish or pinkish, darker at base and apex, twisted, sometimes wanting; flowers bright yellow,
6 to 7 cm. broad; petals cuneate, truncate or retuse at apex, mucronate; fruit 2.5 to 3 cm. long.
Fig. 163.—Opuntia austrina.
× 0.5.
Type locality: Miami, Florida.
Distribution: Southern Florida.
Opuntia youngii C. Z. Nelson, published in a Chicago newspaper, we have referred here,
after studying a specimen sent by the author.
Opuntia spinalba Rainesque (Atl. Journ. 1: 147. 1832) was described as from the keys of
Florida, and answers in some respects to O. austrina; but it is very unlikely that any plants
of the region inhabited by austrina were known to botanists as early as 1832.
Figure 163 represents a plant collected by Dr. Small at the type locality in 1901.
122. Opuntia macrorhiza Engelmann, Bost. Journ. Nat. list. 6: 206.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1850.
fusiformis Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 297. 1856.
raf inesquei fusiformis Engelmann, Pac. R. Rep. 4: 43. 1856.
mesacantha macrorhiza Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 430. 1896.
xanthoglochia Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 166. 1910.
roseana Mackensen, Bull. Torr. Club 38: 142. 1911.
Plant low, usually nearly prostrate, forming a clump 1 meter in diameter, from a cluster of
tuber-like roots, these sometimes 5 to 7.5 cm. in diameter; joints orbicular to obovate, dull green,
5 to 16 cm. long, about 1 cm. thick; leaves subulate, 4 to 10 mm. long; areoles rather large, the
lower ones and sometimes all of them spineless; glochids numerous, yellow or brown; spines, when
present, 1 to 4, unequal, yellow to brown, the longest 2.5 cm. long; flower yellow, with a reddish
or purplish center, 7 to 8 cm. broad; fruit narrowly obovoid, 3.5 to 5 cm. long, purple or red,
with a depressed umbilicus, not edible; seeds mm. in diameter, with broad margins.
Type locality: Rocky places on the Upper Guadalupe, Texas.
Distribution: Missouri and Kansas to Texas.
Opuntia seguina C. Z. Nelson (Galesburg Register, July 20, 1915), published in a newspaper, and said to have come from San Antonio, Texas, seems to be one of the Tortispinae,
131
OPUNTIA
and is probably referable to O. macrorhiza. hrough the kindness of Mr. Nelson; we have
seen a joint of this species.
Opuntia bulbosa Engelmann (Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 297. 1856) was used by Engelmann
for O. fusiformis, but never described.
Opuntia macrorhiza, originally described by Dr. Engelmann as a species, was afterwards
(Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 296. 1856) proposed as a subspecies but not formally indicated, so
that the reference O. raf inesquei macrorhiza Coulter (Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 430. 1896)
is the proper designation if it is used as a variety.
Illustrations: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 69; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 11, 127; Pac. R.
Rep. 4: pl. 12, f. 7, 8; pl. 23, f. 6; Suppl. Dict. Gard. Nicholson f. 606; W. Watson, Cact.
Cult. f. 82, 83; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: pl. 20, in part, this last as Opuntia xanthoglochia;
Addisonia 1: pl. 19.
Plate xiv, igure 5, represents a
lowering joint of the plant collected at
Irving, Dallas County, Texas, by Albert
Ruth in 1912.
123. Opuntia plumbea Rose, Smiths.
Misc. Coll. 50: 524. 1908.
Plant low, creeping, 10 cm. high, 20
to 30 cm. broad, few jointed; joints small,
nearly orbicular, 3 to 5 cm. in diameter,
of a dull lead-color, the surface somewhat
wrinkled in dead specimens; areoles rather
large for the size of the joints; spines pale
brownish, slender, usually porrect, often 3
cm. long, mostly 2 in number, rarely as
many as 4, sometimes one or even wanting; flowers very small, red; ovary naked;
fruit 1.5 to 2 cm. long with a few small
areoles and these simply woolly; seeds
small, rather turgid, smooth, and with a
shallow obtuse margin.
Type locality: San Carlos Indian
Fig. 164.—Opuntia plumbea
Reservation, Arizona.
Distribution: Arizona.
his is a peculiar little opuntia with very small joints and fruits. It is known only from
the original collections made by Mr. F. V. Coville in 1904.
Figure 164 is from a photograph of the type specimen.
124. Opuntia tortispina Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 293.
1856.
Opuntia tortisperma Engelmann, Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 23, f. 1 to 5. 1856.
Opuntia cymochila Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 295. 1856.
Opuntia raf inesquei cymochila Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 295. 1856.
Opuntia raf inesquei cymochila montana Engelmann and Bigelow, Pac. R. Rep. 4: 42. 1856.
Opuntia mesacantha cymochila Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 430. 1896.
Opuntia mesacantha greenei Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 431. 1896.
Opuntia mesacantha oplocarpa Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 431. 1896.
Opuntia greenei Engelmann in Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 523. 1908.
(?) Opuntia sanguinocula Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 26. 1914.
Prostrate and creeping; joints ascending, orbicular to obovate, 15 to 20 cm. long; areoles 1.5 to
3 cm. apart; spines several, often 6 to 8, the upper and longer ones 3 to 6 cm. long, either white,
yellowish, or brown; on the upper areoles one spine erect, the others spreading or with the lowermost
ones delexed; lowers sulphur-yellow, 6 to 7.5 cm. broad; fruit rather large, 4 to 5 cm. long, 2 to 3
cm. broad; seeds 4 to 6 mm. broad, thick, regular, with a slight indentation at the hilum.
Type locality: On the Camanchica Plains near the Canadian River.
Distribution: Wisconsin to South Dakota, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico.
132
THE CACTACEAE.
his has long remained one of our least-understood species. We believe now that it has
a wide range, and that it has been referred heretofore to several species. Opuntia cymochila
does not seem to difer from it, and the two published varieties of Opuntia mesacantha,
geographically out of harmony with that species, doubtless belong here.
Opuntia oplocarpa Engelmann (Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 431. 1896) was published only as a synonym. Opuntia raf inesquei greenei (Cat. Darrah Succ. Manchester 58.
1908) is a catalogue name.
The plant is hardy at New York, flowering profusely, and also at Buck Hill Falls,
eastern Pennsylvania.
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 12, f. 1 to 3; pl. 23, f. 10 to 12; Rev. Hort. Belg. 40:
after 186, all as Opuntia cymochila; Illustr. Fl. 2: f. 2528; ed. 2. 2: f. 2987; Pac. R. Rep. 4:
pl. 10, f. 3; Stand. Cycl. Hort. Bailey 4: f. 2602, in
part, these as Opuntia humifusa. Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 8,
f. 2, 3; pl. 23, f. 1 to 5, as O. tortisperma. Illustr. Fl. 2:
f. 2529; ed. 2. 2: f. 2988.
Plate xv, igure 4, represents a lowering and fruiting joint of a plant from Colorado, grown at the New
York Botanical Garden.
125. Opuntia stenochila Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad.
3: 296. 1856.*
Opuntia mesacantha stenochila Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb.
3: 430. 1896.
Prostrate; joints obovate, 10 cm. long by 7.5 cm. broad;
leaves small, 4 to 6 mm. long; spines usually 2, sometimes
3, spreading, I long (2.5 to 3 .cm. long), and 1 or 2 short
and reflexed, usually light-colored, sometimes nearly white;
glochids brown; flowers yellow, 6 cm. long; fruit very juicy,
4 to 5 cm. long or more, attenuate at base; seeds thick,
quite regular, with very narrow obtuse edges.
Type locality: Canyon of Zuni, New Mexico.
Distribution: Western New Mexico and Arizona.
This species has not been well understood. It
has usually passed as a variety of the common species of the eastern Mississippi Valley States, but it
grows in a very different region. It is the common
Opuntia stenochila,
low, spreading Opuntia of northwestern New Mexico Figs. 165, 166.—Fruits.
Fig. 167.—Joint.
and Arizona.
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 12, f. 4 to 6; pl. 23, f. 9.
Figures 165, 166, and 167 are copied from the irst illustration above cited.
126. Opuntia delicata Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: 310. 1911.
A small, procumbent plant with rather thin, ovate, bluish, slightly glaucous joints, often only
4 to 9 cm. in diameter; areoles prominent, bearing conspicuous brown glochids; lower areoles
spineless, the upper ones bearing 1 or 2 very slender brownish spines, the longer one 3 to 4 cm.
long; flowers yellow, 5 cm. long, 5 to 6 cm. broad; fruit oblong, spineless, 2 to 3 cm. long; seeds
small, about 4 mm. in diameter, nearly smooth.
Type locality: Calabasas, Arizona.
Distribution: Southeastern Arizona.
Figure 168 is from a photograph of the type plant.
*Although formally published as a species, Engelmann states that it is a form or subspecies, and hence Coulter
(Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 430. 1896) uses the synonym O. raf inesquei stenochila Engelmann.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XXIII
M. E. Eaton del.
A HOEN & CO
1.
Flowering joint of Opuntia fuscoatra.
4. Upper part of joint of Opuntia sulphurea.
3. Joint of Opuntia tenuispina. (All natural size.)
133
OPUNTIA
Fig. 168.—Opuntia delicata.
127. Opuntia fuscoatra Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 297.
1856.
Diffuse prostrate plants; joints orbicular to obovate, somewhat tuberculate, 5 to 8 cm. long, areoles
12 to 20 mm. apart, very large for the group; spines single or in twos or threes, one rather stout,
sometimes a little flattened, 2.5 to 3 cm. long, yellow to dark brown or even nearly black; usually
from the lower areoles; glochids numerous, brown; flowers 7.5 cm. broad, yellow; petals very broad;
stigma-lobes 5; ovary 2.5 cm. long, slender; fruit 4 to 5 cm. long, red; seeds 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: Sterile places of prairies west of Houston, Texas.
Distribution: Eastern Texas.
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 11, f. 4.
Plate xxiii, igure 1, represents a lowering joint of the plant collected by W. L. McAtee
at Rockport, Texas, in 1911.
127 a. Opuntia macateei sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 221.)
Opuntia rubiflora Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 529.
1916.
Described as a spreading plant 3 to 4.5 dm. high and a meter broad, with obovate, green
joints 12 to 18 cm. long, few white spines up to 5 cm. long with brown or straw-colored
bases, and pink lowers. he species is based on cuttings received from European collections,
and its origin is unknown.
We have received a similar if not identical plant from Haage and Schmidt of Erfurt,
Germany, and we suspect it to be a hybrid, having one of the Tortispinae as one of its
parents.
he speciic name rubiflora was used by Davidson a few months earlier than by Griiths
for another plant.
Series 8. SULPHUREAE.
Low or prostrate species, with rather thick, flat, tuberculate joints; fruit small, nearly globular.
Three species, natives of central and southern South America.
Key to Species.
Flowers yellow.
Spines stout, subulate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128. O. sulphurea
Spines slender, acicular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129. O. soehrensii
Flowers red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130. O. microdisca
134
THE CACTACEAE.
128. Opuntia sulphurea G. Don in Loudon, Hort. Brit. 196.
1830.
Opuntia maculacantha Förster, Handb. Gartenz. 17: 166. 1861.
Opuntia pampeana Spegazzini, Contr. Fl. Ventana 30. 1896.
Opuntia vulpina Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 895. 1898.
Plants low and spreading, forming broad clumps 1 to 2 meters in diameter, 3 dm. high or
less; joints flattened, oblong to obovate, 12 to 25 cm. long, thick, strongly tuberculate, usually
green but sometimes purplish; terminal joints easily detached; leaves conic, about 2 mm. long;
spines 2 to 8, generally straight but sometimes curved and twisted, spreading, 3 to 10 cm. long,
brownish to red, but sometimes quite pale at first; flowers about 4 cm. long, yellow; fruit with
a deep umbilicus, short, about 1 cm. long.
Type locality: Cited as Chile, but doubtless wrong.
Distribution: Dry parts of western Argentina; recorded also from Chile, and perhaps
occurring in Bolivia.
his species was not seen in Chile by Dr. Rose, and we are doubtful in considering the
Bolivian material to be O. sulphurea; the joints, as shown by Dr. Rose’s specimens, collected
at La Paz (No. 1886o), while thick, are not conspicuously tuberculate; the spines are rather
short and stif, white at irst, but somewhat yellowish or horn-colored in age.
he name Cactus sulphureus Gillies was published by G. Don at the place cited above
as a synonym of this species.
Opuntia maculacantha was irst described from specimens from Buenos Aires, which had
doubtless been sent down from the desert regions to the west or northwest. Schumann in
his Monograph referred this species to Mexico, but in his Nachtrag corrects this statement.
Dr. Weber, with whom we are in agreement, refers the species to O. sulphurea. It is the only
species we know with such large tubercles on the joints.
Several varieties of this species, some of which have been described, are given, such as
laevior, major, minor, and pallidior.
Here probably belongs Opuntia sericea G. Don (Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 363. 1834), also
reported from Chile, but doubtless from Argentina. Cactus sericeus Gillies (Loudon, Hort.
Brit. 196. 1830) is the same. here are several varieties of O. sericea which we would put
with it: longispina Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck. 363. 1834); coerulea Forbes (Hort. Tour Germ.
159. 1837) which is probably O. coerulea Gillies (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 155. 1837); maelenii
Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 46. 1845) which is O. maelenii (Salm-Dyck, Cact.
Hort. Dyck. 1844. 46. 1845). Opuntia tweediei (Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 745. 1898) is
given as a synonym of this species by Schumann. Opuntia albisetosa Hildmann, a name only,
belongs here according to Hirscht (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 10: 48. 1900).
Illustrations: Blühende Kakteen 3: pl. 136; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 8: 121; Schumann,
Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 106, all as Opuntia maculacantha.
Plate xxiii, igure 2, represents a lowering joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose near
Córdoba, Argentina, in 1915.
129. Opuntia soehrensii sp. nov.
Prostrate, in masses usually 1 meter in diameter or less; joints at first erect or ascending,
finally prostrate and rooting and forming new colonies, flattened, rather thin, somewhat tuberculate,
very spiny, orbicular, 4 to 6 cm. in diameter, often purplish; spines slender, rather variable in color,
usually yellow or brown, several from each areole, sometimes as many as eight, the longest ones
5 cm. long, erect; flowers light yellow, 3 cm. long; sepals brown; filaments yellow; style white;
stigma-lobes green; fruit naked, 3 cm. long; seeds 3 to 3.5 mm. broad, ovate, thickish, with narrow margin and roughened sides.
Highlands of southern Peru, Bolivia, and northern Argentina. Type collected by Dr. and
Mrs. J. N. Rose below Pampa de Arrieros, Peru, August 23, 1914 (No. 18967).
his species is very common in its region, but as it is cultivated somewhat for its seeds
as well as used as a protection for gardens and yards, its natural distribution is diicult to
determine. On the barren hills below La Paz, Bolivia, the species is well established and
135
OPUNTIA
grows as if native; on some of these hills it is the dominant and sometimes exclusive
plant. In the same general region, however, one inds the plant about the houses, especially
on walls, where it has undoubtedly been planted. At Oruro, Bolivia, it was seen only in
the wild state, while at several stations along the railroad between Juliaca and Cuzco, Peru,
especially at Combatata and Tinta, Peru, it has been planted on top of many of the mud
walls about the yards. On the hills below Pampa de Arrieros, Peru, the species is extremely
common and undoubtedly native.
he plant is known everywhere by the natives as ayrampo. he seeds are collected in great
quantity and dried, and may be bought in the market places, especially in Arequipa. Indeed,
there must have been a time when they were shipped by freight, for the name Ayrampo
has always appeared on the printed freight classiication of the Southern Railroad of Peru.
he assistant superintendent of the road, Mr. Brown, states that, so far as he knows, there
are few or no shipments made now. One of the places in Peru where Dr. Rose found the
plant very abundant is named Ayrampal.
he dry seeds, when placed in water, yield a red substance which
is used for coloring jellies and gelatine and, according to some, for
coloring wines. In former, days the Indians also used this substance
in some of their carnival ceremonies. he coloring matter does not
come from the seeds themselves, but from the red juice of the fruit
which has dried on the surfaces.
Figure 169 represents a joint of this species collected by Dr. Rose
at Oruro, Bolivia, in 1914.
130. Opuntia microdisca Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 896.
1898.
Fig. 169.—Opuntia soehrensii.
×0.4.
Forming small clumps, very much branched, prostrate; joints mostly obovate to oblong, 4 to
8 cm. long, usually much flattened, but sometimes nearly cylindric, grayish green; leaves minute,
purple, soon dropping off; areoles numerous, 5 to 6 mm. apart, rather large, when young densely
white-felted; spines 10 to 15, white to reddish, unequal, some of the centrals 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long;
glochids numerous, yellow; flower-buds red; flowers 2.5 cm. long, bright red; filaments purple;
style white; stigma-lobes 6 to 8, short; ovary turbinate, 16 mm. long, bearing numerous areoles
subtended by narrow red leaves; areoles on ovary densely felted and
bristly; fruit red.
Type locality: In Catamarca, Argentina.
Distribution: Northern Argentina.
Schumann refers this species to Platyopuntia, while Weber
referred it to Tephrocactus. It evidently belongs to our Sulphureae,
being nearest our O. soehrensii.
Our description is drawn chiely from specimens obtained
by J. A. Shafer between Andalgala and Concepción, Argentina,
in 1916, supplemented by a living specimen obtained by Dr.
Spegazzini in 1915. In Argentina this species also is known as
ayrampo.
Figure 170 represents a joint of the plant collected by J. A.
Shafer between Andalgala and Concepción, Argentina, December
28, 1916 (No. 24).
To this relationship may belong the following species:
Opuntia penicilligera Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires Fig. 170.—Joint of Opuntia microdisca. × 0.7.
II. 4: 291. 1902.
Low, nearly prostrate; joints flattened, orbicular to broadly obovate, 10 to 12 cm. long, 7 to 10
cm. broad, dull green; spines slender, twisted, one elongated and 1 to 5 cm. long, the others much
shorter, all white; glochids brownish; flowers from the lateral and marginal areoles, citron-yellow;
136
THE CACTACEAE.
ovary 3 to 3.5 cm. long, with very many areoles bearing numerous glochids; style thick; stigmalobes 8 to 10, greenish white; fruit reddish, clavate, 4.5 cm. long, with a depressed umbilicus; seeds
small, 3 to 3.5 mm. broad.
Type locality: Argentina, between Rio Negro and Rio Colorado.
Distribution: Southern Argentina.
According to Dr. Spegazzini, this species is not near to any of the known South American
species, but resembles somewhat the North American species O. microdasys and O. basilaris.
We know it only from the description.
Opuntia calantha Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 524.
1916.
A low, creeping, prostrate plant 15 cm. high, one meter in diameter; joints obovate, narrowed above and below, inequilateral, 11 cm. long, 4 cm. broad, tuberculate-wrinkled, mostly deep
green; areoles 1 to 1.5 mm. long, obovate, at first tawny, turning gray; leaves small, subulate,
cuspidate, red. 1 mm. long; glochids yellow; spines 5 to 10, up to 5 mm. long; flowers carmine;
fruit globular, 1.5 cm. in diameter.
Recorded as probably of South American origin and usually distributed as Opuntia microdisca, but from which it is said to difer very much. he plant is known to us only from
the description of cultivated specimens.
Series 9. STRIGILES.
The series consists of a single species, native of
Texas. It is a low, bushy plant with large joints bearing
many areoles, these close together, each with several
acicular, reddish brown spines; the fruit is small.
131. Opuntia strigil Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3:
290. 1856.
Suberect, 6 dm. high; joints orbicular to obovate, 10 to 12.5 cm.
long; areoles close together, prominent; spines 5 to 8, spreading, many
of them appressed to the joint and deflexed, red to reddish brown
with lighter tips, the longer ones 2.5 cm. long; glochids numerous;
flowers unknown; fruits small, nearly globular, 12 mm. in diameter,
truncate, red; areoles on fruit very small; seeds 3 mm. broad.
Type locality: In crevices of limestone rock, between the Pecos
River and El Paso, Texas.
Distribution: Texas.
A rare plant, first collected by Charles Wright in 1851.
Fig. 171.—Opuntia strigil.
Engelmann says in the Mexican Boundary Report that it was
× 0.4.
also collected by Wright and Bigelow, but there is no mention
of it in his report on Bigelow’s plants, nor do we find specimens in the Engelmann herbarium, so that it would appear that this reference to Bigelow was a mistake. Bigelow, it
is true, crossed the River Pecos, on which the type was found, but it was well up in New
Mexico and not in Texas, where it was crossed by Charles Wright. It was more recently
collected by Nealley somewhere in Texas. The place of collection by Wright and the later
one by Nealley are very indefinitely indicated on the labels accompanying the specimens.
Illustration: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 67.
Figure 171 is copied from the illustration above cited.
Series 10. SETISPINAE.
Bushy or depressed species, with tuberous or thickened roots, broad, flat, thin joints, and elongated, acicular, brown spines which fade whitish; their fruits are large and juicy. We recognize six
species, natives of the south central and southwestern United States and northern Mexico. They
approach the Tortispinae on the one hand and the Phaeacanthae on the other.
137
OPUNTIA
Key to Species.
Joints elongated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints obovate to orbicular.
Fruit small, 2 cm. long or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fruit large 2.5 to 6 cm. long.
Flowers red to purple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers yellow.
Areoles large, more or less elevated on old joints;
areoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Areoles small; mature joints green throughout.
Joints usually orbicular; seeds 5 to 6 mm. broad .
Joints obovate; seeds 4 mm. broad or less . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132. O. megarhiza
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133. O. ballii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134. O. pottsii
joints glaucous, purplish about the
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135. O. setispina
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136. O. mackensenii
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137. O. tenuispina
132. Opuntia megarhiza Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 10: 126.
1906.
Roots long and thickened, sometimes 3 to 6 dm. long, 5 to 6 cm. in diameter; stems low, 2
to 3 dm. high, much branched; lower joints elongated, 2 to 3 dm. long, cuneate below, thin, 3 cm.
broad; lateral joints appearing along the margins of the older joints and often, if not always, in the
same plane; spines 2 to 4, acicular, 1 to 2.5 cm. long, brown; leaves minute; flowers lemon-yellow,
often tinged with rose, 5 cm. broad; petals about 13, obovate, mucronately tipped; stigma-lobes 7,
greenish; ovary clavate, 3 cm. long; fruit and seeds unknown.
Type locality: Alvarez, Mexico.
Distribution: San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
his species is not very closely related to the other
species of this series, but it is referred here on account
of its very slender spines.
133. Opuntia ballii Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: 309.
1911.
Plants low, spreading; joints obovate, 6 to 10 cm. long,
thickish, pale green, glaucous; spines 2 to 4, brownish, a little
flattened, usually ascending or erect, the larger ones 4 to 7
cm. long; glochids conspicuous; fruit small, about 2 cm. long,
clavate, glaucous, spineless; seeds thick, 3.5 mm. broad.
Fig. 172.—O. ballii. Part of type. × 0.5.
Type locality: Pecos, Reeves County, Texas.
Distribution: Western Texas.
Wooton and Standley in their Flora of New Mexico refer this species to Opuntia f ilipendula, but O. ballii grows in a diferent habitat, has smaller fruit, stouter and erect spines,
and diferent areoles; it grows on the dry mesa beyond Pecos, Texas.
Illustrations: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: pl. 64.
Figure 172 is copied from the illustration above cited.
134. Opuntia pottsii Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 236.
1850.
Opuntia f ilipendula Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 294. 1856.
Low, spreading plant, 3 dm. high or less, from thickened tuberous roots 2 to 3 cm. in diameter, these sometimes moniliform; joints broadly obovate, 3.5 to 12 cm. long, pale green to
bluish; areoles few, either small or large; spines confined to the upper and marginal areoles, 1
or 2, slender, 2 to 4 cm. long, usually white but sometimes purplish; glochids yellow, usually few
but sometimes abundant; flowers large, 6 to 7 cm. broad, deep purple; ovary slender, 3 to 3.5
cm. long, with only a few scattered areoles; fruit spineless.
Type locality: Near Chihuahua City, Mexico.
Distribution: Central Chihuahua, Mexico, to Texas and New Mexico.
his species was described by Prince Salm-Dyck in 1850 from material collected by John
Potts, who was manager of the mint at Chihuahua and who sent many cacti to F. Scheer
at Kew between 1842 and 1850. No types of his species seem to have been retained.
138
THE CACTACEAE.
In 1885 C. G. Pringle again collected this species near Chihuahua City and it was distributed as O. f ilipendula, and there Coulter leaves Pringle’s specimen (Cont. Nat. Herb. 3:
428) Dr. E. Palmer collected an abundance of material in 1908 which enabled us to reestablish O. pottsi, which Coulter omits and Schumann lists under unknown species.
If these Chihuahua specimens are the same as the Texas plants, as Coulter believed and
as we regard them, then Opuntia f ilipendula must give place to the older name of SalmDyck.
Illustrations: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 68; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 10, 131; Suppl.
Dict. Gard. Nicholson 2: f. 605; W. Watson, Cact. Cult. f. 81, all as Opuntia f ilipendula.
Figure 173 shows a joint of a plant collected by Dr. Rose in the valley of the Rio
Grande below El Paso, Texas, in 1913.
135. Opuntia setispina Engelmann in Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 239. 1850.
Stem branching and spreading, sometimes 9 to 12 dm. broad, with some of the branches composed of 3 or 4 joints, erect and 6 dm. high; joints deep bluish green, somewhat glaucous, often
purplish at the areoles, sometimes more or less tinged with purple throughout, obovate to orbicular,
5 to 15 cm. in diameter; leaves minute, subulate; spines 1 to 6 from an areole, white, 2 to 3 cm.
long; glochids yellow, very conspicuous on old joints; flowers yellow; fruit purplish, about 4 cm. long.
Fig. 173.—Opuntia pottsii.
× 0.4.
Fig. 174.—Opuntia setispina.
× 0.4.
Type locality: Pine woods in the mountains west of Chihuahua, Mexico (f ide Engelmann,
Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 294. 1856).
Distribution: Western Chihuahua, Mexico.
his species has long been known only from the type specimens; but in 1908 Dr. Rose
visited western Chihuahua, where this species is quite common; our description is based
largely upon the specimens he then collected.
Figure 174 represents a joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose near Miiaca, Chihuahua, in 1908.
136. Opuntia mackensenii Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: 310. 1911.
Plants low, with thick, tuberous roots, spreading, usually resting on the edges of the joints, but
some of the branches often erect; joints orbicular to obovate, 10 to 20 cm. long, rarely broader than
long, pale and glaucous when young, deep green when older; areoles small, the lower ones without
spines, the upper ones with 1 to 4 spines; spines white or brown, or brown at base and white above,
somewhat lattened and twisted, slender, 5 cm. long or less; glochids brown; lowers of medium size,
7 to 8 cm. broad, yellow with a reddish brown center; stigma-lobes 7 to 9, white; fruit spineless, 4
to 6 cm. long, truncate or nearly so at apex, rose-purple; seeds suborbicular, 5 to 6 mm. broad, acute
on the margin.
139
OPUNTIA
Type locality: Near Kerrville, Texas.
Distribution: Kerr County, Texas.
Illustrations: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: pl. 67; Plant World 19: 142. f. 1; 143. f. 2,
the last as O. macrorhiza.
Figure 175 is from a photograph of the type plant from near Kerrville, Texas.
Fig. 175.—Opuntia mackensensii.
137. Opuntia tenuispina Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 294.
1856.
Opuntia minor C. Mueller in Walpers, Ann. Bot. 5: 50. 1858.
Low and spreading, but becoming 3 dm. high; joints obovate, attenuate at base, 7 to 15 cm.
long, light green; leaves very slender, 4 mm. long or less; spines 1 to 3 from an areole, slender, usually white but sometimes brownish, 3 to 5 cm. long, the upper spines erect or spreading; glochids
brown; flowers yellow, 6 to 7.5 cm. broad; ovary with numerous areoles filled with brown wool and
brown glochids; fruit oblong, 2.5 to 4 cm. long, with a deep umbilicus; seeds mm. broad or less,
very irregular.
Type locality: Sand hills near El Paso, Texas.
Distribution: Southwestern Texas and adjacent parts of Mexico and New Mexico, apparently extending to Arizona.
Engelmann says that this plant grows with O. phaeacantha, but is readily distinguished
from the latter by its spines and fruit. Cultivated plants and herbarium specimens closely
resemble O. phaeacantha.
Illustrations: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 75, f. 14; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 78: pl. [15].
Plate xxiii, igure 3, represents a joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose near El Paso,
Texas, in 1913.
Series 11. PHAEACANTHAE.
Bushy or depressed species, with relatively large, flat, persistent joints, the subulate, usually
stout spines brown at least at the base, or in some species nearly white. The series is composed
of about fifteen species, natives of the south central and southwestern United States, northern and
central Mexico.
140
THE CACTACEAE.
Key to Species.
More or less bushy plants.
Joints thin; spines, when present, very long and confined to the upper and middle areoles.
Spines dark brown, stout, rigid.
Plant pale green to purplish; spines up to 12 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant dull dark green; spines 6 cm. long or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines pale brown, flexible or subulate.
Usually abundantly spiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Usually spineless or some areoles with 1 setaceous deflexed spine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints thick; spines not confined to the upper and middle areoles.
Joints relatively small, seldom over 15 cm. broad; plants relatively low.
Joints narrowly obovate, about twice as long as wide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints broadly obovate to orbicular.
Flowers yellow.
Spines subulate, brown at least in part.
Plant light green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant bluish green or grayish green.
Plant erect, 2 meters high or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant bushy, rarely over 1 meter high . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant prostrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines acicular, nearly white . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers magenta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints relatively large, mostly over 15 cm. broad; plants relatively tall.
Spines clear brown nearly throughout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines nearly white above or throughout.
Spines with dark brown bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines whitish throughout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Small creeping plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 138. O. macrocentra
. . . 139. O. tardospina
. . . 140. O. gosseliniana
. . . 141. O. santa-rita
. . . 142. O. angustata
. . . 143. O. atrispina
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
azurea
phaeacantha
mojavensis
covillei
vaseyi
. . . 150. O. engelmannii
. . . 151. O. discata
. . . 152. O. rastrera
Somewhat bushy, with ascending branches, 6 to 9 dm.
high; joints orbicular to oblong,
or sometimes broader than long,
10 to 20 cm. long, often bluish
or purplish, sometimes spineless
but usually-bearing spines at the
uppermost areoles; spines 1 or 2,
rarely 3 together, usually brownish or black but sometimes white
above, slender, erect or porrect,
4 to 7 cm. long; flowers yellow,
often drying red, 7.5 cm. broad;
sepals ovate, acuminate; ovary
with few areoles, these bearing
brown glochids; filaments very
short; fruit 3 to 6 cm. long, purple; seeds 4 to 4.5 mm. broad.
Fig. 176.—Opuntia macrocentra.
O.
O.
O.
O.
O.
. . . 149. O. occidentalis
138. Opuntia macrocentra Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad.
3: 292. 1856.
Type locality: Sand hills
on the Rio Grande near El
Paso, Texas.
Distribution:
Western
Texas to Eastern Arizona and
Chihuahua, Mexico.
his species, especially
the forms that have bluish
and purplish joints, are very
showy. Seedlings sometimes
produce long, silky hairs from
the areoles, in this respect resembling the Criniferae.
144.
145.
146.
147.
148.
× 0.5.
OPUNTIA
141
Illustrations: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 75, f. 8; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 78: pl. [8].
Figure 176 represents a joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose near the Rio Grande
in New Mexico, northwest of El Paso, Texas, in 1913.
139. Opuntia tardospina Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 34. 1912.
Roots fibrous; low, spreading plant, the joints usually resting on the ground; joints orbicular
to obovate, 16 to 24 cm. long; areoles large, usually distant, often 4 cm. apart; spines usually
wanting except from the upper areoles and along the upper margin, usually single, sometimes 2
from an areole, 4 to 5 cm. long, brown, but lighter towards the apex; glochids numerous, brown,
persistent; fruit red, 6 cm. long; seeds 5 mm. broad, acute on the margin.
Type locality: Near Lampasas, Texas.
Distribution: Eastern Texas.
Illustrations: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: pl. 11, in part; pl. 15.
Figure 177 represents a joint of the plant collected by Albert Ruth in 1912, north of
Dallas, Texas.
Fig. 177.—O. tardospina.
× 0.5
Figs. 178, 179.—Cluster of spines and joint of O. gosseliniana.
× 0.4.
140. Opuntia gosseliniana Weber, Bull. Soc. Acclim. France 49: 83. 1902.
One meter or more high, branching from the base, the old trunk often bearing numerous,
long, acicular spines; joints usually red or purplish, usually very thin, as broad as or broader than
long, sometimes 2 dm. broad; lower and sometimes all the areoles without spines; spines porrect
or nearly so, generally 1, sometimes 2, rarely 3 from an areole, to 5 or even 10 cm. long, brown,
usually weak; glochids brown, numerous, forming on old joints very large clusters; fruit 4 cm. long,
without spines but bearing numerous brown glochids at the areoles, with a depressed umbilicus.
Type locality: Coast of Sonora on the Gulf of California.
Distribution: Sonora and Lower California, Mexico.
his species was placed tentatively in the Pubescentes by Schumann, although always
glabrous; but it belongs better in the Phaeacanthae. In some of its phases it resembles O.
macrocentra. It is a very showy species and worthy of a place in any collection.
Illustrations: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 17: 69.
Figure 179 represents a joint of the plant collected at Hermosillo in Sonora, by Rose,
Standley, and Russell in 1910; igure 178 shows a cluster of spines from a trunk areole.
142
THE CACTACEAE.
141. Opuntia santa-rita (Griffiths and Hare) Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 52: 195.
1908.
Opuntia chlorotica santa-rita Griffiths and Hare, N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: 64. 1906.
Opuntia shreveana C. Z. Nelson, Galesburg Register, July 20, 1915.
Compact plant, 6 to 14 dm. high, with a very short trunk; joints orbicular or a little broader
than long, bluish green but deep purple about the areoles and margins; areoles 1.5 cm. apart,
bearing numerous chestnut-brown glochids and occasionally a brown spine; flowers very handsome,
deep yellow, 6 to 7 cm. broad; ovary purple; oblong.
Type locality: Selero Mountains, Arizona.
Distribution: Southeastern Arizona.
his species is one of the most ornamental of the opuntias, and although it does not
grow well in greenhouse cultivation, it would doubtless lourish in the Southwest, where it
could be given conditions similar to its wild surroundings.
Illustrations: Smiths. Misc. Coil. 52: pl. 15; Plant World 1110: f. 6, this last as Opuntia
chlorotica; Journ. Inter. Gard. Club 3: facing page 5, as O. chlorotica santa-rita.
Plate xxiv, igure 1, is from a photograph taken by Dr. MacDougal of a plant near
Surritas, Arizona, in 1906.
142. Opuntia angustata Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad.
3: 292. 1856.
Ascending to erect; joints narrow, 15 to 25 cm. long,
rounded above, gradually narrowing downward; areoles distant, often 2.5 cm. apart, large, oblong; spines sharply angled,
straw-colored or whitish but with brown bases, 2.5 to 3.5
cm. long; glochids brown; fruit obovoid, 2.5 to 3 cm. long.
Type locality: Bottoms, Bill Williams Fork, Arizona.
Distribution: Recorded as extending from New
Mexico to California, but known deinitely to us only
from central Arizona, perhaps extending north to Utah.
Engelmann’s Opuntia angustata was based on three
specimens, one from New Mexico, one from Arizona,
and one from California. He stated that the first
and last were prostrate, while the second was erect.
A study of his specimens and descriptions indicates
that he had three species before him. The first is
from Zuni, New Mexico, and is probably Opuntia
phaeacantha. The California specimen is the Opuntia
magenta Griffiths, which is probably the same as O.
vaseyi, while the suberect plant from the bottoms of
the Bill Williams River we have allowed to stand for
O. angustata. Wooton and Standley (Contr. U. S. Nat.
Herb. 19: 447. 1915) suggest that the two fruits ilFig. 180.—Opuntia angustata.
lustrated by Engelmann in connection with this species
may belong to two species of Cylindropuntia.
his plant was irst collected by J. M. Bigelow, February 4, 1854.
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 7, f. 3, 4.
Figure 180 is copied from igure 3 of the illustrations above cited.
143. Opuntia atrispina Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 172. 1910.
Usually low and spreading, sometimes 2 meters in diameter, but sometimes the central branches
nearly erect and 6 dm. high; joints rather small, nearly orbicular, 10 to 15 cm. in diameter, light
green, sometimes a little glaucous; lower areoles spineless; spines from the upper areoles 2 to
4, the principal ones spreading, flattened, dark brown, almost black at base, much lighter above;
glochids at first yellow or yellowish, but soon changing to brown; flowers described as yellow,
changing to orange; fruit reddish purple.
BR I T TO N AN D R O SE
1. Plant of Opuntia santa-rita.
PLAT E XXI V
2. Plant of Opuntia discata.
143
OPUNTIA
Type locality: Near Devil’s River, Texas.
Distribution: Type locality and vicinity.
his plant is abundant between Del Rio, Texas, and Devil’s River, being one of the two
commonest species in that region.
Illustrations: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: pl. 26, in part.
Plate xxv, igure 1, represents a lowering joint of the plant collected near Devil’s River,
Texas, by Dr. Rose in 19 13.
Fig. 181.—Opuntia azurea, Zacatecas, Mexico.
144. Opuntia azurea Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 291.
1909.
Compact, upright, with a single trunk, or branching
from the base and more or less spreading; joints orbicular
to obovate, 10 to 15 cm. in diameter, pale bluish green, glaucous; areoles about 2 cm. apart, the lower ones spineless, the
upper ones with 1 to 3 rather stout spines; spines, at least
when old., almost black, unequal, the longer ones 2 to 3
cm. long, more or less reflexed; glochids numerous, brown;
petals 3 cm. long, deep yellow, with crimson claw, but in
age pink throughout; filaments greenish or almost white;
stigma-lobes pale green; fruit dull crimson, subglobose to
ovoid, spineless, truncate, juicy, edible.
Type locality: Northeastern Zacatecas, Mexico.
Distribution: Zacatecas and probably Durango.
Illustrations: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: pl. 24;
also f. 33.
Figure 181 is from a photograph by F. E. Lloyd of
the type plant; igure 182 represents joints of the plant
collected by Albert de Lautreppe near Zacatecas, Mexico,
in 1904.
Fig. 182.
Opuntia azurea.
× 0.4.
144
THE CACTACEAE.
145. Opuntia phaeacantha Engelmann in Gray, Mem. Amer. Acad. 4: 52.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1849.
phaeacantha brunnea Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 293. 1856.
phaeacantha major Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 293. 1856.
phaeacantha nigricans Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 293. 1856.
camanchica Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 293. 1856.
chihuahuensis Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 291. 1909.
toumeyi Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 402. 1909.
blakeana Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 402. 1909.
zuniensis Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 86. 1916. (From the description.)
Low, usually prostrate, with some branches ascending; joints usually longer than broad, 10 to
15 cm. long; areoles rather remote, the lower ones often spineless; spines 1 to 4, those on the
sides of the joints more or less reflexed, somewhat flattened, usually rather stout, brown, sometimes darker at base, or often nearly white throughout, the longer ones 5 to 6 cm. long; glochids
numerous, yellow to brown; flowers 5 cm. broad, yellow; ovary short; fruit 30 to 35 mm. long,
much contracted at base.
Type locality: About Santa Fe and on the Rio Grande, New Mexico.
Distribution: Texas to Arizona and Chihuahua.
We have referred to Opuntia phaeacantha the common low, bushy Opuntia with small
joints, brown spines, and yellow lowers of the Southwest; we formerly regarded it as composed of several species, and others have followed our lead; but we are unable to draw any
distinct lines after a study of much additional herbarium and greenhouse material. Dr. Rose
has collected a large series of specimens from the Southwest, especially from the type localities, but his specimens seem to bridge over diferences which before seemed tangible; cited
diferences appear to be racial rather than speciic.
Opuntia blakeana, which is found west of the Rocky Mountains, one would expect to
be diferent. It is characterized by small obovate joints, rather short spines, small yellow
lowers purple at center.
Opuntia chihuahuensis, which was first described from Mexican specimens, if it belongs here, is in the southern range of O. phaeacantha. It, too, has yellow flowers with
red centers, rather large joints, and long, slender spines. Mr. Wooton is of the opinion
that to O. chihuahuensis is to be referred the common, low, brown species from El Paso,
which includes the specimens of G. R. Vasey, which Coulter called Opuntia mesacantha
oplocarpa. This long-spined form extends north throughout eastern New Mexico to southeastern Colorado. With the latter form Mr. Wooton believes Opuntia camanchica belongs.
If we take this broad view of the limits of this species we are forced to include Opuntia
toumeyi, although it is much larger than O. blakeana, and was considered by Dr. Rose to
be different.
Opuntia mesacantha sphaerocarpa Wooton and Standley (Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 19: 446.
1915) is a mistake, O. mesacantha oplocarpa being intended.
Opuntia rubrifolia Engelmann in Coulter (Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 424. 1896), from
St. George, Utah, belongs in this series if E. W. Nelson’s No. 156, from the same place
has been properly determined as such. he type specimen of O. rubrifolia has, apparently,
been lost.
he following varieties of Opuntia camanchica have been ofered by Haage and Schmidt in
their catalogues: albispina (Trade Seed Cat. 104. 1911-1912); orbicularis, rubra, and salmonea
(all in Haupt-Verzeichnis 1908: 228. 1908). Under O. camanchica has been mentioned also
variety luteo-staminea (Cat. Darrah Succ. Manchester 53. 1908).
Opuntia eocarpa Griiths (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 11. 1916) , also O. recurvospina
Griiths (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 12. 1916) and possibly O. superbospina Griiths
(Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 13. 1916) and O. caesia Griiths (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 13. 1916) are of this relationship.
Opuntia microcarpa* Engelmann (Emory, Mil. Reconn. 158. f. 7. 1848) and O. violacea
Engelmann (Emory, Mil. Reconn. 158. f. 8. 1848 were described from drawings brought
*Since the above was written Dr. Griffiths (Bull. Torr. Club, 43: 527) has published a detailed account of this
species, which he regards as distinct; it inhabits southern Arizona.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XXV
A HOEN & CO
M. E. Eaton del.
1.
Flowering joints of Opuntia atrispina.
2. Flowering joint of Opuntia phaecantha.
3. Upper part of joint of Opuntia engelmannii.
(All natural size.)
145
OPUNTIA
back from the Southwest by W. H. Emory. hey can never be critically identiied, but are
probably of this relationship.
Illustrations: Engler and Prantl, Planzenfam. 36a: f. 57, C; Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2.
f. 141; Illustr. Fl. 2: f. 2530; ed. 2. 2: f. 2989; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 9, f. 1 to 5; pl. 22, f. 12
to 15; Wiener Illustr. Gartenz. 10: f. 115, all as Opuntia camanchica; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta.
Bull. 78: pl. [7], as Opuntia chihuahuensis; Contr. U. S. Nat.
Herb. 12: pl. 55, as Opuntia blakeana; Cact. Mex. Bound. pl.
75, f. 9 to 13.
Plate xxv, figure 2, represents a flowering joint of a
plant sent f rom Tucson, Arizona, in 1916, by Dr. MacDougal.
146. Opuntia mojavensis Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 293.
1856.
Prostrate, with suborbicular joints; pulvini remote, with large
yellow bristles; spines 2 to 6, stout and annulate, acutely angular
and compressed, more or less curved, reddish brown, paler toward
tip, 2.5 to 6 cm. long, 1 to 3 smaller, slenderer, pale ones added
below; fruit oblong, 4.5 cm. long.
Type locality: On the Mojave, west of the Colorado, California.
Distribution: Known only
from the type locality.
he fragmentary type specimen has been examined; we have
been unable to refer any other
specimens to this species, which
is thus very imperfectly understood.
Illustration: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl.
9, f. 6 to 8.
Fig. 183.—Opuntia covillei.
× 0.4.
147. Opuntia covillei Britton and
Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50:
532. 1908.
Opuntia
Rep.
91.
Opuntia
Biol.
27.
megacarpa Griffiths,
Mo. Bot. Gard. 20:
1909.
rugosa Griffiths, Proc.
Soc. Washington 27:
1914.
Bushy plants, usually growing
in dense thickets; joints orbicular
to obovate, 10 to 20 cm. long or
more, pale green, sometimes purplish, slightly glaucous; areoles 2
to 4 cm. apart; spines several from
an areole, slender, unequal, the longest ones 6 cm. long, white when
young, brownish when old; flowers
large, yellow.
Type locality: San Bernardino,
California.
Distribution: Interior valleys
Fig 184.—Opuntia covillei.
of southern California.
Opuntia covillei and O. vaseyi grow in the same valleys, often in adjoining colonies,
and while hybrids may occur, the two species could easily be distinguished. When grow-
146
THE CACTACEAE.
ing in conjunction, O. covillei is considerably taller, has joints of different color, and
has yellow flowers. It has doubtless generally passed as Opuntia occidentalis, but that is
a much larger, stouter plant, with strong, more or less flattened spines, and is common
along the coast.
Figure 183 represents a joint of the plant sent by Dr. MacDougal from Elsinore, California, in 1913; igure 184 is from a photograph of a specimen collected by Mr. S. B. Parish
from near the type locality in 1916.
148. Opuntia vaseyi (Coulter) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 532.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1908.
mesacantha vaseyi Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 431. 1896.
raf inesquei vaseyi Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 717. 1898.
humifusa vaseyi Heller, Cat. N. Amer. Pl. ed. 2. 8. 1900.
magenta Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 268. 1908.
rubiflora Davidson, Bull. South. Calif. Acad. 15: 33. 1916.
Plants low, the lower stems spreading at base, but some of the branches erect and to 7 joints
high; joints thick, small (usually 10 to 12 cm. long), ovate, pale green, somewhat glaucous; areoles
rather large, 2 to 3 cm. apart, bearing 1 to 3 spines; spines porrect, usually short (rarely 2 cm.
long), grayish brown or bright brown, whitish or yellowish towards the tips, somewhat flattened;
young joints bright green, thickish, bearing short purplish leaves and a single brownish spine from
an areole flowers deep salmon, almost a red-salmon, from the very first; ovary globular to shortly
oblong; areoles few, mostly towards the top of the ovary, spineless but with a few brown glochids;
fruit globular to shortly oblong, 4 to 5 cm. long, deep purple, truncate at apex, with few areoles,
the pulp sweetish but hardly edible; umbilicus broadly depressed.
Type locality: Cited as Yuma, Arizona, presumably erroneously.
Distribution: San Bernardino and Orange Counties, southern California.
Even from a moving train this species is distinguishable from its relatives by the color of
its lowers. It forms great thickets along the Southern Paciic Railroad north of Los Angeles,
either alone or interspersed with one or more other species, and it is also common in the
San Bernardino Valley toward the Cajon Pass where it forms great thickets either alone or
with Opuntia covillei. Considerable quantities were seen also on hills near Riverside, and it
was found cultivated in the cactus garden at Riverside and in the
Soldiers’ Home Grounds at Santa Monica.
Illustration: Bull. South. Calif. Acad. 15: 32, as Opuntia
rubiflora.
Figure 185 represents a joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose
at Fernando, California, in 1908.
149. Opuntia occidentalis Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad.
3: 291. 1856.
Opuntia lindheimeri occidentalis Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 421.
1896.
Opuntia engelmannii occidentalis Engelmann in Brewer and Watson, Bot.
Calif. 1: 248. 1876.*
Opuntia demissa Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 29. 1912.
Erect or spreading, often 1 meter high or more, forming large
thickets; joints large, obovate to oblong, 2 to 3 dm. long; areoles remote;
spines 2 to 7, stout, unequal, the longest ones 4 to 5 cm. long, more or
less flattened, brown or nearly white, sometimes wanting; shorter spines
often white; glochids often prominent, brown; flowers yellow, large, including the ovary often 10 to 11 cm. long; fruit large, purple.
Type locality: Western slopes of the California Mountains, between San Diego and Los Angeles.
Distribution: Southwestern California and northern Lower Cali- Fig. 185.—Opuntia vaseyi.
× 0.5.
fornia and adjacent islands.
In their description of this species, Engelmann and Bigelow state that it was found on
the western slope of the California Mountains near San Diego and Los Angeles. In the
*Coulter refers this name to Pac. R. Rep. 4: errata, 3, 1856, but no formal name is published there.
147
OPUNTIA
Engelmann herbarium are the two original sheets. One of these comes from the “Mountain
Valleys of San Pasquel and Santa Isabel,” northeast of San Diego. his consists of a single
lower and a small piece of a joint, containing three bunches of spines; we doubt if this
can be identiied. he other comes from near Los Angeles and consists of a large pad and
fruit with seeds. he spines are dark brown
or nearly black. his specimen appears to
be the one igured in the Paciic Railroad
Report and may very properly be taken as
the type of the species.
here is much uncertainty regarding
the range of this species, some referring
it to the interior valleys of California. An
examination, however, of the type material,
and a study of the living plants in southern
California by Dr. Rose, convince us that the
coastal opuntias can not all be referred to
O. littoralis as is sometimes done, but a part
belongs to O. occidentalis. he limits of the
latter species, and its distribution, are not
well deined.
Of this relationship is to be considered
Opuntia semispinosa Griiths (Bull. Torr.
Club 43: 89. 1916), which the author describes as a common, conspicuous species in
the coastal region of California.
Illustrations: N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull.
60: pl. 3, f. 2; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 7, f. 1, 2;
pl. 22, f. 10; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: pl. 8,
this last as Opuntia demissa.
Figure 186 is from a plant collected on
Santa Catalina Island, California, by Mr. S.
B. Parish in 1916.
Fig. 186.—Opuntia occidentalis.
150. Opuntia engelmannii Salm-Dyck in Engelmann, Bost. Journ. Nat. list. 6: 207.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1850.
engelmannii cyclodes Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 291. 1856.
lindheimeri cyclodes Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 422. 1896.
dillei Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 82. 1909.
arizonica Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 93. 1909.
wootonii Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 171. 1910.
cyclodes Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: 309. 1911.
gregoriana Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 26. 1912.
valida Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 24. 1914.
confusa Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 28. 1914.
magnarenensis Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 9. 1916.
expansa Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 14. 1916.
Originally described as erect and up to 2 meters high, but more properly a widely spreading bush, usually without a definite trunk; joints oblong to orbicular, 2 to 3 dm. long, thick,
pale green; areoles distant, becoming large and bulging; spines usually more or less white, with
dark red or brownish bases and sometimes with black tips, usually 3 or 4, sometimes only 1, or
entirely wanting from the lower areoles, but on old joints 10 or more, usually somewhat porrect
or a little spreading, but never reflexed, the larger ones much flattened, the longest one 5 cm.
long; leaves subulate, about 15 mm. long; glochids numerous, brown with yellowish tips;, flowers
large, yellow; fruit 3.5 to 4 cm. long, red; seeds small, 3 to 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: From El Paso to Chihuahua.
Distribution: Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
148
THE CACTACEAE.
An examination of the plant collected by Wislizenus (No. 223) north of Chihuahua,
now in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden and labeled by Dr. Engelmann as
O. engelmannii Salm-Dyck, shows that this species is of Schumann’s series Fulvispinosae (our
series Phaeacanthae) rather than series Tunae.
Opuntia engelmannii has been more confused than any other species of Opuntia. SalmDyck, who first studied the species, doubtless had but a single specimen before him, and
this or a duplicate is now in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden. This type
specimen came from near Chihuahua City, from which place Dr. Rose has collected identical material. Dr. Engelmann, who published Salm-Dyck’s name, described the plant as
erect and 5 to 6 feet high, giving its range from Chihuahua City to Texas. These remarks
of his were doubtless based on notes of Dr. Wislizenus, who collected the type, and must
have included more than one species; as Engelmann says it is both cultivated and wild,
the cultivated plants doubtless referring to some of the many forms grown about towns
and ranches. In 1852 Engelmann extends the distribution of the species westward to the
Pacific Ocean, referring especially to a San Diego specimen. In 1856 he refers here his
previously described species O. lindheimeri, and extends the range eastward to the mouth
of the Rio Grande and to lower Mexico. Coulter brought all this material together under
O. lindheimeri and four varieties.
An examination of herbarium and greenhouse specimens shows that at least half a
dozen species have been passing under the name of O. engelmannii. While certain varieties
and specimens are evidently to be excluded from the species, we are still uncertain as to
its speciic limits. It is quite common about Chihuahua City and extends to Monterey and
Saltillo or is represented there by a near ally, while Mr. E. O. Wooton would refer here
plants of southern New Mexico, and we are including large, bushy opuntias from Arizona.
Dr. Rose was inclined at one time to separate the Tucson plant, which seems to have
some just claims for speciic recognition, but there is a mass of herbarium material which
seems to connect this with the true O. engelmannii.
Opuntia engelmannii monstrosa (Cat. Darrah Succ. Manchester 54. 1908) is doubtless one
of the abnormal forms so common among the lat-jointed opuntias.
Opuntia cyclodes, irst found by Bigelow near Anton Chico, New Mexico, is certainly of
this relationship. he characters of orbicular joints, of small fruit and of stout, usually solitary
spines, originally assigned to it, are not constant, for it often has obovate to oblong joints
bearing as many as four slender spines and large fruit.
In 1913 Dr. Rose explored the upper Pecos, especially about Anton Chico, near the
type locality, where he collected specimens similar to the Bigelow plant, but these grade into
more spiny forms, some bearing as many as ive spines at an areole, usually yellow, especially
distally, and more slender than in typical O. engelmannii. From the same type locality, and
associated with O. cyclodes, is O. expansa Griiths, which has more and whiter spines than
the typical form, although they are sometimes yellowish with brown bases. O. dillei Griiths
is also related to O. cyclodes, but the spines are fewer; Dr. Griiths states, however, that more
spines develop on cultivated plants.
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 8, f. 1; pl. 22, f. 8, 9, all as Opuntia engelmannii cyclodes;
Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 4, in part, as Opuntia dillei. Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67: pl.
7, f. 1; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 10; Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 1908: pl. 10, f. 3,
6, all as Opuntia arizonica. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: pl. 26, in part, 27, both as Opuntia
wootonii. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: pl. 3, this last as Opuntia gregoriana. Standley, Ann. Rep.
Smiths. Inst. 1911: pl. 2; Bull. Torr. Club 32: pl. 10, f. 10 to 13; Cact. Journ. 2: 147; Cact.
Mex. Bound. pl. 75, f. 1 to 4; Cycl. Amer. Hort. Bailey 3: f. 1547; Gard. Chron. III. 30: f.
123 N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 78: pl. [5, 6].
Plate xxv, igure 3, represents a lowering joint of a plant sent from Arizona by Dr.
MacDougal in 1902.
149
OPUNTIA
151. Opuntia discata Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 266.
1908.
Opuntia gilvescens Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 87. 1909.
Opuntia riparia Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 26. 1914.
Plants bushy, spreading, sometimes 15 dm. high; joints thick, orbicular to broadly obovate,
2.5 dm. in diameter or less, pale bluish green, somewhat glaucous; areoles rather few, distant, in
age becoming very large, hemispheric, filled with short brown wool; spines usually 2 to 4, sometimes 7 or more in old areoles, 2 cm. long or more, grayish with dark bases, somewhat flattened;
flowers large, 9 to 10 cm. broad, light yellow, darker near the center; style white; stigma-lobes
green; fruit magenta, pyriform, 6 to 7 cm. long.
Type locality: Foothills of Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona.
Distribution: Foothills and high mesas of southern Arizona and northern Sonora.
Illustrations: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 2, f. 5; pl. 7; pl. 13, 1. 6, all as Opuntia gilvescens; Amer. Garden 11: 469, this last as Opuntia angustata. Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67:
pl. 1, f. 2; Bull U. S. Dept. Agr. 31: pl. 3, f. 2; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 27, in part.
Plate xxiv, igure 2, is from a photograph taken by Dr. MacDougal in the Tortolita
Mountains, Arizona, in 1916; Opuntia discata is the plant shown in left foreground.
152. Opuntia rastrera Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 896.
1898.
?Opuntia lucens Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 269. 1908.
Creeping plant; joints circular to obovate, the largest 2 dm. in diameter; spines white, several
from an areole, the longest 4 cm. long; glochids yellow; flowers yellow; fruit purple, acid, obovoid.
Type locality: San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
Distribution: he type locality and vicinity.
his species was very briely described in 1898 by Dr. Weber, who states that it is quite
distinct from O. tuna, the Jamaican species. Schumann, who treats it in a note under O.
tuna, states that it is a well-diferentiated species from Mexico.
From descriptions we are referring here O. lucens Griiths, also described from San Luis
Potosí specimens. Dr. Griiths states that his O. lucens is related to O. engelmannii, but has
a diferent habit; he says it is called cuija by the Mexicans, but that it is very diferent
from Opuntia cuija.
Series 12. ELATIORES.
Tall species, with flat, broad, persistent joints, the areoles bearing acicular, setaceous, or subulate
brown spines, or some species spineless. We know about twelve species, most of them South
American, with one in Florida (see Appendix p. 222), possibly one (O. fuliginosa) in Mexico.
Key to Species.
Joints very spiny.
Spines not banded.
Areoles surrounded by a purple blotch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Areoles not surrounded by a purple blotch.
Spines setaceous; petals yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines, when present, acicular or subulate; petals mostly red or orange.
Joints strongly undulate; spines short, stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints not undulate or scarcely undulate.
Joints bluish green, glaucous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints bright green, not glaucous or slightly glaucous
Spines, at least on young joints, acicular, slender.
Spines, when present, dark brown or blackish; joints dull . . . . . . . . .
Spines light brown to straw-colored.
Spines up to 5 cm. long; joints shining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines 3 cm. long or less; joints dull.
Flowers 12 to 15 mm. wide; spines 1 to 4 at an areole
wanting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers 5 to 6 cm. wide; spines up to 10 at an areole . . . . . .
Spines subulate, stout; joints shining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines acicular; petals yellow; joints shining [in this series?] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines distinctly banded; joints dark green, obscurely glaucous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints usually spineless.
Bushy, I to 2 meters high; flowers rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Erect, 3 to 4 meters high; flowers orange-red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 153. O. brunnescens
. . . 154. O. galapageia
. . . 155. O. delaetiana
. . . 156. O. bergeriana
. . . 157. O. elatior
. . . 158. O. hanburyana
.
.
.
.
.
or
. . 159.
. 159a.
. . 160.
. . 161.
. 161a.
O.
O.
O.
O.
O.
quitensis
soederstromiana
schumannii
fuliginosa
zebrina
. . . 162. O. boldinghii
. . . 163. O. distans
150
THE CACTACEAE.
153. Opuntia brunnescens sp. nov.
Usually low and prostrate, sometimes 1 meter high, without a definite trunk, usually forming a bushy clump; joints oblong to orbicular, 15 to 30 cm. long, smooth, dull green, except the
purple blotches about the prominent areoles; spines 2 to 5, brownish, porrect or pointing forward,
up to 4.5 cm. long, stout, sometimes twisted.
Hills about the city of Córdoba, Argentina, where it was collected by Rose and Russell,
September 8, 1915 (No. 21029).
his species is very common on the dry hills about Córdoba, where it is often associated
with Opuntia sulphurea. It apparently extends northward into Jujuy.
Figure 187 represents a joint of the type specimen above cited; igure 188 shows its
fruit collected by Dr. Shafer (No. 78).
154. Opuntia galapageia Henslow, Mag. Zool. and Bot. 1: 467.
1837.
Opuntia myriacantha Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 894. 1898.
Opuntia helleri Schumann in Robinson, Proc. Amer. Acad. 38: 180. 1902.
Opuntia insularis Stewart, Proc. Calif. Acad. IV. 1: 113. 1911.
Sometimes low and creeping, but often becoming very large, 5 to 10 meters high, with a large
top either open or very compact and rounded; trunk at first very spiny and made up of flat joints
set end to end, with the short axis of each joint at right angles to that of the adjacent joint, in time
becoming terete, and when old nearly naked, 3 to 13 dm. in diameter; bark of old trunks smooth,
brown, peeling off in thin layers; joints oblong to orbicular, usually very large, 1.5 to 3.5 dm. long,
very spiny; areoles large, often prominent on the trunk, there especially forming knobs bearing numerous spines; spines extremely variable, but nearly all yellowish brown; areoles on young, vigorous
plants very stout and rigid, very unequal, the longest 7 to 8 cm. long; joints of old plants bearing
more or less pungent bristles or sometimes very weak soft hairs instead of spines, while the spines
from the trunks often are very stout and sometimes 40 in a cluster; flowers yellow, 7.5 cm. broad;
ovary more or less tuberculate; fruit greenish, sometimes borne in the ends of joints, more or less
spiny; seeds large, 5 to 6 mm. broad, white, covered with soft hairs.
Fig. 187.—O. brunnescens.
× 0.4.
Fig. 188.—Fruit of O. brunnescens. × 0.9.
Fig. 190.—Flower of same.
× 0.75
Fig. 189.—Joint of
O. galapageia.
Type locality: Galápagos Islands.
Distribution: Very common, often forming forests, on the Galápagos Islands.
We have here combined the four species reported from the Galápagos Islands, while
Alban Stewart, in his admirable paper on the botany of these islands, not only recognizes
four species, but describes a fifth without specific name. He also has fourteen full-page
151
OPUNTIA
illustrations showing fine habit views of the Galápagos Opuntia. The early descriptions
of this species were very inaccurate and, as pointed out by Mr. Stewart, the characters
assigned to its fruit are those of a Cereus-like plant. Mr. Stewart visited the Galápagos
Islands in 1905-1906 and brought back a remarkable series of photographs and specimens. Through the kindness of Miss Alice Eastwood, Curator of Botany in the California
Academy of Sciences, we have been able to study this material. It consists of about forty
sheets of well-preserved joints with a few flowers and fruits. These, in connection with
Fig. 191.—Opuntia galapageia.
× 0.75.
the published illustrations, show a great range of variation in habit, armament of joints,
and character of spines. While these differences are very marked, they are similar to what
is sometimes met with in other opuntias, such as O. gosseliniana and O. leucotricha, or
in certain Peruvian and Chilean types of Cereus relatives; indeed, in a number of cacti
which live under intense desert influences, most diverse forms in the same species are
often produced. The habit-character in this species seems to be of little value, according
152
THE CACTACEAE.
to Mr. Stewart himself, for he calls attention to procumbent and arborescent forms of O.
galapageia, while the greatest range of spine characters is shown between the young plants
and old ones and between the trunk and the joints. The specimen which Mr. Stewart has
made the type of his Opuntia insularis is quite different from all the others, and yet one
can easily believe that intergrades could be found; his species is described without flowers
or fruit. Mr. Stewart states that this Opuntia forms the principal article of food for the
Galápagos land tortoise. Its trunk becomes thicker than that of any other known species
of the genus.
Illustrations: Gard. Chron. III. 24: f. 75; Mag. Zool. and Bot. 1: pl. 1, f. 2; Proc. Calif.
Acad. IV. 1: pl. 7, f. 2; pl. 8; pl. 9, f. 2; pl. 10 to 12. Gard. Chron. Ser. III. 27: f. 56; Proc.
Calif. Acad. IV. 1: pl. 7, f. 1; pl. 13, f. 2; pl. 16 to 18, all as Opuntia myriacantha. Proc.
Calif. Acad. IV. 1: pl. 13, f. 1; pl. 14, the last two as Opuntia helleri. Proc. Calif. Acad. IV.
1: pl. 9, f. 1; pl. 15, the last two as Opuntia insularis.
Figure 189 represents a joint of the plant collected by Robert E. Snodgrass and Edmund
Heller on Wenman Island, Galápagos, on the Hopkins-Stanford Expedition (type of Opuntia
helleri Schumann), drawn from the herbarium specimen in the Gray Herbarium; igure 190
is of a lower of the same plant; igure 191 is from a photograph of an herbarium specimen
collected by Alban Stewart.
155. Opuntia delaetiana Weber in Vaupel, Blühende Kakteen 3: pl. 148.
1913.
Opuntia elata delaetiana Weber in Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 392. 1904.
Joints oblong, 25 cm. long, 8 cm. broad, bright green, at first thin and spineless, the margin
strongly undulate; areoles large, bearing 3 to 5 straight, rose-colored or yellowish brown spines up
to 4 cm. long; leaves subulate, about mm. long; glochids wanting in young areoles, later appearing
numerous and brown; flower-buds rounded at the apex; outer sepals orbicular, obtuse, red; flower
rotate, 5 to 7 cm. broad, orange-colored; stigma-lobes white; fruit oblong or pyriform, red, 5 to
7 cm. long, 3 to 5 cm. in thickness.
Type locality: Paraguay.
Distribution: Paraguay and northeastern Argentina.
he plant was collected by Dr. homas Morong
at Asunción, Paraguay, in 1888, and referred in his
list of plants collected in Paraguay (Annal. N. Y.
Acad. Sci. 7: 121. 1892) to O. nigricans Haworth;
Dr. Shafer found it in 1917 in waste places and in
hedge-rows about Concordia and Posados, Argentina.
his species may more properly belong in our series
Elatae than in Elatiores.
Illustration: Blühende Kakteen 3: pl. 148.
Figure 192 is copied from the illustration above
cited.
156. Opuntia bergeriana Weber in Berger, Gard. Chron.
III. 35: 34. 1904.
Growing singly or in dense thickets, often 1 to 3.5
meters high and having a trunk 3 to 4 dm. in diameter,
with a large, spreading top, or clambering over walls
and rocks; joints narrowly oblong, sometimes 2.5 cm.
Fig. 192.—Opuntia delaetiana.
long, when young often quite narrow, bright green, but
becoming dull and somewhat glaucous; areoles rather distant, on old joints 2 to 4 cm. apart, filled
with short gray wool; spines 2 or 3, rarely 5, unequal, the longest one 3 to 4 cm. long and somewhat flattened, more or less brownish at base, sometimes yellowish, porrect, or somewhat turned
downward; leaves 2 to 3 mm. long, fugacious; glochids yellow but sometimes turning brown, rather
prominent, forming a half circle in the upper part of the areole; areoles circular, when young filled
with light brown wool in the center and white in the outer region; flowers numerous, showy, deep red
BRITTON AND ROSE
M. E. Eaton del.
PLATE XXVI
A HOEN & CO
1. Flowering joint of Opuntia bergeriana.
2. Flowering joint of Opuntia elatior.
3. Flowering joint of Opuntia boldinghii.
4, . Joints of Opuntia elata.
(All natural size.)
153
OPUNTIA
some joints bearing 20 or more; petals 2.5 cm. long, mucronate; filaments numerous, scarlet-rose;
stigma-lobes 6, green; fruit small, 3 to 4 cm. long, red, not edible; seeds few, flattened, mm. broad.
Type locality: Described from cultivated specimens.
Distribution: Not known in the wild state, but now very common on the Riviera, northern Italy, forming large thickets.
Mr. Berger would place this species next to O. nigricans, which we now call O. elatior.
his species was named for Alwin Berger, formerly curator of the Hanbury Garden at La
Mortola, Italy, who sent material to the late Dr. Weber, from which the species was described.
he species is quite common on the Riviera and has run wild in many places, especially
about Bordighera, Italy. It produces a great abundance of lowers in May, but blooms more
or less throughout the year.
Opuntia ledienii (Berger, Hort. Mortol. 233. 1912), unpublished, is referred here.
Illustrations: Gard. Chron. III. 35: f. 14; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 16: 156.
Plate xxvi, igure 1, represents a lowering joint of a plant sent from La Mortola, Italy,
to the New York Botanical Garden in 1906.
157. Opuntia elatior Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 4.
1768.
Cactus nigricans Haworth, Misc. Nat. 187. 1803.
Opuntia nigricans Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 189. 1812.
Cactus elatior Willdenow, Enum. Hort. Berol. Suppl. 34. 1813.
Cactus tuna nigricans Sims, Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 38: pl. 1557. 1813.
Cactus tuna elatior Sims, Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 38: under pl. 1557. 1813.
Cactus pseudococcinellifer Bertoloni, Excerpta Herb. Bonon. 11. 1820.
Plants densely bushy-branched, up to 5 meters high; joints obovate to oblong or suborbicular,
olive-green, I to 2 dm. or even 4 dm. long; leaves 4 mm. long, green with reddish tips; areoles
2 to 4 cm. apart; spines 2 to 8, acicular, mostly terete, dark brown, 2 to 4 cm. or even 7 cm.
long; flowers about 5 cm. broad; petals dark yellow striped with red or sometimes salmon-rose,
with mucronate tips; filaments numerous, pink or red; style nearly white; stigma-lobes 5, green;
ovary ovoid, deeply umbilicate, its areoles either with or without spines; fruit obovoid, truncate
when mature, reddish, the pulp dark red; seeds about 4 mm. broad.
Type locality: Unknown.
Distribution: Common or frequent in Curaçao, Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama, escaped from cultivation in Australia. O. nigricans has been referred to Mexico, but doubtless
wrongly, unless cultivated there. Plants brought by Dr. Howe from Tobogilla Island, Panama,
have narrowly obovate joints.
he early history of this species and its various synonyms are rather confusing. Dillenius
igured Opuntia elatior and this name was taken up by Miller in 1768. here is some doubt
as to its native home, but it probably came from northern South America, or possibly
Curaçao. Opuntia nigricans, also referred here, was described by Haworth from cultivated
specimens; plate 1557 of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine was made from Haworth’s specimen
and may be considered typical.
Introduced into cultivation in Europe about 1793.
Illustrations: Loudon, Encycl. pl. ed. 3. f. 6877, as Cactus elatior; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 38:
pl. 1557, this last as Cactus tuna nigricans; Dillenius, Hort. Elth. pl. 294, this as Tuna elatior, etc.; Agr. Gaz. N. S. W. 23: pl. opp. 208; pl. opp. 210, both these as Opuntia nigricans;
Journ. Hort. Home Farm. III. 60: 30, this as Opuntia occidentalis.
Plate xxvi, igure 2, shows a lowering joint of a specimen obtained by Dr. Britton and
Dr. Shafer in Curaçao in 1913.
158. Opuntia hanburyana Weber in Berger, Gard. Chron. III. 35: 34. 1904.
Bushy, 1 to 2 meters high, somewhat straggling; joints narrowly oblong, about 3 dm. long,
bright green; leaves subulate, to 5 mm. long; areoles closely set, filled with brown or blackish
wool; spines several, spreading, acicular, somewhat flattened and twisted, yellowish brown, the
longest 3 cm. long; flowers widely spreading, rather small; fruit small.
Type locality: Described from cultivated plants.
Distribution: Not known in the wild state.
154
THE CACTACEAE.
he species commemorates Sir homas Hanbury, who, through his extensive garden at
La Mortola, Italy, contributed much to botany and horticulture.
Illustration: Gard. Chron. III. 35: f. 15.
Figure 193 represents joints of the plant sent from La Mortola, Italy, in 1913.
159. Opuntia quitensis Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 894.
1898.
Bushy, sometimes 2 meters high; joints obovate, 1 to 4 dm. long, 8 to 9 cm. broad; areoles
small, distant, 2 cm. apart, bearing some white tomentum and short glochids; spines wanting, or
1 to 3, sometimes as many as 4 on old joints, straight, yellowish
brown, or nearly white when young, acicular, somewhat flexuous,
2 to 3 cm. long; leaves green, minute, acute; flowers red, 12 to
15 mm. broad; petals erect, obtuse; anthers white; style white,
short and thick; stigma-lobes 13, white, about as long as the
style; fruit obovoid, red, nearly spineless, about 2 cm. long; seeds
about 3 cm. broad.
Fig. 193.—O. hanburyana.
× 0.5.
Fig. 194.—O. quitensis.
× 0.5.
Type locality: Near Quito, Ecuador.
Distribution: Ecuador.
As observed by Dr. Rose in Ecuador in 1918, this species is very variable in habit, for
when grown in the open it is low and bushy with rather small joints, but when growing
in thickets it becomes tall and has large joints. About Huigra, where it is very common,
it is often spineless, and when the spines are present they are few and weak. In southern
Ecuador there is a plant which has small, red lowers like this species, but the joints have
stout subulate spines.
Figure 194 represents a joint of a plant obtained in 1901 for the New York Botanical
Garden from M. Simon, of St. Ouen, Paris, France.
159a. Opuntia soederstromiana sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 221.)
155
OPUNTIA
160. Opuntia schumannii Weber in Berger, Gard. Chron. III. 35: 34.
1904.
Bushy, 1 to 2 meters high; joints obovate to oblong, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, dull dark green;
areoles distant, medium sized; spines 2 to 10, slightly spreading, very unequal, the longest ones
4.5 cm. long, more or less twisted, flattened, dark brown; glochids few, soon disappearing; flowers
6 cm. long, yellowish to orange, turning in age to dull red; ovary tuberculate, spineless, deeply,
umbilicate; fruit dark purple, turgid, juicy, deeply umbilicate, 5 cm. long.
Type locality: Not cited.
Distribution: Northern South America; sometimes assigned to Argentina.
Opuntia schumannii is described by Berger as being intermediate between Opuntia and
Nopalea, and according to him, it has long stamens and upright petals; otherwise it has little
in common with Nopalea; a plant from Santa Clara, Colombia, which agrees with plants of
O. schumannii from La Mortola, Italy, has a normal Opuntia lower.
Illustration: Gard. Chron. III. 35: f. 16.
Plate xxvii, igure 1, represents a fruiting joint of the plant collected by John G. Sinclair at Santa Clara, Colombia, in 1913; igure 2 shows a lower of the same plant.
161. Opuntia fuliginosa Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 262. 1908.
Tall, tree-like, 4 meters high or more, much branched; joints orbicular to oblong, 3 dm. long
or less, shining; leaves subulate, 8 to 12 mm. long; areoles distant; spines few, rarely as many as
6, dull brown or horn-colored, the longest ones 4 cm. long, slightly twisted;, glochids yellow to
brown; flowers at first yellow but in age red, 5 to 6 cm. long including the ovary; stigma-lobes
yellowish green; fruit pyriform to short-oblong, 3 to 4 cm. long, red; seeds 5 mm. broad.
Type locality: Near Guadalajara, Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico.
We refer this species to our series Elatiores with hesitation.
Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 25.
161a. Opuntia zebrina Small, Journ. N. V. Bot. Gard. 20: 35.
1919.
(See Appendix, p. 222.)
162. Opuntia boldinghii sp. nov.
Bushy, 2 meters high; joints dull green, somewhat glaucous,
obovate, 2 cm. long, spineless or with very short brown spines;
leaves conic, red, 2 to 3 mm. long; areoles large, elevated, filled
with short brown wool; flowers rose-colored, 5 cm. long; petals obtuse; filaments pink, much shorter than the petals; style
nearly white; stigma-lobes yellowish; fruit obovate, 4 cm. long,
spineless; seeds 4 mm. in diameter.
Collected by Dr. N. L. Britton and Dr. J. A. Shafer,
March 1913, in cultivation on Curaçao (No. 2905, type);
also collected by H. Pittier around El Palito, Venezuela,
July 2, 1913 (No. 6450), and by Dr. Rose in a hedge at
Valencia, Venezuela, October 27, 1916 (No. 21842).
his species is named in honor of Dr. I. Boldingh, a
Dutch botanist, author of a valuable descriptive lora of
the Dutch West Indian islands.
Plate xxvi, igure 3, shows a lowering joint, of a specimen obtained by Dr. Britton and Dr. Shafer in Curaçao
in 1913.
163. Opuntia distans sp. nov.
Erect, densely much branched, 3 to 4 meters tall, with a
short trunk 1.5 dm. in diameter; joints flat, bluish green when
young, grayish green when old, obovate, 2 to 2.5 dm. long, about
1.5 dm. wide and nearly 2 cm. thick, rounded above, narrowed
Fig. 195.—Joint of O. distans.
× 0.4.
156
THE CACTACEAE.
at the base, glabrous; areoles few, only about 12 on each side of a joint, distant, large, nearly circular, 8 to 10 mm. broad, slightly elevated, bearing many short glochids, but quite spineless; leaves
subulate, about 3 mm. long; ovary obconic, 3 to 4 cm. long, bearing a few small areoles; sepals
broadly triangular, acute, 6 to 10 mm. long; petals broad, rounded, 1 to 2 cm. long, orange-red.
Distribution: Sandy places, Andalgala, Catamarca, Argentina, J. A. Shafer, December 15
1916 (No. 7).
A spineless species noteworthy for its few, large, distant areoles. We append it to the
series Elatiores, but are uncertain as to its real ainity. he large distant areoles forbid associating it with the Ficus-indicae or the Streptacanthae.
Figure 195 represents a joint of the type specimen.
Series 13. ELATAE.
Erect, tall species, natives of South America, with oblong or oval joints, the brown or white
spines, when present, only one or few at each areole, except on the trunk and old joints.
Key to Species.
Joints ovate to broadly oblong or obovate.
Joints thin, lustrous, light green . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints turgid, dull green.
Leaves purplish, rigid; joints dark green . .
Leaves green, not rigid; joints pale green.
Spines slender, terete . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines stout, angled, elongated . . . . . . .
Joints narrowly oblong to linear or spatulate.
Joints oblong to linear; flowers brick-red . . . .
Joints spatulate; flowers orange . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164. O. vulgaris
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165. O. elata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166. O. cardiosperma
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167. O. arechavaletai
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168. O. mieckleyi
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169. O. bonaerensis
164. Opuntia vulgaris Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 1.
1768.
Cactus monacanthos Willdenow, Enum. Pl. Suppl. 33. 1813.
Opuntia monacantha Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 81. 1819.
Cactus urumbeba Vellozo, Fl. Flum. 207. 1825.
Cactus indicus Roxburgh, Fl. Indica 2: 475. 1832.
Cactus chinensis Roxburgh, Fl. Indica 2: 476. 1832.
Opuntia monacantha gracilior Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 68. 1839.
Opuntia umbrella Steudel, Nom. ed. 2. 2: 222. 1841.
Opuntia roxburghiana Voigt, Hort. Suburb. Calcutt. 62. 1845.
Opuntia monacantha deflexa Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 66. 1850.
Opuntia lemaireana Console in Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 894. 1898.
Plant 2 to 4 or even 6 meters high, often with a definite trunk, usually with a large much
branched top; trunk cylindric, 1.5 dm. in diameter, either spiny or smooth; joints ovate to oblong,
narrowed at base, 1 to 3 dm. long, bright shining green; leaves subulate, 2 to 3 mm. long; areoles
filled with short wool; glochids brownish; spines 1 or 2, sometimes more (on the trunk often 10 or
more) from an areole, erect, 1 to 4 cm. long, yellowish brown to dark reddish brown; flowers yellow
or reddish, 7.5 cm. broad; sepals broad, each with a broad red stripe down the middle; petals goldenyellow, widely ‘spreading; filaments greenish; style white; stigma-lobes 6, white; ovary spineless, 3.5
cm. long; fruit obovoid, 5 to 7.5 cm. long, reddish purple, long-persisting, sometimes proliferous.
Type locality: Type based on an illustration, the origin unknown.
Distribution: Coast and islands of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina; in the interior to
Paraguay; an escape in Cuba, India, and south Africa and naturalized in Australia; frequently
cultivated. According to J. H. Maiden it is found in every state of Australia, but it is not
inclined to spread and become a pest.
As has been recently pointed out by Burkill, the Opuntia vulgaris of Miller is the same
as O. monacantha Haworth. O. vulgaris was based on Bauhin’s igure (Hist. Pl. 1: 154. 1650),
which was taken from Lobelius (Icones 2: 241. 1591), and is a tall, branching plant. his
species is not to be confused with the low, spreading species of the eastern United States,
long known as O. vulgaris. (See. p. 127.)
This species is said by Burkill to be distributed over the earth more widely than any
other, but our observation in America is that O. f icus-indica is by far the most widely
spread species.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XXVII
M. E. Eaton del.
A HOEN & CO
1.
2.
Upper part of fruiting joint of Opuntia schumannii.
3.
Flower of Opuntia schumannii.
4.
(All natural size.)
Flowering joint of Opuntia vulgaris.
Flowering joint of Opuntia stricta.
157
OPUNTIA
O. vulgaris was one of those most commonly used in the nopalries of India and South
Africa in the cochineal industry.
We have referred both of Roxburgh’s species here, although Burkill was inclined to refer
Cactus chinensis to O. decumana, which in his sense is O. f icus-indica.
Opuntia monacantha variegata (listed in Cat. Darrah Succ. Manchester 57. 1908) is common in cultivation. Some of the joints are normally green; others are more or less blotched
with white or yellow, while others may be entirely white or yellow; the leaves are bright
red and though small are conspicuous.
Opuntia urumbella Steudel (Nom. ed. 2. 1: 246. 1840), given as a synonym of Cactus
urumbella, is doubtless a name for this species.
Opuntia deflexa Lemaire (Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 68. 1839) was given as a synonym of O.
monacantha gracilior; while the latter was given as a synonym of O. elatior deflexa Salm-Dyck
(Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 47. 1845).
Illustrations: Rev. Hort. 41: f. 37; 66: f. 58; Bauhin, Hist. Pl. 1: 154 [=Lobelius, Icones
2: 241], this last as Opuntia vulgo, etc. Anal. Mus. Nac. Montevideo 5: pl. 32; Curtis’s
Bot. Mag. 68: pl. 3911; Dept. Agr. N. S. W. Misc. Publ. 253: pl. [3], [4]; Agr. Gaz. N.
S. W. 24: facing p. 864; Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 20: pl. 1726; Gard. Chron. III. 30: f. 122,
in part; 34: f. 35; Journ. Dept. Agr. Vict. 6: pl. 25; Martius, Fl. Bras. 4 2: pl. 62; Weeds,
Pois. Pl. Nat. Al. Vict. pt. 1. pl.
[10], [32], all as Opuntia monacantha;
Amer. Garden 11: 529; Cact. Journ.
1: 167, these last two as Opuntia
monacantha variegata; Vellozo, Fl.
Flum. 5: pl. 32, as Cactus urumbeba; De Candolle, Pl. Succ. Hist. 2:
pl. 138 [B]; De Tussac, Fl. Antill.
2: pl. 31, these last two as Cactus
opuntia tuna; Gard. Chron. III. 47:
f. 174, this as Opuntia f icus-indica;
Rümpler, Sukkulenten f. 122, this as
Opuntia tuna; Addisonia 1: pl. 38.
Plate xxvii, igure 3, represents
a lowering joint of a plant presented
to the New York Botanical Garden
by Mr. Gustav Rix in 1900.
165. Opuntia elata Link and Otto
in Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 361.
1834.
Fig. 196.—O. elata.
× 0.4.
Fig. 197.—O. cardiosperma.
× 0.4.
An erect plant, 1 meter high or more; joints thick, dark green, oblong, 5 to 25 cm. long, half
as broad as long; leaves minute, caducous; areoles remote, large (7 mm. in diameter), filled with
short white wool, usually spineless; spines if present only 1 to 3, except on old stems and there
more, horn-colored, stiff, sometimes 3.5 cm. long; glochids very tardy in appearing, long persistent;
flowers about 5 cm. broad, orange-yellow; petals obtuse, broad; filaments short; stigma-lobes white;
fruit oblong, 6 cm. long, spineless, with a truncate umbilicus; seeds 6 mm. broad.
Type locality: In Brazil.
Distribution: Paraguay, but according to Salm-Dyck and Pfeifer, from Brazil and probably Curaçao; our exploration of Curaçao failed to prove its existence there. It is grown
for ornament in Cuba and has there escaped from cultivation in gardens to roadsides and
waste grounds.
Schumann did not know where to place this species, but we believe it is most nearly
related to Opuntia vulgaris.
158
THE CACTACEAE.
Plate xxvi, igure 4, represents a lowering joint of a plant given to the New York Botanical Garden by Frank Weinberg in 190 3; igure 5 represents another joint of the same
plant. Figure 196 represents a joint of a ‘plant obtained by Professor Carlos de la Torre at
Punta de los Molinos, Cuba, in 1912.
166. Opuntia cardiosperma Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 9: 150. 1899.
About 2 meters high, erect, branching; joints narrowly oblong to obovate; rounded at apex,
10 to 15 cm. long or smaller in greenhouse specimens, easily breaking apart, pale green, more or
less tuberculate; leaves minute, subulate; areoles large, 1 to 2 cm. apart, with white wool, when
young having conspicuous secreting glands; spines, when present, 1 to 4, acicular, stiff, more commonly 1 or 2 from an areole, short, 1 to 2 cm. long, brownish at first but nearly white when old,
porrect or ascending; glochids tardily developing, never conspicuous, brownish; flowers unknown;
fruit elongated, pear-shaped, 7.5 cm. long; seeds 6 mm. broad, 2.5 to 3 mm. thick, cordate, gray,
with broad yellow margins, woolly on the sides.
Type locality: At Recoleta, near Asunción, Paraguay.
Distribution: Paraguay.
Figure 197 represents joints of the plant sent to the New York Botanical Garden from
La Mortola, Italy, in 19 13.
167. Opuntia arechavaletai Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires. III. 4: 520. 1905.
Plants tall, 1 to 3 meters high, much branched; joints flattened, oblong to obovate, 25 to
30 cm. long, green; spines, usually 1, sometimes 3, elongated, porrect, up to 9 cm. long, white,
flattened; flowers 4.5 cm. long, yellow; stamens and style white; fruit violet-purple, 7 cm. long.
Type locality: Near Montevideo, Uruguay.
Distribution: Argentina and Uruguay.
Illustration: Anal. Mus. Nac. Montevideo 5: pl. 35.
168. Opuntia mieckleyi Schumann, Blühende Kakteen 1: pl. 44. 1903.
Plant erect, much branched; joints narrowly oblong, 15 to 25 cm. long, 4 to 6 cm. broad,
glabrous, dark green, darker below the areoles; tubercles rather prominent; leaves small; areoles
large, filled with white wool; spines, when present, 1 or 2, very short (5 mm. long), dark-colored;
flower buds obtuse; flowers brick-red, 6 cm. broad; petals irregularly notched; ovary spineless.
Type locality: In Paraguay.
Distribution: Paraguay; Estancia Loma, in San Salvador.
Named for W. Mieckley, gardener in the Berlin Botanical Garden.
Illustration: Blühende Kakteen 1: pl. 44.
169. Opuntia bonaerensis Spegazzini, Contr. Fl. Tandil 18.
1904.
Opuntia chakensis Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. III. 4: 519. 1905.
Two meters high, very much branched; joints spatulate to elliptic-spatulate, 15 to 25 cm.
long, green; spines wanting or one, short; flowers orange, large, 4 cm. long; fruit obconic, 6 to
7 cm. long, dull purple; seeds 5 to 6 mm. long, subglobose.
Type locality: Sierra de Curamalal, Argentina.
Distribution: Argentina and perhaps Paraguay.
Opuntia paraguayensis Schumann (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 9: 149. 1899) according to
Spegazzini, and if so this name would supplant O. bonaerensis.
Illustration: Anal. Mus. Nac. Montevideo 5: pl. 23.
he three following, known to us only from descriptions, may belong to this series.
Opuntia stenarthra Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 9: 149. 1899.
Shrubby, erect or decumbent, creeping over stones or ascending trees; joints thin, narrow,
yellowish green, oblong to lanceolate, rounded at base, glabrous; spines either wanting or 1 to 3
from an areole, stoutish, subangular; flowers yellow; seeds woolly.
Type locality: Estancia Tagatiya, Paraguay.
Distribution: Paraguay.
159
OPUNTIA
Opuntia assumptionis Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 9: 153. 1899.
Erect, 1 meter high; joints obovate, narrowed at base, thickish; spines at areoles on the faces of
the joints none, but on the edges 1 or 2, stout, subulate, the upper one stouter, 3 to 4.5 cm. long;
lower 3.5 cm. long, lemon-yellow; fruit pear-shaped, with a deep umbilicus; seeds densely villous.
Type locality: Asunción, Paraguay.
Distribution: Known only from the type locality.
Opuntia canterai Arechavaleta, Anal. Mus. Nac. Montevideo 5: 278.
1905.
Stems erect, branching, 5 to 10 dm. high; joints elongated, shining green, attenuate below,
15 to 20 cm. long, 4 to 6 cm. broad; areoles orbicular, when young each surrounded by a violet
spot, mostly spineless, about 4 cm. apart; spines, when present, 1 or 2 from an areole, 1.5 to 2
cm. long, whitish, with brownish tips; flowers orange-colored, 4 to 4.5 cm. broad; stigma-lobes 6
or 7, light flesh-colored; fruit somewhat pear-shaped, 5 cm. long; seeds flattened.
Type locality: In Uruguay.
Distribution: Along the coast of Uruguay.
In Uruguay this species lowers in January and February.
Series 14. SCHEERIANAE.
A single bushy species, with broad, thin, persistent joints,
the areoles close together, each bearing several yellow, acicular
spines and long white or yellow hairs. Its home is unknown.
170. Opuntia scheeri Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 895. 1898.
About I meter high, branching at base, the lower branches
sprawling over the ground; joints oblong to orbicular, 1.5 to
3 dm. long, bluish green; areoles circular, elevated, filled with
short brown wool; spines 10 to 12, yellow, acicular, each surrounded by a row of long white or yellow hairs; flowers large,
pale yellow, but in age salmon-colored; stigma-lobes deep green;
fruit globular, red, juicy, truncate; seed small, 4 mm. broad,
with a broad irregular margin.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Mexico, but known to us only from
Fig. 198.—Opuntia scheeri. × 0.5.
cultivated specimens.
his is a very beautiful species, covered as it is by yellow spines and long hairs. A ine
plant is growing in the open at La Mortola, Italy. he seedlings produce a long mass of
soft white hairs almost covering the joints and giving an appearance very diferent from
the adult plant. In this young stage, according to Mr. Alwin Berger, they readily pass for
Opuntia senilis (O. crinifera).
Figure 198 represents a joint from a specimen sent from La Mortola, Italy, in 1912.
Series 15. DILLENIANAE.
Mostly bushy or tall species, with large, flat, persistent joints, and yellow spines which are
sometimes brown at base, some species spineless or nearly so. We recognize thirteen species
as composing the series, but many more have been described. The plants inhabit the southern
United States, the West Indies, Mexico, and northern South America.
Key to Species.
Spines nearly setaceous, most of them reflexed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines, when present, acicular to subulate.
Joints spineless, or with only 1 or 2 spines at some of the areoles, or spines very short.
Corolla rotate; petals yellow.
Plant tall; spines, when present, 2 cm. long or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant depressed, bushy or spreading; spines, when present, up to 7 cm. long . . . .
Corolla cup-shaped; petals salmon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints usually manifestly spiny; spines mostly 2 or more at the areoles.
Spines mostly stout, commonly flattened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines acicular to subulate, terete, or slightly flattened at the base.
. . . . 171. O. chlorotica
. . . . 172. O. laevis
. . . . 173. O. stricta
. . . . 173a. O. keyensis
. . . . 174. O. dillenii
160
THE CACTACEAE.
Joints elongated-lanceolate or oblong, several times longer than wide
Joints obovate to suborbicular.
Spines long.
Areoles mostly 1.5 to 2 cm. apart.
Spines subulate, up to 7.5 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines acicular, 4 cm. long or less.
Spines nearly clear yellow, short . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines brown at base, long and slender . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Areoles mostly 2.5 to 4 cm. apart.
Bushy species.
Spines yellow or yellowish brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines pale yellow or whitish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Depressed or procumbent plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines only 1.5 cm. long or less, or becoming longer on old joints.
Plant I meter high or less; joints thin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plant 3 to 5 meters high; joints very thick.
Spines reflexed; flowers yellow.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines spreading, deciduous; flowers orange-red . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175. O. linguiformis
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176. O. tapona
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177. O. littoralis
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178. O. aciculata
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179. O. lindheimeri
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180. O. cantabrigiensis
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181. O. procumbens
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182. O. cañada
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183. O. pyriformis
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183a. O. bonplandii
171. Opuntia chlorotica Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 291.
1856.
Opuntia tidballii Bigelow, Pac. R. Rep. 4: 11. 1856.
Opuntia curvospina Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 88. 1916.
Erect bushy, sometimes 2 meters high or more, with a definite trunk; main branches nearly
erect; joints ovate to orbicular, sometimes broader than long, 15 to 20 cm. long, more or less
glaucous, bluish green; leaves subulate, small, reddish at tip; areoles closely set, prominent; spines
yellow, several, most of them usually appressed and reflexed, setaceous, 3 to 4 cm. long; glochids
yellow, numerous, elongated, persistent; flowers yellow, 6 to 7.5 cm. broad; filaments white; fruit
purple without, green within, 4 cm. long; seeds small.
Fig. 199.—Opuntia chlorotica.
Fig. 200.—Opuntia chlorotica.
× 0.4.
Type locality: On both sides of the Colorado from San Francisco Mountains to headwaters of Bill Williams River.
Distribution: Sonora and New Mexico to Nevada, California, and Lower California.
his species is of wide distribution, but is chiely conined to mountain canyons, being
rarely found on the open mesas.
Illustrations: Bull. Torr. Club 43: pl. 3; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 6, f. 1 to 3; Bull. Torr. Club
43: pl. 2, this last as Opuntia curvospina.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XXVIII
M. E. Eaton del.
A HOEN & CO
1. Flowering joint of Opuntia laevis.
2. Flowering joint of Opuntia dillenii.
3. Upper part of flowering joint of Opuntia aciculata.
(All natural size.)
161
OPUNTIA
Figure 199 is from a photograph of a plant with narrow joints, in McCleary’s Canyon,
Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, taken by Dr. MacDougal; igure 200 represents a joint of
a plant from the collection made by Professor J. W. Toumey at Tucson, Arizona, obtained
by Dr. MacDougal in 1902.
Opuntia palmeri Engelmann in Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 423.
1896.
his plant has not been again collected and is still a doubtful species; it came from St.
George, southwestern Utah. In 1909 E. W. Nelson made a collection for us in this region,
but the only shrubby, juicy-fruited species which he collected has brown spines and brown
glochids, which would seem to exclude it from O. palmeri. It is not at all unlikely that 0.
palmeri should be referred to O. chlorotica, a widely dispersed species, but of which we have
not seen any specimens from Utah.
172. Opuntia laevis Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 419. 1896.
Loosely few-branched, 1 to 2 meters high, but in cultivation often forming a low, dense
bush; joints obovate to oblong, 1.5 to 3 dm. long, light green, often spineless but usually with a
few (1 to 3) short spines 1 cm. long or less at the areoles of the upper part of the joint; areoles
rather distant, small; flower large, 6 to 7 cm. broad; petals lemon-yellow, sometimes tinged with
red, broad, and obtuse or retuse; filaments and style short, pale yellow; stigma-lobes green; ovary
turbinate, more or less tuberculate, at first leafy, often bristly at top; fruit obovoid, 5 to 7 cm.
long; seeds to 5 mm. broad.
Type locality: In Arizona.
Distribution: In the mountains about Tucson, Arizona.
Referred by Professor Schumann to O. inermis (O. stricta), but it is not that species.
Illustrations: Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67: pl. 8, f. 1; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 72:
pl. 1; Plant World 1110: f. 5.
Plate xxviii, igure 1, represents a lowering joint of a plant brought by Dr. MacDougal
from Tucson, Arizona, in 1902, to the New York Botanical Garden.
173. Opuntia stricta Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 191.
1812.
Cactus opuntia inermis De Candolle, Pl. Succ. Hist. 2: pl. 138 [C]. 1799*
Cactus strictus Haworth, Misc. Nat. 188. 1803.
Opuntia inermis De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 473. 1828.
Opuntia arampo Philippi, Anal. Univ. Chile 85: 492. 1894.
Opuntia parva Berger, Hort. Mortol. 411. 1912.
Opuntia bentonii Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 25. 1912.
Opuntia longiclada Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 525. 1916 (according to description and illustration).
Bushy, low, spreading plants, sometimes forming large clumps, seldom over 8 dm. high; joints
obovate to oblong, usually 8 to 15 cm. long, but sometimes much elongated and then 30 cm. long
or more, green or bluish green, glabrous, often spineless especially in greenhouse specimens, sometimes but a spine or two on a joint, at other times spines more abundant; leaves stout, subulate,
3 to 4 mm. long; areoles distant, the wool brownish, the glochids short; spines, when present,
usually I or 2 from an areole, stiff, terete, yellow, 1 to 4 cm. long; flowers 6 to 7 cm. long; petals yellow, broad, obtuse, apiculate; filaments yellow to greenish; style usually white; stigma-lobes
usually white but sometimes greenish; fruit purple, usually broadest at top, tapering to a slender
base, 4 to 6 cm. long, with a more or less depressed umbilicus.
Type locality: Not given.
Distribution: Western Cuba; Florida to southern Texas.
Opuntia vulgaris balearica Weber (Dict. Hort. Bois 894. 1898) is given by Weber as a
synonym of O. inermis; Opuntia balearica Weber (Hirscht, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 8: 175.
1898) has also been used, but not described, and Hirscht says it belongs here.
his species is often cultivated on the west coast of South America. It was there given
the name O. arampo by Dr. Philippi, who supposed it to be the airampo of the Peruvians,
a native species, quite diferent from this one.
his species is the pest pear of New South Wales and Queensland. It has now run wild
over thousands of acres of the best agricultural and grazing land of the interior of
*Berger (Hort. Mortol. 411. 1912) gives the date 1797.
162
THE CACTACEAE.
Australia. J. H. Maiden says: “he growth of this Opuntia is one of the wonders of the
world, and the spread of few plants in any country can be compared with it.”
Illustrations: Dept. Agr. N. S. W. Misc. Publ. 253: pl. [5]; Gard. Chron. III. 34: f. 32;
Gartenlora 31: pl. 1082, f. d, e, f; De Candolle, Pl. Succ. Hist. 2: pl. 138 [C]; De Tussac,
Fl. Antill. 2: pl. 34, the last two as Cactus opuntia inermis; Agr. Gaz. N. S. W. 23: pl. opp.
713; pl. opp. 714; pl. opp. 716; Blühende Kakteen 2: pl. 108, all these as Opuntia inermis.
Plate xxvii; igure 4, represents a lowering joint of the plant collected by Dr. Britton
and John F. Cowell on limestone rocks near Pinar del Rio, Cuba, in 1911.
173a. Opuntia keyensis Britton. (See Appendix, p. 222.)
174. Opuntia dillenii (Ker-Gawler) Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 79.
1819.
Cactus dillenii Ker-Gawler, Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 3: pl. 255. 1818.
Opuntia horrida Salm-Dyck in De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 472. 1828.
Opuntia maritima Rafinesque, Atl. Journ. 146. 1832.
Opuntia tunoidea Gibbes, Proc. Elliott Soc. Nat. Hist. 1: 272. 1859.
Fig. 201.—Opuntia dillenii, Antigua, West Indies.
Low, spreading bushes growing in broad clumps and often forming dense thickets, or tall
and much branched, 2 to 3 meters high, sometimes with definite terete trunks; joints obovate to
oblong, 7 to 40 cm. long, the margin more or less undulate, bluish green, somewhat glaucous,
but bright green when young, the areoles somewhat elevated; leaves subulate, curved backward,
5 mm. long; areoles often large, filled with short brown or white wool when young, usually few
and remote, on old joints 10 to 12 mm. in diameter; spines often 10 from an areole on firstyear joints, very variable, usually more or less flattened and curved, sometimes terete and straight,
yellow, more or less brown-banded, or mottled, often brownish in age, sometimes 7 cm. long,
but usually shorter, sometimes few or none; glochids numerous, yellow; wool in areoles short,
sometimes brown, sometimes white; flowers in the typical form lemon-yellow, in some forms red
from the first, 7 to 8 cm. long; petals broadly obovate, 4 to 5 cm. long; filaments greenish yellow; style thick, white; stigma-lobes white; fruit pear-shaped to subglobose, narrowed at base, 5
to 7.5 cm. long, purplish, spineless, juicy.
Type locality: Based on Dillenius’s illustration.
Distribution: Coasts of South Carolina, Florida, Bermuda, the West Indies, east coast of
Mexico, and northern South America; extending inland in Cuba.
BRITTON AND ROSE
P L AT E X X I X
1. View of Opuntia keyensis.
2. View of Opuntia keyensis.
163
OPUNTIA
his species is composed of many races varying greatly in habit, character and number of
spines, shape of joints, and color of lowers. Brother Leon has sent us specimens of several
individually quite diferent plants which inhabit hilltops in Cuba.
Opuntia lucayana Britton (Bull. N. V. Bot. Gard. 4: 141. 1906), inhabiting Grand Turk
Island, Bahamas, difers in having elongated, often narrowly oblong joints 2 to 4 times as
long as wide and many elongated, little-lattened spines. It grows with Opuntia dillenii and
O. nashii, and is believed to be a hybrid with these species as parents. A closely similar
plant was observed on Buck Island, St. homas, Danish West Indies, growing immediately
with O. dillenii and O. rubescens, the hybrid nature of which was unmistakable, and similar
plants were seen also on Antigua, British West Indies.
Opuntia cubensis Britton and Rose (Torreya 12: 14. 1912), observed in a valley near the
southern coast of Cuba at Guantánamo Bay, difers in having narrower joints, rather readily separable and smaller lowers, its stout spines little lattened. It grows near colonies of
Opuntia dillenii and O. militaris, and is probably a hybrid between them.
Reference has already been made to the possible hybrid origin of Opuntia antillana, with
O. dillenii as one of its parents. (See p. 115).
Two varieties of Opuntia dillenii are given by name only; minor Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck.
185. 1834); orbiculata Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 67. 1850).
Opuntia gilva Berger (Hort. Mortol. 233. 1912) is unpublished. he name was applied
to a specimen collected by Carl F. Baker in Cuba in 1907, and has been distributed under
this name. It is only a form of this very variable species.
he plant is hardy on the Gulf coast of the United States and in southern California.
It is widely distributed through cultivation in the warmer parts of the Old World, being
a “pest pear” in southern India and in Australia; it is used for hedges in Tenerife, and is
common along the sea on Grand Canary Island. On Bermuda, when growing in shade, the
plant is often spineless, and its joints elongate sometimes to a length of 3 dm., while only
6 or 7 cm. wide. his elongation of the joints also appears in plants from Florida.
Illustrations: Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 3: pl. 255, as Cactus dillenii; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22:
pl. 1, 2, both these as Opuntia bentonii; Dillenius, Hort. Elth. 2: pl. 296, this as Tuna major,
etc.; Amer. Journ. Pharm. 68: pl. opp. 169, as Opuntia vulgaris; Descourtilz, Fl. Med. Antill.
7: pl. 513, this as Cactus opuntia. Abh. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. München 2: pl. 3, f. 7 (?); Amer.
Garden 11: 473 (?); Cycl. Amer. Hort. Bailey 3: f. 1545, 1546; Cact. Journ. 1: 154 (?); Dept.
Agr. N. S. W. Misc. Publ. 253: pl. [2]; Dict. Gard. Nicholson 2: f. 757; W. Watson, Cact.
Cult. f. 86, all these as Opuntia tuna; Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 10: f. 26, this as Opuntia
inermis; Loudon, Encycl. Pl. ed. 3. f. 6878, this as Cactus tuna; Britton, Fl. Bermuda 255.
Plate xxviii, igure 2, represents a lowering joint of a plant collected in 1901 by N.
L. Britton and J. F. Cowell on the Island St. Martin, West Indies; plate xxix, igure 1, is
from a photograph of the related Opuntia keyensis growing on Boot Key, Florida, taken by
Marshall A. Howe in 1909; igure 2 is from a photograph of the plant on Bermuda, obtained
by Dr. Britton in 1912. Figure 201 is from a photograph of the plant growing on Antigua,
British West Indies, taken by Paul G. Russell in 1913.
175. Opuntia linguiformis Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 270.
1908.
A bushy plant, 1 meter high or more; joints elongated, oblong to ovate-oblong or lanceolate,
2 to 5 dm. long or even more, often several times longer than wide, pale green and slightly glaucous; leaves 6 mm. long, terete; spines yellow, very slender, terete or nearly so; areoles filled with
brown wool; flowers yellow, 7 to 8 cm. broad; petals broad; filaments white or greenish at base;
stigma-lobes 9, green; ovary bearing numerous long glochids at the upper areoles; fruit reddish
purple; seeds 3 or 4 mm. broad, acute on the back.
Type locality: Near San Antonio, Texas.
Distribution: Southern Texas, in the vicinity of San Antonio.
164
THE CACTACEAE.
his plant is rather common in cultivation in the Southwest and is now found in most
cactus collections. According to Dr. Griiths, it is occasionally found wild near San Antonio.
We have seen somewhat similar plants from near Brownsville, Texas, probably referable to
one of the races of Opuntia lindheimeri.
On account of the shape of the joints, this species is commonly called cow’s tongue or
lengua de vaca.
Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 27, lower igure.
Plate xxx represents a lowering joint of a plant obtained by Dr. MacDougal from
the collection of Professor J. W. Tourney at Tucson, Arizona, for the New York Botanical
Garden in 1902.
176. Opuntia tapona Engelmann in Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 423.
1896.
Low, spreading plants rarely over 6 dm. high; joints glabrous, orbicular to obovate, 20 to
25 cm. in diameter, turgid, pale green; spines 2 to 4, yellow, one much longer, 5 to 7 cm. long,
slender, porrect or sometimes curved downward; glochids brownish; fruit 4 to 6 cm. long, clavate,
dark purple without, red within, spineless.
Type locality: Near Loreto, Lower California.
Distribution: Southern part of Lower California.
Figure 202 represents a joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose on Pichilinque Island,
Lower California, in 1911.
Related to O. tapona, but probably specifically distinct f rom it, is a plant growing in
the mountains of Cedros Island, Lower California; it was recorded f rom this island by
Dr. E. L. Greene as O. engelmannii, and a specimen was brought to Washington by Dr.
Rose in 1911. This plant may be described as
follows: About 1 meter high; joints oblong,
large, 20 cm. long or more, smooth; areoles
3 cm. apart or more, very large, filled with
brown wool; spines usually about 7, pale yellow, slender, terete, the longest ones 3 cm.
long; glochids yellow. (Rose No. 16170.)
Fig. 202.—Opuntia tapona.
× 0.4.
Fig. 203.—Opuntia littoralis
BRITTON AND ROSE
M. E. Eaton del.
PLATE XXX
Flowering joint of Opuntia linguiformis.
(Natural size.)
A HOEN & CO
165
OPUNTIA
177. Opuntia littoralis (Engelmann) Cockerell, Bull. South. Calif. Acad. 4: 15.
1905.
Opuntia engelmannii littoralis Engelmann in Brewer and Watson, Bot. Calif. 1: 248. 1876.
Opuntia lindheimeri littoralis Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 422. 1896.
Bushy plants, low and spreading; joints thick, orbicular to oblong, 15 cm. long or more,
usually smaller in greenhouse plants, dull green; areoles rather closely set, large, often elevated
on old joints; spines numerous, yellow, rather short on young joints (1 to 2 cm. long), but on
old joints much longer, in age more or less flattened; wool of the areoles brown; flowers large,
yellow, 8 to 12 cm. broad; sepals broad, apiculate; petals retuse; ovary with many areoles; fruit
red, juicy; seeds 4 to 5 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego, California.
Distribution: Along and near the coast of southern California.
his species was very briely described as a variety of Opuntia engelmannii in 1876.
No deinite locality was given for it, and the original material preserved is so poor that
its identiication is doubtful. We have taken as our representative of this species the low,
bushy plant with rather thick joints, large and closely set areoles and yellow spines.
Opuntia littoralis often grows in proximity to O. occidentalis in southern California, and
hybrids of the two may exist.
Figure 203 represents joints of the plant collected at Elsinore, California, by Dr. MacDougal in 1913.
178. Opuntia aciculata Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc.. Washington 29: 10. 1916.
Low, bushy plant, 1 meter high or more, often 3 meters broad or more, the lower branches
decumbent and sending up erect branches; joints obovate, 12 to 20 cm. long, rounded at apex,
dull dark green, somewhat glaucous, bearing large, closely set areoles, these often spineless; leaves
subulate, 7 mm. long; spines several in a cluster, acicular, slender, to 5.5 cm. long, often reflexed,
brownish at base, with yellow tips, seemingly deciduous; glochids numerous, from all parts of the
areoles, long, persisting for several years; flower golden yellow, sometimes with a greenish center,
large, 8 to 10 cm. broad; petals broad, rounded or retuse; filaments yellowish; style dull yellowish
green; stigma-lobes 8 to 10, green; fruit pyriform, purple.
Type locality: Near Laredo, Texas.
Distribution: On high gravelly ground at type locality and vicinity.
This species is not very common about Laredo, Texas, but grows in small colonies
usually to the exclusion of all other plants. It can easily be distinguished from related
species, and is usually restricted to dry hills. Our description is based on specimens obtained by Dr. Rose at Laredo in 1913. Since then it has been grown both in Washington
and New York.
Plate xxviii, igure 3, represents a lowering joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose
near the type locality in 1913.
179. Opuntia lindheimeri Engelmann, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 6: 207.
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
Opuntia
1850.
dulcis Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 291. 1856.
lindheimeri dulcis Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 421. 1896.
engelmannii dulcis Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 725. 1898.
cacanapa Griffiths and Hare, N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: 47. 1906.
ferruginispina Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 267. 1908.
tricolor Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 85. 1909.
texana Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 92. 1909.
subarmata Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 94. 1909.
alta Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 165. 1910.
gomei Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 167. 1910.
sinclairii Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 173. 1910.
cyanella Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 30. 1912.
gilvoalba Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 5. 1912.
convexa Mackensen, Bull. Torr. Club 39: 290. 1912.
griff ithsiana Mackensen, Bull. Torr. Club 39: 291. 1912.
reflexa Mackensen, Bull. Torr. Club 39: 292. 1912.
deltica Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 84. 1916.
laxiflora Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 8. 1916.
flexospina Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 87. 1916
squarrosa Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 91. 1916.
166
THE CACTACEAE.
Usually erect, 2 to 4 meters high, with a more or less definite trunk, but at times much lower
and spreading; joints green or bluish green, somewhat glaucous, orbicular to obovate, up to 25 dm.
long; leaves subulate, 3 to 4 mm. long, somewhat flattened, pointed; areoles distant, often 6 cm. apart;
spines usually 1 to 6, often only 2, one porrect and 4 cm. long or more, the others somewhat shorter
and only slightly spreading, pale yellow to nearly white, sometimes brownish or blackish at base, or
some plants spineless; glochids yellow or sometimes brownish, usually prominent; petals yellow to
dark red; stigma-lobes usually green; fruit purple, pyriform to oblong, 3.5 to 5.5 cm. long.
Type locality: About New Braunfels, Texas.
Distribution: Southwestern Louisiana, southeastern Texas, and Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Opuntia lindheimeri is an extremely variable species, composed of many races, difering
in armament, color of lowers, size and shape of joints and of fruit. Certain forms have
been described which in cultivation we have been able to recognize as possibly distinct; but
in the ield they seem to intergrade with other forms, indicating that they are at most only
races of a very variable species. In the delta of the Rio Grande this is especially true, and
from this region a number of species has been described. In fact, all the plants described as
species which are cited above in the synonymy grow within a relatively small distributional
area. Dr. Rose has examined all this region and is of the opinion that only one species of
this series exists there, and this we believe is to be referred to Opuntia lindheimeri. It is very
common about Brownsville and Corpus Christi, where it forms thickets covering thousands
of acres of land. It is very variable in habit, being either low and widely spreading or becoming tall and tree-like, sometimes 3 meters high, with a deinite cylindric trunk. Plants
from these two extremes, if studied apart from the ield, might be considered as diferent
species, but in the ield one sees innumerable intergrading forms. he low, prostrate forms
gradually pass into others with more or less erect or ascending branches, while the large
tree-like forms often bear large lateral branches which lie prostrate on the ground, indicating
that they have developed from the prostrate ones. Decided diferences in the lower colors
have been pointed out in the original descriptions, and we have observed them in greenhouse
specimens, but they do not correlate with other characters.
Opuntia ellisiana Griiths (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 170. pl. 25. 1910), an unarmed
species, is known only from cultivated plants. Dr. Griiths states that it is quite diferent
from the Ficus-indcae series, which it much resembles, and is quite hardy in southern Texas.
It may be a spineless race of the common O. lindheimeri of this region.
Opuntia pyrocarpa Griiths (Bull. Torr. Club 43: 90. 1916) we do not know; in its long
pyriform fruit it suggests this plant; the type comes from Marble Falls, Texas.
O. winteriana Berger and O. haematocarpa Berger (Bot. Jahrb. Engler 36: 455 and 456.
1905) are of this relationship, but have browner spines than is usual in the species.
Opuntia leptocarpa Mackensen (Bull. Torr. Club 38: 141. 1911), characterized by its low,
bushy habit and elongated, almost abnormal fruits, suggests a natural hybrid between O.
lindheimeri and O. macrorhiza. Indeed, Mr. Mackensen described the species as intermediate
between these two, and all three species are often found growing together. O. leptocarpa
originally came from San Antonio, Texas.
Illustrations: Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 1911: pl. 3, 4, B; Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 75, f. 5
to 7; Karsten, Deutsch. Fl. f. 501. 13, 13a, 13b; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 78: pl. [13,
14], all as Opuntia dulcis. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agr. 31: pl. 3, f. 1, this as Opuntia cacanapa;
Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 4, in part, this as Opuntia tricolor; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20:
pl. 9; pl. 13, f. 1, these two as Opuntia texana. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agr. 31: pl. 2, f. 1; Rep.
Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 2, f. 1; pl. 11; pl. 13, f. 4, all these as Opuntia subarmata. Rep. Mo.
Bot. Gard. 21: pl. 19; pl. 20, in part, these two as Opuntia alta. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21:
pl. 21; pl. 22, in part, these two as Opuntia gomei. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: pl. 28, this
as Opuntia sinclairii. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: pl. 9, in part; pl. 10; Journ. Agr. Research
4. pl. f., these three as Opuntia cyanella. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: pl. 9, in part; pl. 16,
17, these three as Opuntia gilvoalba. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agr. 31: f. 1.
BRITTON AND ROSE
M. E. Eaton del.
PLATE XXXI
A HOEN & CO
Flowering joint of Opuntia lindheimeri.
1. Orange-flowered race.
2. Red-flowered race.
(Natural size.)
167
OPUNTIA
Plate xxxi, igure 1, represents a lowering joint of a plant collected near Brownsville,
Texas, by Dr. Rose in 1913; igure 2 represents a lowering joint of a plant obtained by the
same collector at the same locality; plate xxxii, igure 1, represents a lowering joint of a
plant sent by Mr. M. Mackensen from the type locality of O. leptocarpa in 1910; igure 2
shows the fruit of the same.
180. Opuntia cantabrigiensis Lynch, Gard. Chron. III. 33: 98.
1903.
Opuntia engelmannii cuija Griffiths and Hare, N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: 4. 1906.
Opuntia cuija Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 529. 1908.
Rounded bushy plant, 1 to 2 meters high; joints orbicular to obovate, 12 to 20 cm. long, rather
pale bluish green; areoles remote, large, filled with brown wool; spines usually 3 to 6 but sometimes
more, somewhat spreading, acicular, yellow with brown or reddish bases, 1.5 to 4 cm. long; glochids
numerous, large, 1 cm. long or more, yellowish, not forming a brush; flowers 5 to 6 cm. long, yellowish with reddish centers; upper areoles on the ovary bearing long bristles; stigma-lobes green;
fruit, globular, about 4 cm. in diameter, purple; seeds numerous, small, 4 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Described from specimen in Cambridge Botanic Garden, England.
Distribution: Very common in the States of San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, and Hidalgo,
Mexico.
Opuntia chrysacantha (Berger, Hort. Mortol. 231. 1912, name only), an undescribed species, probably belongs here.
Our determination of the identity of O. cantabrigensis and O. cuija is based on a living
plant of the former received from Mr. Lynch.
Illustrations: N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pl. 2, as Opuntia engelmannii cuija; Gard.
Chron. III. 30: f. 123, as Opuntia engelmannii.
Figure 204 represents joints of a plant collected by Dr. Rose near Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo,
Mexico, in 1905.
Fig. 206.—O. cañada.
Fig. 204.—O. cantabrigiensis.
× 0.4.
Fig. 205.—O. procumbens.
181. Opuntia procumbens Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 292.
× 0.75.
× 0.5.
1856.
Stems low and spreading, forming broad masses; joints “always edgewise,” orbicular, 2 to 4 or
even ,5 dm. in diameter, yellowish green, somewhat glaucous; areoles distant (3 to 5 cm. apart),
168
THE CACTACEAE.
large, bearing long yellow glochids; spines 1 to 5, spreading, 2.5 to 5 cm. long, yellow, lighter
above, flattened; flowers said to be yellow; fruit red, juicy.
Type locality: San Francisco Mountains to Cactus Pass, Arizona.
Distribution: Northern Arizona.
his species has long been wanting or poorly represented in our great herbaria. Dr. Rose
collected it near Flagstaf, Arizona, and the above description is largely drawn from his notes;
but his material was lost. In 1913 it was again collected by Mr. K A. Goldman.
Illustration: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 6, f. 4, 5.
Figure 205 is copied from the illustration above cited.
182. Opuntia cañada Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 20: 90. 1909.
Plant about 1 meter high, with many erect or ascending branches, forming a broad top; joints
ovate to obovate, 16 to 22 cm. long, smooth, and shining; leaves subulate, 1 cm. long; spines various,
white to yellow, lattened, sometimes twisted; glochids few on young joints, very abundant on old
ones; lowers yellow with red or orange centers; style white to reddish; stigma-lobes green; fruit red.
Type locality: Foothills of the Santa
Rita Mountains, Arizona.
Distribution: Southeastern Arizona.
Dr. Griffiths comments on the
close relationship of this plant to O.
laevis.
Illustrations: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard.
20: pl. 2, f. 6; pl. 6, in part; pl. 13, f. 2, 12.
Figure 206 is copied from the second illustration above cited.
183. Opuntia pyriformis Rose, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 12: 292. 1909.
Plant 3 to 5 meters high, with widely
spreading branches, the lower ones almost
resting on the ground and 3 to 5 meters long; joints obovate, thick, 18 cm.
long or more; areoles closely set, small;
spines 1 or 2, on old joints more, usually reflexed, slender, weak, yellow, 10 to
22 mm. long; flowers yellow; fruit 4 cm.
long, somewhat tuberculate, spineless, its
large areoles crowded with brown hairs
forming hemispherical cushions.
Type locality: Hacienda de Cedros,
Zacatecas, Mexico.
Fig. 207.—Opuntia pyriformis. × 0.5.
Distribution: Zacatecas, Mexico.
he type of this species is in the U. S. National Herbarium. It is known only from the
original collection of Professor F. E. Lloyd, made in 1908.
Illustrations: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: f. 35; pl. 26.
Figure 207 is copied from the second illustration above cited.
183a. Opuntia bonplandii (HBK.) Weber. (See Appendix, p. 223.)
he three following described species may belong to this series:
Opuntia beckeriana Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 722.
1898.
he plant on which this species is based was sent to Dr. Schumann from a garden
at Bordighera, Italy, and its origin is unknown; Dr. Schumann thought that it might have
OPUNTIA
169
come from Mexico. From the description it may belong to our series Dillenianae, but we are
unable to associate it with any species known to us; the ovary is described as compressed
and tubercled.
Opuntia anahuacensis Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 92. 1916.
A low, reclining or prostrate plant, up to 5 dm. high, 1.5 meters broad; joints obovate, glossy,
yellowish green, 27 cm. long, 13 cm. broad; spines yellow or becoming white, 1 or 2, porrect,
flattened, twisted, 2 or 3 cm. long; flowers yellow; style white; stigma-lobes 6, white; fruit dark
purplish red, pyriform, 7 cm. long.
Type locality: Anahuac, Texas.
Distribution: Known only from the type locality, at the mouth of Trinity River, eastern
Texas.
Opuntia megalantha Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 530. 1916.
A tall, erect, open-branching plant, 2 meters high or more; joints obovate, glaucous, grayish
green, 21 cm. long, 14 cm. broad; spines yellow, 1 to 3, or even 5 or 6 on old wood, the longest
often 4 to 5 cm. long; flowers yellow, 10 to 11 cm. in diameter; petals 5 cm. long, obovate; style
white; stigma-lobes 8 or 9, white or tinged with green; fruit dark red.
Known only from cultivated plants received from the Berlin Botanical Garden, where
it was grown as Opuntia bergeriana.
Series 16. MACDOUGALIANAE.
Erect, mostly tall species, with flat, broad,
and thin, persistent joints, the epidermis, at least
that of the ovary, pubescent or puberulent. The
spines, when present, yellow. There are about half
a dozen species, natives of central and southern
Mexico.
Key to Species.
Joints merely finely puberulent or
glabrous; spines 1.5 cm. long or
less; ovary velvety . . . . . . . . . . . . 184.
Joints distinctly pubescent; spines
2 to 3 cm. long.
Petals red.
Style shorter than the petals . 185.
Style as long as the petals . . . 186.
Petals yellow.
Spines acicular, at first yellow, soon white . . . . . . . . . . . 187.
Spines subulate.
Petals retuse; areoles of
o v a r y m a ny, a p p roximate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188.
Petals mucronate; areoles of ovary few, distant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189.
O. durangensis
O. atropes
O. aff inis
O. macdougaliana
O. velutina
O. wilcoxii
184. Opuntia durangensis Britton and Rose,
Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 518. 1908.
Fig. 208.—Opuntia durangensis. × 0.4.
Joints broadly obovate, about 20 cm. long,
16 cm. broad, pale green, glabrous or minutely puberulent, bearing numerous areoles; areoles 1
to 2 cm. apart, elevated; spines 3 to 5 at an areole, short, 1.5 cm. long or less, pungent, spreading, yellow, but in age becoming darker; glochids brown, 2 to 3 mm. long; flowers yellow, 5 cm.
long; petals broad, apiculate; ovary 3 to 4 cm. long, finely pubescent, bearing many areoles with
numerous glochids and a few spines; fruit white or red; seeds about 3 mm. broad.
Type locality: Near Durango, Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico.
his species was collected by the late Dr. E. Palmer in 1912, but he did not record the
size and habit of the plant. he joints suggest a large, bushy species.
Figure 208 represents a joint, of the type specimen.
170
THE CACTACEAE.
185. Opuntia atropes Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coil. 50: 518.
1908.
Plant 1 to 3 meters high, much branched; joints oblong to obovate, 20 to 30 cm. long, deep
green, softly pubescent; young joints somewhat glossy, leaves 4 to 5 mm. long, acuminate, pubescent,
standing almost at right angles to the joints, the tips reddish, areoles circular, filled with short
tawny wool; young spines white or yellowish; old spines 3 to 6 cm. long, somewhat angled, standing
almost at right angles to the joints, dark yellow or brown at the base, much lighter, often white
above; glochids numerous, long, yellow; petals reddish; ovary pubescent, covered with large cushion
like areoles bearing long glochids near the top but with few spines or none, truncate at apex.
Type locality: Lava beds near Yautepec, Morelos, Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico.
186. Opuntia affinis Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 27.
1914.
“A low, arborescent species, from 125 cm. high with us at 4 years of age to 2 m. or more in its
natural habitat; joints obovate, 13 by 35 cm., broadly rounded above and gradually narrowed below,
densely silky, villous to the touch, and villous nature plainly visible when viewed in proper light,
slightly raised at areoles, the tubercles being surrounded by a sunken dark-green line; leaves small,
subulate, pointed, scarcely 2 mm. in length; areole small, obovate, 3 mm. long, 25 to 30 mm. apart,
white to gray; spicules light straw-colored, at first not conspicuous but rather in a connivent tuft, 3
mm. long; spines absent below and 1 to 5 in upper five-sixths of joint, straw-colored, becoming white
the second year, the longest 3 cm. and others much shorter, increasing in age in both length and
Fig. 209.—Opuntia macdougaliana, Tehuacán, Mexico.
171
OPUNTIA
numbers, at 3 years often 10 in number and some 6 cm. long, divergent, flattened, angular, twisted;
flowers dull dark-red in bud, with stigma protruding the day before the petals spread, small, about
3 cm. in diameter when opened, petals 20 to 25 mm. long, slightly, when at all, recurved, ribs of
petals red and wings orange, filaments greenish below and pink above, style bright-glossy red, stigma
dull greenish red, 4-parted, equaling the petals in length; ovary small, subglobose, deeply pitted, 15
to 17 mm. in diameter, with small subcircular to slightly transversely elongated, dirty brown areoles,
4 mm. apart; fruit small, subglobose, red.”
Type locality: State of Oaxaca, Mexico.
Distribution: Known only from type locality.
Our examination of the type specimen of this species showed that it is closely related
to Opuntia macdougaliana, difering in the color of its petals, which may not be a speciic
character.
Fig. 210.—Opuntia macdougaliana
187. Opuntia macdougaliana Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 516.
1908.
Opuntia micrarthra Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 130. 1913.
Plant about 4 meters high, with a distinct cylindric trunk branching from near the base;
joints oblong, 30 cm. long by 8 to 10 cm. broad, softly pubescent; areoles distinct, small; spines
generally 4, one much longer (2.5 to 4 cm. long), somewhat flattened, yellowish, becoming whitish
in age; glochids short, numerous, yellow; fruit globular to oblong, 5 cm. long, the surface divided
into diamond-shaped plates, red, with a broad deep cup at apex, the numerous small rounded
areoles filled with clumps of yellow glochids, very rarely, with one or two spines.
Type locality: Near Tehuacán, Mexico.
Distribution: Southern Mexico.
Figure 209 is from a photograph of the type plant taken by Dr. MacDougal at El Riego,
Tehuacán, Mexico, in 1906; igure 210 represents a plant grown from a cutting of the type.
172
THE CACTACEAE.
188. Opuntia velutina Weber in Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 389.
1904.
Opuntia nelsonii Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 516. 1908.
Stems 1 to 4 meters high; joints flattened, oblong to pear-shaped in outline, 15 to 20 cm.
long by 10 to 15 cm. broad near the top, pubescent, pale yellowish green in herbarium specimens;
areoles 2 to 3 cm. apart; spines 2 to 6, yellow, becoming white in age, very unequal, the longer
ones 3 to 4 cm. long; bristles many, yellow, becoming brownish; flowers rather small; petals yellow,
1 to 3 cm. long; ovary pubescent, bearing many yellowish brown bristles; filaments red; stigmalobes pale green; fruit “dark red.”
Type locality: In Guerrero, Mexico.
Distribution: Southern Mexico.
Plate xxxii, igure 3, represents a lowering joint of a plant collected at Tehuacán, Mexico,
by Dr. MacDougal and Dr. Rose in 1906.
189. Opuntia wilcoxii sp. nov.
A tall, bushy plant, 1 to 2 meters high, very much branched; joints oblong, thinnish, large,
2 cm. long, dark green, more or less purplish about the large areoles, finely puberulent; glochids
numerous, long, yellow; spines 1 to 3, one very long (5 to 6 cm. long), porrect, white or somewhat
yellowish; flower, including ovary, 6 cm. long, yellow; petals oblong, mucronate; ovary bearing few
large areoles, these filled with brown wool and yellow glochids; filaments short; style thick, 2 cm.
long, with 10 stigma-lobes; fruit pubescent, 4 cm. long.
Very common on the hills in the coastal plain of western
Mexico from southern Sonora to southern Sinaloa, Mexico,
where it was frequently collected by Rose, Standley, and
Russell in 1910; their No. 13546, with lower, from Fuerte,
Sinaloa, is selected as the type of the species. It is named
for Dr. Glover B. Wilcox, who irst sent in living specimens
in 1909.
Figure 211 represents a joint of the type specimen.
To this series belong two plants which we have not
been able to identify but are here briely characterized:
he irst, a very peculiar species, collected by Rose,
Standley, and Russell, March 14, 1910 (No. 12853), on the
dry hills near Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, is unlike any of
the described species. It is living both in Washington and
New York, but it has not done well in cultivation. It may
be described as follows:
Bushy; joints oblong, thickish, pale green in color, with very
short puberulence, nearly or quite spineless; glochids yellowish or greenish, numerous; young areoles brown in the center,
white-woolly in the margin; flowers and fruit not known.
Fig. 211.—Opuntia wilcoxii.
× 0.4.
Dr. H. H. Rusby collected the second species on the Balsas River, southern Mexico. It
comes from the region of O. velutina, but we do not know its lowers. It may be described
as follows:
Joints oblong, 18 cm. long, but cultivated specimens smaller, usually obovate, dark green;
spines few, short, at first white; young areoles large, bordered with white wool, bearing the spines
and glochids from the center.
Living specimens are growing in the New York Botanical Garden under No. 32811.
Series 17. TOMENTOSAE.
Tall, erect, pubescent or puberulent species, with flat persistent joints, the spines, when present, white. We know three species, natives of Mexico and Guatemala.
BRITTON AND ROSE
M. E. Eaton del.
1. Upper part of flowering joint of Opuntia leptocarpa.
3.
2. Fruit of the same.
4.
(All natural size.)
PLATE XXXII
A HOEN & CO
Flowering joint of Opuntia velutina.
Upper part of joint of Opuntia megacantha.
173
OPUNTIA
Key to Species.
Joints narrowly obovate.
Joints grayish green, densely velvety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190. O. tomentosa
Joints bright green, minutely puberulent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191. O. tomentella
Joints broadly obovate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192. O. guilanchi
190. Opuntia tomentosa Salm-Dyck, Observ. Bot. 3: 8.
1822.
Cactus tomentosus Link, Enum. Hort. Berol. 2: 24. 1822.
Opuntia oblongata Wendland in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 161. 1837.
Opuntia icterica Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 138. 1913.
Becoming 3 to 6 meters high or more, with a broad top and a smooth trunk 10 to 30 cm.
in diameter; joints oblong to narrowly obovate, 10 to 20 cm. long, velvety pubescent, somewhat
tuberculate when young; glochids yellow; spines usually wanting but sometimes 1 or more appear;
flowers orange-colored, 4 to 5 cm. long; filaments white or rose-colored; style dark carmine, longer
than the stamens; stigma-lobes 5 or 6, white; fruit ovoid, red, sweetish; seeds 4 mm. broad.
Fig. 212.—Opuntia tomentosa.
Type locality: Not cited; doubtless Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico and as an escape in Australia.
his species was irst described from cultivated plants and has long been a favorite.
When grown out of doors, as it is in Bermuda, it forms a large and conspicuous plant. It
is usually nearly or quite spineless, but plants which come from the Valley of Mexico are
often spiny.
According to J. H. Maiden, this plant had been sent to him under the unpublished
name Opuntia lurida, and as O. pubescens.
Illustrations: Agr. Gaz. N. S. W. 23: pl. opp. 1028; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 16: 121; De
Candolle, Pl. Succ. Hist. 2: pl. 137 [A, B], this last as Cactus cochenillifer (ide Berger).
174
THE CACTACEAE.
Plate xxxiii, igure 1, represents a fruiting joint of a plant raised from seeds received by
the United States Department of Agriculture. Figure 212 is from a photograph of a plant
near St. Georges, Bermuda, taken by Stewardson Brown in 1912.
191. Opuntia tomentella Berger, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 22: 147. 1912.
Bushy; joints obovate to oblong, 20 to 30 cm. long, 9 to 15 cm. broad, light green, somewhat
shining, finely puberulent; areoles about 3 cm. apart, small; spines 1 or 2, acicular, white, short (7
to 10 mm. long), porrect, sometimes wanting; glochids few; flowers numerous, 5 to 6 cm. long;
petals obovate, reddish yellow; filaments yellowish green; style rose-colored; stigma-lobes white;
ovary tomentose, armed with numerous black glochids; fruit oblong, red, sour.
Type locality: In Guatemala.
Distribution: Guatemala.
This species was distributed by the late F. Eichlam, who sent
plants both to Washington and to La Mortola, those sent to La
Mortola being used by Mr. Berger for his description. The species is perhaps near the common Mexican species O. tomentosa,
but does not grow so tall, and the tomentum is not so dense
nor so soft.
Figure 213 represents a joint of a plant collected in Guatemala
by F. Eichlam in 1909.
192. Opuntia guilanchi Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 265.
1908.
Becoming 1.5 to 2 meters high, often with a distinct trunk 1.5
to 2.5 cm. in diameter; joints broadly obovate, 14 to 16 cm. wide, 20
to 24 cm. long, minutely pubescent; spines at first white, slightly flattened, the longest 2 cm. long; glochids light yellow; fruit subglobose,
4 cm. in diameter, pubescent, variously colored, aromatic.
Type locality: Near the city of Zacatecas, Mexico.
Distribution: Zacatecas, Mexico.
Series 18. LEUCOTRICHAE.
This series is restricted to a single species. Schumann grouped
as Chaetophorae, O. leucotricha with O. ursina, the latter a species with
similar long bristles on the stem but otherwise very different, it being
dry-fruited. Opuntia leucotricha is characterized by its long, weak, hair- Fig. 213.—Opuntia tomentella.
like or bristle-like spines on many of the joints, especially the stem and
× 0.4.
very old joints. The fruit of this plant is very different from that of
related series in that the pulp is fragrant and does not come free from the rind when mature.
193. Opuntia leucotricha De Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 119.
Opuntia fulvispina Salm-Dyck in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 164. 1837.
Opuntia leucotricha fulvispina Weber in Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen Nachtr. 157. 1903.
1828.
Often 3 to 5 meters high, with a large top; trunk as well as the older joints covered with
long white bristles; joints oblong to orbicular, 1 to 2 cm. long, pubescent; areoles closely set, the
upper part filled with yellow glochids, the lower part at first with only 1 to 3 weak white spines;
flowers, including ovary, 4 to 5 cm. long; petals yellow, broad; ovary with numerous areoles, the
upper ones bearing long, bristly glochids (1 cm. long); style red; stigma-lobes green; fruit variable,
4 to 6 cm. long, white or red, the rind not easily coming off from the pulp, aromatic, edible.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico.
Opuntia erythrocentron Lemaire (Förster, Handb. Cact. 492. 1846) was given as a synonym of O. fulvispina.
Opuntia leucosticta Wendland (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 167, 1837) probably belongs here.
Opuntia leucacantha Link and Otto (Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 362. 1834), published irst
in 1834—although the name occurs in literature as early as 1830 (Verh. Ver. Beförd. Gar-
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XXXIII
M. E. Eaton del.
A HOEN & CO
1. Upper part of joint of Opuntia leptocarpa.
2, 3. Flowering joint and branch of Opuntia brasiliensis.
2. Joint of Grusonia bradtiana.
(All natural size.)
OPUNTIA
175
tenb. 6: 434. 1830)—which was later taken up as Consolea leucacantha by Lemaire (Rev.
Hort. 1862: 174. 1862), seems to belong here rather than to O. spinosissima. If it came from
Mexico, as reported, it could not be O. spinosissima or any of its relatives, for none of them
is known from Mexico.
Opuntia subferox Schott (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 167. 1837) was given as a synonym of
this species, while O. leucacantha laevior Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 47. 1845) and
O. leucacantha subferox Salm-Dyck (Förster, Handb. Cact. 497. 1846) were supposed to be
based on O. subferox.
Opuntia leucantha (De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 474. 1828), unpublished, is doubtless the same
as O. leucacantha.
Fig. 214.—Opuntia leucotricha.
Opuntia fulvispina laevior Salm-Dyck (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 164. 1837) and O. fulvispina
badia Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 65. 1850) are given as synonyms of O. leucotricha;
while O. rufescens Salm-Dyck (Förster, Handb. Cact. 493. 1846) is given as a synonym of
fulvispina laevior, all these seem to belong here.
his is called durasnilla in Mexico. It is grown in Bermuda under the name of Aaron’s
Beard.
Illustrations: Engler and Prantl, Planzenfam. 36a: f. 56, J; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull.
60: pl. 4, f. 1, 2.
Plate xxxiv, igure 1, represents a lowering joint of a plant in the collection of the New
York Botanical Garden. Figure 214 is from a photograph of a plant grown from a cutting
received from the collection of M. Simon, St. Ouen, Paris, France, in 1901.
176
THE CACTACEAE.
Series 19. ORBICULATAE.
We have retained the series Criniferae, although changing its name to Orbiculatae, but we
have excluded O. scheeri, which was placed here by Schumann. The species are characterized by
long hairs produced from the areoles. The species retained in the series are not closely related;
while others, like O. macrocentra, in other series, sometimes produce long hairs from the areoles
in the seedling stage, and O. hyptiacantha and some other species have a few hairs at the areoles
of mature joints.
Key to Species.
Hairs f rom the areoles of young plants long and white, long-persistent; plant low . 194. O. orbiculata
Hairs f rom the areoles of young joints of old plants early deciduous; plant tall . . . . 195. O. pilifera
194. Opuntia orbiculata Salm-Dyck in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 156.
1837.
Opuntia crinifera Salm-Dyck in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 157. 1837.
Opuntia crinifera lanigera Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 157. 1837.
Opuntia lanigera Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 65. 1850.
A plant without a very definite trunk, about 1 meter high,
often broader than high; joints green or bluish green, orbicular to
obovate, sometimes spatulate, about 1 cm. long; leaves subulate,
to 3 mm. long; areoles small, in seedlings and young plants producing long white hairs or wool long-persistent; spines acicular,
several, yellow; flowers yellow.
2
Type locality: Cited as Brazil, but undoubtedly by error.
Distribution: Northern Mexico.
Opuntia senilis Parmenteer is given by Pfeifer (Enum.
Cact. 157. 1837) as a synonym of O. crinifera, and O.
pintadera by Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 47.
1845) as a synonym of O. lanigera. hey doubtless both
belong here
Opuntia metternichii Piccioli (Salm-Dyck, Cact.
Hort. Dyck. 1844. 46. 1845) and O. orbiculata metternichii Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 68.
1850), names without descriptions, doubtless belong here.
We have studied living plants sent from the
Berlin Botanical Garden as O. crinifera and from
Fig. 215.—Opuntia orbiculata. × 0.66.
the Botanical Garden of Santiago, Chile, as O. orbiculata; the plant is not native in Chile.
Illustration: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 11: 155, as Opuntia lanigera.
Figure 215 represents joints of a plant sent from the Berlin Botanical Garden in 1902.
195. Opuntia pilifera Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 894.
1898.
Becoming 4 to 5 meters high, with a definite, thick, woody, cylindric trunk and a broad, rounded
top; joints oblong to orbicular, 1 to 3 dm. long, obtuse at apex, pale green; leaves subulate, about
5 mm. long; areoles 2 to 3 cm. apart, scarcely elevated; spines 2 to 9, white, slightly spreading,
acicular; the outer part of the areole filled with nearly white, more or less deciduous hairs 2 to
3 cm. long; flowers large, red; areoles on the ovary bearing brown glochids and deciduous hairs,
the latter especially abundant towards the top of the ovary; fruit red, juicy.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Puebla, Mexico.
No deinite locality was given for this species when it was irst described, and apparently
no type material was preserved; living specimens identiied by Weber are still grown at La
Mortola, Italy. he species is common about Tehuacán, Mexico, being one of the large forms
occurring in that region. It is common in all large greenhouse collections.
OPUNTIA
177
Figure 216 is from a photograph of a plant in the collection of the New York Botanical Garden grown from a cutting brought by Dr. MacDougal and Dr. Rose from Tehuacán,
Mexico, in 1906.
Series 20. FICUS-INDICAE.
Large plants, usually with large, nearly spineless green joints; spines, when present, few, small,
white; flowers large, usually orange to yellow. None
of the species is definitely known in the wild
state, but all doubtless originated from tropical
American ancestors, and they may all represent
spineless races of plants here included in our series
Streptacanthae. Some of them are cultivated for
their fruit and others for forage.
Key to Species.
Joints obovate to elliptic, comparatively
broad, more or less glaucous.
Joints dull.
Joints thin, up to 5 dm. long . . . 196.
Joints thick, 15 cm. long or less . 197.
Joints glossy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198.
Joints elongated, comparatively narrow.
Flowers yellow; joints somewhat
tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199.
Flowers orange-red; joints not tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.
O. f icus-indica
O. crassa
O. undulata
O. lanceolata
O. maxima
196. Opuntia ficus-indica (Linnaeus) Miller,
Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 2. 1768.
Cactus f icus-indica Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 468. 1753
Cactus opuntia Gussone, Fl. Sic. Prodr. 559 18278. Not Linnaeus.
Opuntia vulgaris Tenore, Syll. Fl. Neap. 239. 1831.
Not Miller.
Opuntia f icus-barbarica Berger, Monatsschr.
Kakteenk. 22: 181. 1912.
Fig. 216.—Opuntia pilifera.
Large and bushy or sometimes erect and treelike and then with a definite woody trunk up to 5
meters high, usually with a large top; joints oblong to spatulate-oblong, usually 3 to 5 cm. long,
sometimes even larger; areoles small, usually spineless; glochids yellow, numerous, soon dropping
off; leaves subulate, green, 3 mm. long; flowers large, normally bright yellow, 7 to 10 cm. broad;
ovary 5 cm. long; fruit normally red, edible, 5 to 9 cm. long, with a low, depressed umbilicus.
Type locality: Tropical America.
Distribution: Native home not known, but now found all over the tropics and subtropics
either as cultivated plants or as escapes. It is hardy in Bermuda and Florida.
his cactus is widely cultivated in all tropical and subtropical countries, where it is grown
for its fruits and for forage. It has run wild in many waste places along the Mediterranean
Sea, about the Red Sea, in southern Africa, and in Mexico.
We have not attempted to list the many named garden varieties of this species, which
are sometimes Latin and sometimes English in form.
Opuntia amyclaea f icus-indica (Berger, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 15: 154. 1905) has never
been described.
he origin of this common, cultivated species doubtless dates back to prehistoric times.
We have long been convinced that it is a close relative of the Streptacanthae, and have
kept it out of that series as only a matter of convenience. Mr. A. Berger believed it to be
a spineless form of O. amyclaea, which is now a well-established species in certain parts of
Italy. Dr. Griiths has recently igured a reversion which appeared on the common spineless
178
THE CACTACEAE.
form which points very deinitely to O. megacantha as the origin of this form. (See Reversion in Prickly Pears, Journ. Hered. 5: 222. 1914.)
Illustrations: Amer. Garden 11: 471; Bull. U. S. Dept. Agr. 31: pl. 1; pl. 2, f. 1; Cycl.
Amer. Hort. Bailey 3: f. 1543; Dept. Agr. N. S. W. Misc. Publ. 253: pl. [1] f. 1, 3; Dict.
Gard. Nicholson 2: f. 753; Dodon. Pempt. f. 10, 11; Lemaire, Cact. f. 10; Meehan’s Monthly
10: 28; Mem. Acad. Neap. 6: pl. 1, 2; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 15: 151; W. Watson, Cact.
Cult. f. 8, in part; f. 80.
Fig 217.—Opuntia ficus-indica, Córdoba, Argentina.
Figure 217 is from a photograph of the plant growing at Córdoba, Argentina, taken
by Paul G. Russell in 1915; igure 218 represents the fruit, obtained in Bermuda by Dr.
Britton in 1913.
197. Opuntia crassa Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 81.
1819.
Opuntia parvula Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 364. 1834.
Opuntia crassa major Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 153. 1837.
Opuntia glauca Forbes, Hort. Tour Germ. 158. 1837.
Plant 1 to 2 meters high, somewhat branched; joints ovate to oblong, 8 to 12.5 cm. long, thick, bluish green, glaucous; areoles bearing
brown wool and brown glochids; spines wanting or sometimes 1 or 2,
acicular, 2.5 cm. long or less; flowers and fruit unknown.
Type locality: Described from cultivated specimens supposed to
have come from Mexico.
Distribution: Unknown in the wild state; locally found in cultivation in tropical America.
Haworth, who irst described this species, thought it to be near
O. stricta. Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 153. 1837) uses O. glaberrima Hort.
Berol. as a synonym of O. crassa major.
Fig. 218.—Fruit of Opuntia
Opuntia parvula, when irst published, was supposed to be native
ficus-indica. × 0.66.
of Chile, but this was a mistake. Salm-Dyck compared the species
with O. crassa and O. spinulifera, but says it is thrice smaller than either. Schumann refers
O. parvula directly to O. crassa, which disposition we follow.
Figure 219 is from a photograph of a plant in the Organ Mountains, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, taken by Paul G. Russell in 1915.
179
OPUNTIA
198. Opuntia undulata Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 32.
1912.
Opuntia undosa Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 139. 1913.
“Plant tall, large, stout, open-branching, with cylindrical trunk, often 30 cm. or more in diameter;
joints very large, obovate, broadly rounded above, widest above middle, commonly 35 by 55 cm.,
firm, hard, quite fibrous, dished, wavy or flat, glossy light yellowish green at first, but changing
through a darker green with a slight touch of glaucous to scurfy brown on old trunks; leaves subcircular in section, subulate, pointed, usually tinged with red at the tip, about 4 mm. long, upon a
prominent tubercle and subtending a prominent dark-brown areole; areoles subcircular to ellipsoid or
obovate, about 3.5 by 4.5 mm., gray, 5 to 6 cm. apart; spicules yellow in a short, compact tuft in
upper part of areole, about 1 mm.
long, soon becoming dirty and
inconspicuous; spines white, few,
short, erect, flattened, straight or
twisted, 10 to 15 mm. long, 1 to
3 or 4, mostly one or none; fruit
large, 4 to 5 by 9 to 10 cm., dull
red to slightly tinged with orange
and pulp streaked with red and
orange when rind is removed.”
Type locality: Described
from cultivated plant obtained
at Aguascalientes, Mexico.
Distribution: Mexico.
Illustrations: Rep. Mo. Bot.
Gard. 22: pl. 11, in part; pl. 12.
We have doubtfully referred to this species plants
collected by Dr. Rose on the
west coast of Mexico, where
they were growing wild; this is
some distance from the place
where the type was obtained
Fig. 219.—Opuntia crassa.
from cultivated plants. These
specimens are like this species in having quite glossy joints with few spines. The plants
were not in bloom when seen by Dr. Rose in the spring of 1910.
Dr. Griiths has changed his irst name, O. undulata, on account of the use of that
name at an earlier time, which was not accompanied, however, by description.
199. Opuntia lanceolata Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 192.
1812.
Cactus lanceolatus Haworth, Misc. Nat. 188. 1803.
Cactus elongatus Willdenow, Enum. Pl. Suppl. 34. 1813.
Opuntia elongata Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 81. 1819.
Plants tall, much branched; joints elongated, 3.5 cm. long, dull green, somewhat tuberculate;
areoles distant, small; spines if present few, small, white, 1 cm. long or less; glochids yellow;
flowers large, yellow.
Type locality: In South America.
Distribution: Known only in cultivation.
We have combined O. lanceolata and O. elongata, although there is a possibility of their
being diferent. O. lanceolata was irst described essentially as follows: Joints lattened, suberect,
subnaked, with leaves 3 lines long; stems at irst erect; joints lanceolate, green, when young
with many leaves; spines (spicules?) in fascicles, the shortest of all species (except Cactus
coccinellifer); leaves longer than in other species.
he species was received by Haworth from W. Anderson; no habitat given. In 1812
Haworth calls it the spear-shaped Opuntia. He says it probably came from South America,
180
THE CACTACEAE.
and lowers in July. It had been in cultivation before 1796; it lowered in 1808 with Haworth
and was described as follows: Flowers shiny yellow; ilaments yellow, half as long as petals;
style longer than stamens; stigmas 5, thick, obtuse, 2 lines long, sulphur-colored.
De Candolle says the lowers are 4 inches in diameter.
Pfeifer states the joints are 5 to 6 inches long by 1 to 1.5 inches broad; that the leaves
are red and the spicules yellow.
Opuntia elongata laevior Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 242. 1850) may or may
not belong here.
Fig. 220.—Opuntia maxima.
200. Opuntia maxima Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 5.
1768.
Cactus decumanus Willdenow, Enum. Pl. Suppl. 34. 1813.
Opuntia decumana Haworth, Rev. Pl. Succ. 71. 1821.
Opuntia gymnocarpa Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 893. 1898.
Opuntia labouretiana Console* in Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 717. 1898.
Opuntia f icus-indica decumana Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 512. 1905.
Opuntia f icus-indica gymnocarpa Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 512. 1905.
Forming large, much branched plants; joints elongated, more or less spatulate, 35 cm. long
or more, 10 to 12 cm. broad, rounded at apex, somewhat cuneate at base, pale green, not at all
tuberculate; areoles small, distant; spines sometimes wanting or sometimes 1 or 2, short, white;
glochids yellow (brown in some specimens referred here); flowers conspicuous, 8 cm. broad, orangered; ovary elongated, 7 to 8 cm. long, bearing numerous large glochids.
*Berger (Hort. Mortol. 409. 1912) says this is known as O. labouretiana Console.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XXXIV
A HOEN & CO
M. E. Eaton del.
1.
2.
Part of joint of Opuntia leucotricha.
3. Joint of Opuntia lasiacantha.
Part of joint of Opuntia maxima.
4. Joint of Opuntia robusta.
(All natural size.)
181
OPUNTIA
Type locality: In America.
Distribution: Known only in cultivation.
Opuntia maxima Miller was described as the largest of all the opuntias and as the name
is older than any of those here cited, it is taken up for this species. Haworth was uncertain
whether or not his O. decumana is distinct from Miller’s O. maxima, although in the Index
Kewensis the two are considered the same; Burkill considered them distinct, but his idea
of O. decumana is the O. f icus-indica type. Mr. Berger, on the other hand, states that it is
evidently of the O. dilleni group, but this is hardly warranted by the description. Berger is
convinced that O. elongata is distinct from O. decumana.
Opuntia labouretiana macrocarpa (Cat. Darrah Succ. Manchester 55. 1908) is only a
garden name.
Plate xxxiv, igure 2, represents a lowering joint of a plant presented to the New York
Botanical Garden by Frank Weinberg in 1901, which bloomed in May 1916. Figure 220 is
from a photograph of the same plant.
Opuntia bartramii Rainesque (Atl. Journ. 1: 146. 1832) is based on Bartram’s description
(Travels p. 163. 1790), in which he states that the plant is 7 to 8 feet high; joints very large,
bright green, glossy; spines none; glochids numerous; lowers large, yellow; fruit pear-shaped,
purple. It was found about 6 miles from Lake George, northern Florida, associated with
Zamia pumila and Erythrina. We do not know of any Opuntia answering the description,
growing in Florida at the present time. Dr. Small visited the type locality in 1918 but failed
to ind any plant answering Rainesque’s description.
Opuntia hernandezii De Candolle (Mém. Hist. Nat. Paris 17: 69. pl. 16. 1828) is a complex. he reference to Hernandez applies to Nopalea cochenillifera. Schumann was not able to
identify the plant illustrated by De Candolle, but thought it might be referable to Opuntia
f icus-indica, in which we agree.
Series 21. STREPTACANTHAE.
Tall, branched, glabrous, green species with white or faintly yellow, acicular or subulate spines,
large yellow or red flowers, and fleshy fruits, natives of Mexico and Central and South America.
We recognize twelve species. The fruits, known as tunas, are mostly edible and are sold in large
quantities in Mexican markets, a practice which probably dates from prehistoric time. The longcontinued selection of plants for their fruit has perpetuated many slightly differing races.
Key to Species.
Spines short, mm. to 8 cm. long.
Joints scarcely if at all tuberculate.
Joints obovate to elliptic, mostly not more than twice as long as wide.
Areoles close together, sunken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201.
Areoles not close together, not sunken.
Joints dull.
Spines acicular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202.
Spines subulate.
Areoles with 2 or more short reflexed hairs or bristles at the lower part
of the areoles.
Spines strongly depressed; areoles with several hairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203.
Spines not strongly depressed; areoles with 1 or 2 hairs.
Joints obovate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204.
Joints oblong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205.
Areoles without reflexed hairs or bristles.
Spines clear white, terete or nearly so; f ruit spineless, 6 to 8 cm. long,
yellow, edible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206.
Spines white to dull yellow, somewhat flattened; f ruit 6 cm. long or
less bearing a few spines near the top, red, not edible.
Plant with a definite trunk; petals reddish; f ruit spiny only at top . . . 207.
Plant bushy; petals chocolate-colored; f ruit spiny all over . . . . . . . . . 2o7a.
Joints shining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208.
Joints oblong to oblanceolate, some of them much longer than wide.
Joints shining; wool of young areoles white; petals yellow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209.
Joints dull; wool of young areoles brown; petals deep orange to scarlet . . . . . . . . . 210.
Joints strongly tuberculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211.
Spines elongated, 10 to 14 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212.
O. spinulifera
O. lasiacantha
O. hyptiacantha
O. streptacantha
O. amyclaea
O. megacantha
O. deamii
O. dobbieana
O. eichlamii
O.
O.
O.
O.
inaequilateralis
pittieri
cordobensis
quimilo
182
THE CACTACEAE.
201. Opuntia spinulifera Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 364.
1834.
Opuntia candelabriformis Martius in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 159. 1837.
Opuntia oligacantha Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 241. 1850.
Tall, much branched plants; joints orbicular, to oblong, sometimes obovate, 20 to 30 cm. long,
glabrous, a little glaucous; leaves small, red, 4 to 6 mm. long; areoles on young joints usually small,
sometimes longer than broad, the margin at irst bordered with cobwebby hairs, afterwards short white
hairs, either spineless or with short white bristle-like spines; areoles on old joints more or less sunken,
rather close together; spines on old joints 1 to 3, 1 to 2 cm. long, subulate, bone-colored.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Mexico.
We have seen no wild specimens of this species, but Mr. Berger has grown it at La
Mortola, Italy, and has distributed specimens now growing in New York and Washington.
So-called Opuntia candelabriformis and O.
oligacantha are also in cultivation; but the
original descriptions indicate that these two
species should be merged into O. spinulifera,
and plants so determined in European collections support this view. In so far as we have
been able to ascertain, no type specimens of
any of the three supposed species are extant.
Schumann (Gesamtb. Kakteen 740. 1898)
describes the flowers of O. candelabriformis
as purple, 6 to 7 cm. broad. Opuntia candelabriformis rigidior Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort.
Dyck. 1849. 68. 1850), an unpublished variety,
may belong here.
Figure 221 represents a joint of a plant
presented to the New York Botanical Garden
by Mrs. George Such in 1900.
202. Opuntia lasiacantha Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 160.
1837.
Opuntia megacantha lasiacantha Berger, Bot.
Jahrb. Engler 36: 453. 1905.
Fig. 221.—Opuntia spinulifera.
× 0.4.
A tall plant, with a more or less definite trunk; joints obovate to oblong, 20 to 30 cm. long;
leaves short, red; areoles small, 2 to 3 cm. apart; spines usually 1 to 3, acicular, white, 2 to 4
cm. long, slightly spreading; glochids numerous, prominent, dirty yellow to brown; flowers large,
yellow or deep orange, 6 to 8 cm. broad; ovary bearing long, brown, deciduous bristles, especially
from the upper areoles; style pinkish; stigma-lobes pale green.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico.
Schumann refers O. lasiacantha to O. robusta, but wrongly, as Berger states, and
as living plants show. Pfeiffer said it is near O. candelabriformis, here taken up under
O. spinulifera.
his species is very variable and, while it seems distinct from O. megacantha, it is to be
noted that Mr. Berger referred it to that species as a variety.
Opuntia chaetocarpa Griiths (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 27: 25. 1914), in its few long
white spines, resembles plants collected by Dr. Rose in southern Mexico which we have
referred to this species.
Illustration: Addisonia 3: pl. 90.
Plate xxxiv, igure 3, represents a lowering joint of a plant collected by Dr. Rose near
the City of Mexico in 1906. Figure 222 represents a joint of a plant collected by Dr. MacDougal and Dr. Rose at Tehuacán, Mexico, in 1906.
183
OPUNTIA
Opuntia zacuapanensis Berger, Hort. Mortol. 413. 1912.
“A fine new species with bright-orange flowers. We received this plant a few years ago from
M. L. Puteaux, Versailles, as Opuntia spec. from Zacuapan.* Joints 13 to 20 cm. long and 9.5
cm. broad, obovate, smooth, glossy green, areoles 15 to 25 mm. distant, slightly elevated, small,
roundish or obovate. Spicules yellow, short, not numerous. Spines generally two, white, with yellowish points and base, terete, the lower deflexed shorter, the upper one spreading (2-) 3 cm.
long. Flowers numerous from the top of the joint, 7.5 cm. long and 6.5 cm. broad, ovary obovate
turbinate, 3.5 to 4 cm. long and 22 mm. broad, areoles somewhat elevated, prickly; petals obovate
lanceolate, acute and aristate, orange-yellow, with a more reddish-brown hue along the midrib on
the back and as well on the shorter obtuse outer petals; stamens yellow, style yellowish, thickened
or clavate above the base, stigmata (6-) 7, dirty rose-coloured.”
We have studied a plant, sent from La Mortola to the New York Botanical Garden in
1913, which has not lowered; it appears to be related to O. lasiacantha.
Figure 223 represents a joint from the plant received from La Mortola, Italy, in 1913.
Fig. 222.—Opuntia lasiacantha.
× 0.4.
Fig. 223.—Opuntia zacuapanensis.
× 0.4.
203. Opuntia hyptiacantha Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 894.
Fig. 224.—Opuntia hyptiacantha.
× 0.5.
1898.
Opuntia nigrita Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 169. 1910.
? Opuntia cretochaeta Griffiths, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 11. 1916.
A tall, much branched plant, but in cultivation often only 1 meter high; joints oblong to obovate,
20 to 30 cm. long, pale green, but when young bright green; spines on young joints single, porrect,
and accompanied by 2 or 3, sometimes many, white, slightly pungent hairs; spines on old joints 4 to
*perhaps Zacualpan, in Vera Cruz, Mexico.
184
THE CACTACEAE.
6 (in the original description 8 to 10), somewhat spreading or appressed, 1 to 2 cm. long; glochids
few, brownish; areoles small, 1.5 cm. apart; leaves small, brownish; flowers red; fruit globular, yellowish, its areoles filled with long, weak glochids; umbilicus broad, only slightly depressed.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Oaxaca, Mexico.
his species is very near Opuntia streptacantha, and in many cases it is diicult to separate
them. It is also near O. pilfera, but the areoles are not so hairy. Weber, who irst described
it, gives no deinite locality for the species; but Dr. Rose has examined, at La Mortola, Italy,
a living plant sent by Weber which seems to be the same as one of the large opuntias from
Tehuacán, Mexico.
Opuntia chavena Griffiths (Rep. Mo. Bot.
Gard. 1: 264. pl. 23, in part. 1908) is a near
relative of O. hyptiacantha or not distinct
f rom it.
Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: pl.
24, as Opuntia nigrita.
Figure 224 represents a joint of a plant
obtained for the New York Botanical Garden
from the collection of M. Simon, St. Ouen,
Paris, France, in 1901.
204. Opuntia streptacantha Lemaire, Cact. Gen
Nov. Sp. 62. 1839.
Much branched, up to 5 meters high, sometimes
with a trunk 45 cm. in diameter; joints obovate to
orbicular, 25 to 30 cm. long, dark green; areoles
small, rather close together for this group; spines
numerous, spreading or some of them appressed,
white; glochids reddish brown, very short; lowers
7 to 9 cm. broad, yellow to orange, the sepals reddish; ilaments greenish or reddish; stigma-lobes 8
to 12, green; fruit globular, 5 cm. in diameter, dull
red or sometimes yellow, both within and without.
Type locality: Not cited.
Distribution: Very common on the Mexican
table-lands, especially on the deserts of San
Fig. 225.—Opuntia streptacantha. × 0.5.
Luis Potosí.
his species is known as tuna cardona or nopal cardón, and is one of the most important economic opuntias in Mexico. It has many forms and seems to grade into some of the
species which we have here recognized.
Opuntia cardona Weber (Dict. Hort. Bois 895. 1898) and O. coindettii Weber (Dict. Hort.
Bois 895. 1898) are two names given as synonyms of the species by Weber, but they were
never published. O. diplacantha (Berger, Hort. Mortol. 232. 1912) must be referred here, but
of this, so far as we know, there is no published description. Berger has distributed living
specimens which we are inclined to refer here.
Opuntia pachona Griiths (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 168. pl. 22. 1910) is closely related
to O. streptacantha, if not a race of that species. Opuntia megacantha tenuispina Salm-Dyck
(Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 45. 1845) was given as a new name for O. lasiacantha, but was
never described.
Illustrations: N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pl. 1; Saford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst.
1908: pl. 9, f. 6; U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Pl. Ind. Bull. 1021: pl. 1; 116: pl. 1, this last as tuna
cardona; Engler and Prantl, Planzenfam. 36a: f. 70, this last as Opuntia pseudotuna.
Figure 225 represents a joint of a plant received from C. Wercklé in 1902 as O. cardona.
185
OPUNTIA
205. Opuntia amyclaea Tenore, Fl. Neap. Prodr. App. 5: 15.
1826.
Opuntia f icus-indica amyclaea Berger, Hort. Mortol. 411. 1912.
Erect; joints oblong to elliptic, 3 to 4 dm. long, about twice as long as broad, thick, dull green,
a little glaucous; leaves mm. long, acute, red; areoles small, with 1 or 2 short bristles from the lower
parts of areoles; spines 1 to 4, stif, nearly porrect, usually less than 3 cm. long, white or horn-colored, the stoutest angled; glochids brown, soon disappearing; lowers yellow; fruit yellowish red, not
very juicy.
Type locality: Described from specimens grown in Italy.
Distribution: Doubtless Mexico, but not known in the wild state.
Our description is based on the original description and a specimen collected by A.
Berger near Palermo, where it is grown as a hedge plant. Berger’s plant suggests very much
O. streptacantha, but is not quite so spiny; it does not suggest very much O. f icus-indica,
where Berger has placed it. Our description of the spines is taken from Berger’s plant, while
the original description states that the spines are 3 to 8, stout, spreading, unequal, white,
the longest 35 mm. long.
O. alfagayucca (Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 68. 1850) and O. alfayucca (Rümpler
in Förster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. 938. 1885) were given as synonyms of O. amyclaea.
Fig. 226.—Opuntia megacantha.
206. Opuntia megacantha Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 363.
1834.
Opuntia castillae Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 261. 1908.
? Opuntia incarnadilla Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 27. 1912.
Plant tall, 4 to 5 meters high or more, with a more or less definite woody trunk; joints
of large plants obovate to oblong, often oblique, sometimes 40 to 60 cm. long or more, but in
greenhouse specimens often much smaller, pale dull green, slightly glaucous; leaves minute, often
only 3 mm. long, green or purplish; areoles rather small, on large joints often to 5 cm. apart,
when young bearing brown wool; spines white, usually 1 to 5, slightly spreading, sometimes nearly
porrect, usually only 2 to 3 cm. long, sometimes few and confined to the upper areoles; glochids
few, yellow, caducous, sometimes appearing again on old joints; flowers yellow to orange, about
8 cm. broad; ovary spiny or spineless, obovoid; fruit 7 to 8 cm. long.
186
THE CACTACEAE.
Fig. 227.—Opuntia megacantha on Lanai, Hawaiian Islands.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Much cultivated in Mexico; grown also in Jamaica and southern California
and escaped from cultivation in Hawaii.
his species was originally described by Salm-Dyck essentially as follows: Erect and of
the size of O. decumana; joints 17.5 cm. long by 7.5 cm. broad and 2.5 cm. or more thick;
areoles close together, illed with gray wool; glochids
brownish, becoming blackish; spines 7 to 10, white,
unequal, acicular, somewhat radiating, the longest
one delexed, 5 cm. long; lowers not known; leaves
small, reddish.
Opuntia megacantha trichacantha Salm-Dyck
was given as a synonym of this species by Förster
(Handb. Cact. 486. 1846), but was never published.
Opuntia tribuloides Griffiths (Monatsschr.
Kakteenk. 23: 137. 1913), according to the description, is of this relationship.
This is the chief Mission cactus. It is the one
from which the best varieties of edible tunas are
obtained and is one of the commonest cultivated
opuntias in Mexico, having numerous forms, many
of them bearing local names.
Illustrations: Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 67: pl.
8, f. 2; Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 24, both as
Opuntia castillae. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: pl. 4,
5, these two as Opuntia incarnadilla; Amer. Journ.
Bot. 4: 572. f. 6.
Plate xxxii, figure 4, represents a flowering
joint of a plant in the same collection received
f rom Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, in 1905. Figure 226 is f rom a photograph of a plant in the
Fig 228.—Opuntia megacantha. × 0.4.
collection of the New York Botanical Garden;
187
OPUNTIA
figure 227 is f rom a photograph taken by A. S. Hitchcock on Lanai in 1916; figure
228 represents a joint of a plant obtained by Dr. MacDougal near Mount Wilson, California, in 1906, a nearly spineless form.
207. Opuntia deamii Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: 309. 1911.
One meter or so high, with a definite cylindric trunk, branching a short distance above the
base; branches few, ascending; joints erect or spreading, very large, obovate to oblanceolate, 25 to 30
cm. long, at first bright leaf-green, in age dark green, glabrous; areoles remote, often 4 cm. apart,
rather small; spines 2 to 6, usually 4, white or dull yellow, stout, somewhat flattened, spreading or
porrect, 3 to 5.5 cm. long; flowers 7 cm. long, reddish; fruit oblong,
6 cm. long, naked, except for a few spines near the top, wine-red
both within and without, not edible; seeds small, 3
mm. broad.
Type locality: Fiscal, Guatemala.
Distribution: Fiscal to San José de Golfo and
Sanarata, Guatemala.
Illustration: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13:
pl. 65.
Figure 229 represents a joint of
the type specimen.
A tall, white-spined Opuntia,
closely resembling the Mexican O.
macracantha, was obtained by Dr.
Rose in 1918 (No. 22390) along
roadsides at Ambato, Ecuador, presumably escaped f rom cultivation;
its f ruit is edible.
207a. Opuntia dobbieana sp. nov.
(See Appendix, p. 225.)
208. Opuntia eichlamii Rose, Contr.
U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: 310.
1911.
Tree-like, 5 to 6 meters high, the
main branches nearly erect; joints obovate to orbicular, 15 to 20 cm. long,
more or less glaucous, especially in
dried specimens; leaves minute, caducous; areoles small, 3 to 3.5 cm. apart;
spines 4 to 6, very unequal, 2 cm. long
or less, rose-colored at first, soon becoming white, spreading, the larger
ones flattened; glochids brown; flower
3.5 cm. long; petals carmine; style red;
stigma-lobes 8 to 11, bright green; fruit
4 cm. long, strongly tuberculate, not
edible.
Fig. 229.—Opuntia deamii.
Type locality: Near Guatemala City.
Distribution: Suburbs of Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Illustration: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: pl. 66.
Figure 230 represents a joint of the type specimen.
209. Opuntia inaequilateralis Berger, Bot. Jahrb. Engler 36: 453. 1905.
About 12 dm, high, with spreading branches; joints oblique, narrowly ovate to subrhomboid,
40 to 70 cm. long, 2 to 4 times as long as wide, narrowed at base, obtuse at apex, with somewhat
188
THE CACTACEAE.
sinuate margins, green, shining; young joints bright green, not at all glaucous, oblanceolate to narrowly oblong, rounded at apex; leaves reddish, subulate, 2 to 3 mm. long; areoles small, circular,
filled with white wool when young, and having white, somewhat cobwebby hairs on the outer edge;
glochids brown, in a dense cluster; spines 3 to 7, acicular on young joints, but finally 10 to 15,
stout, 3 to 4 cm. long, at first yellowish, becoming white, somewhat spreading but not appressed
to the joint; flowers large, borne at the apex of the joints; petals yellow, broadly obovate, retuse
with crenulate margins; stigma-lobes green; fruit oblong, truncate, reddish, juicy, sweet.
Type locality: Described from cultivated specimens grown at La Mortola, Italy.
Distribution: Known only from cultivated specimens, their origin unknown.
Illustration: Figure 231 shows a joint of a plant sent from La Mortola, Italy, in 1913.
Fig 230.—Opuntia eichlamii.
× 0.5.
Fig. 231.—Opuntia inaequilateralis.
× 0.5.
210. Opuntia pittieri sp. nov.
Plant up to 5 meters high, with a rather definite cylindric spiny trunk; joints large, 25 to
50 cm. long, 2 to 4 times as long as wide, narrowly oblong, green; leaves subulate, with purple
tips; wool in young areoles dark brown to purple; areoles elevated, rather large, 2 to 3 cm. apart;
spines 3 to 6, slightly spreading, acicular, white, the longest 2 to 2.5 cm. long; glochids tardily
developing, few, often wanting; flowers deep orange, turning to scarlet; ovary nearly globular, more
or less spiny, nearly truncate at apex.
Collected at Venticas del Dagua, Dagua Valley, western cordillera of Colombia, February
1906, by H. Pittier, and since grown in Washington and New York.
189
OPUNTIA
Opuntia pittieri difers from O. inaequilateralis in having the young joints thinner, somewhat tuberculate, and with longer leaves; the areoles, too, are illed with brown or purple
wool, while the glochids develop more slowly or never appear.
Figure 232 represents a joint of the type plant.
211. Opuntia cordobensis Spegazzini, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires III. 4: 513. 1905.
Much branched, the trunk 1 to 2 meters long, 20 cm. in diameter, very spiny; joints large, 3 dm.
long or more, broadly oblong to obovate; areoles prominent, numerous; spines 1 to 6, white, somewhat
spreading, a little lattened and twisted; lowers usually on the margins of the joints; petals about
12, yellow; fruit pyriform, yellowish both within and without, 8 cm. long; seeds about 3 mm. long.
Fig. 232.—O. pittieri.
× 0.4.
Fig. 234.—Fruit of O. cordobensis.
× 0.7.
Fig. 233.—O. cordobensis.
× 0.4.
Type locality: Near Córdoba, Argentina.
Distribution: Northern Argentina.
The only white-spined species observed by Dr. Rose in 1915 about Córdoba were
O. f icus-indica, in cultivation, and what we have taken to be O. cordobensis. The latter is
very abundant, growing on the hills about the city, and sometimes planted as hedges. Dr.
Spegazzini states that it has the habit of O. labouretiana.
Figure 233 represents a joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose near Córdoba, Argentina, in 1915; figure 234 represents the fruit as collected by J. A. Shafer at Calilegua,
Argentina, in 1917 (No. 197).
190
THE CACTACEAE.
212. Opuntia quimilo Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 746.
1898.
Much branched, about 4 meters high; joints large, elliptic or obovate, 5 dm. long by 2.5
dm. broad, 2 to 3 cm. thick, grayish green; spines very long, usually 1, sometimes 2 or 3 from
an areole, twisted, 7 to 14.5 cm. long; flowers red, 7 cm. broad; fruit pear-shaped to globular, 5
to 7 cm. long, greenish yellow; seeds 8 mm. broad, 1.5 to 2 mm. thick, with broad, thick, white
margins.
Type locality: La Banda, Santiago del Estero, Argentina.
Distribution: Northern Argentina.
his plant is known to the natives as quimilo.
Dr. Rose obtained a good photograph of it from Dr. J. A. Dominguez, and seed and
a photograph from Dr. Spegazzini. While the volume was going through the press a ine
specimen in fruit with the long spines so characteristic of this species was obtained by H.
M. Curran at Quilino, Córdoba,
Argentina. Dr. Shafer’s specimens
collected at Río Piedras, show that
the trunk-areoles sometimes bear as
many as eight spines.
Fig. 235.—Joint of Opuntia quimilo.
× 0.3.
Fig 236.—Fruit of Opuntia quimilo.
× 0.3.
Figure 235 represents a joint obtained by Dr. Shafer at Río Piedras, Salta, Argentina,
January 4, 1917 (No. 34); igure 236 represents the fruit from the same plant; igure 237 is
from a photograph of a lowering joint of the plant, contributed by Dr. Spegazzini.
he following may belong to this series:
Opuntia ithypetala Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 529. 1916.
Tall, erect plant, 2 meters or more high; joints large, obovate, 26 to 45 cm. long, 14 to 19
cm. broad, much contracted below, bright dark green, somewhat tuberculate at the areoles; subulate,
5 to 6 mm. long; areoles large, often 1 cm. in diameter, to 5 cm. apart; spines white at least on
second year’s growth, 3 to 5; central spine largest, porrect, 3 to 4 cm. long; flowers yellow, fading
to rose-purplish; petals erect, 3 cm. in diameter; style white; stigma-lobes 6, light green.
Known only from cultivated plants received from the Berlin Botanical Garden.
OPUNTIA
191
Series 22. ROBUSTAE.
Tall or large plants with blue or bluish green joints, the spines, when present, white or yellowish.
Two of the species are widely distributed in warm regions through cultivation for their edible fruits;
the other is known in cultivation only in central Mexico. All are presumably Mexican in origin.
KEY TO SPECIES.
Joints orbicular to broadly obovate or
elliptic.
Fruit deep red, 7 to 9 cm. in diameter . 213. O. robusta
Fruit greenish white, 4 to 5 cm. in
diameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214. O. guerrana
Joints oblong, narrowed at both ends . . . 215. O. fusicaulis
213. Opuntia robusta Wendland in Pfeiffer,
Enum. Cact. 165. 1837.
Opuntia flavicans Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp.
61. 1839.
Opuntia larreyi Weber in Coulter, Contr. U. S.
Nat. Herb. 3: 423. 1896.
Opuntia gorda Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk.
23: 134. 1913.
Often erect, sometimes 5 meters high, usually
much branched; joints orbicular to oblong, 20 to
25 cm. long by 10 to 12.5 cm. broad, very thick,
bluish green, glaucous; leaves 4 mm. long, reddish,
acute; spines 8 to 12, stout, very diverse, brown
or yellowish at base, white above, up to 5 cm.
long, but often wanting on greenhouse specimens;
flowers 5 cm. broad, yellow; stigma-lobes green;
fruit globular to ellipsoid, at first more or less
tuberculate, deep red, 7 to 9 cm. long.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Central Mexico; cultivated in
Argentina.
his is one of the few species of Opuntia
of which we have not been able to verify the
original publication. It was redescribed by PfeiFig. 237.—Opuntia quimilo.
fer in 1837.
Opuntia camuessa Weber (Dict. Hort. Bois 895. 1898) was given as a synonym of O. robusta, but was never described; and the same is true of O. piccolominiana Parlatore (Schumann,
Gesamtb. Kakteen 741. 1898).
he variety Opuntia robusta viridior Salm-Dyck (Förster, Handb. Cact. 487. 1846) was
never described.
Opuntia albicans Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck. 361. 1834) we do not know, but A. Berger, who
has grown a plant under that name at La Mortola, says it is closely related to O. robusta,
while in the New York Botanical Garden are specimens labeled O. albicans which are dificult to distinguish from O. f icus-indica. Here belong the following: O. prate Sabine (Pfeifer,
Enum. Cact. 155. 1837), given as a synonym of O. albicans; O. albicans laevior Salm-Dyck
(Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 67. 1850), name only; and O. pruinosa Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort.
Dyck. 1849. 67. 1850) given as a synonym of O. albicans laevior.
Opuntia larreyi, a manuscript name of Weber, which was published by Coulter in 1896,
is based on the plant known to the Mexicans as camuessa. Weber gave it the name of O.
camuessa, as shown above, but did not publish it; it is usually considered to be only a race
of O. robusta, but Dr. Griiths considers it a distinct species, even referring it to a diferent
series, the Ficus-indicae (N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 64: 56. 1907).
192
THE CACTACEAE.
Berger remarks that this species is very variable, but that it can not well be divided
even into varieties.
Opuntia megalarthra Rose (Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 529. 1908), in its very spiny joints,
yellow spines, and small fruits, seems very diferent from the common cultivated O. robusta;
yet when grown in the greenhouse for several years it takes on much the appearance of
O. robusta. If this view is correct, O. megalarthra represents the wild form of the species.
Opuntia cochinera Griiths (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 263. pl. 26. 1908) from Zacatecas,
Mexico, is, perhaps, a hybrid between Opuntia robusta and one of the Streptacanthae.
Illustrations: N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pl. 5, f. 1; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 135;
Journ. Inter. Gard. Club 3: 14, the last two as Opuntia gorda; U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Pl. Ind.
Bull. 74: pl. 5, as Tapuna pear. ? N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 64: pl. 1.
Plate xxxiv, igure 4, represents a joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose in Hidalgo,
Mexico, in 1905, and described by him as Opuntia megalarthra. Figure 238 is from a photograph taken in Zacatecas, Mexico, by Professor F. E. Lloyd in 1908.
Fig. 238.—Opuntia robusta.
214. Opuntia guerrana Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 266.
1908.
Plant 9 to 12 dm. high, with an open, branching top; joints oblong to orbicular, 15 to 25
cm. long, thick, glaucous; areoles 5 mm. in diameter, filled with tawny wool; spines white to yellow, I to 6, flattened, twisted; petals yellow; filaments greenish white; stigma-lobes green; fruit
globose greenish white, 4 to 5 cm. in diameter.
Type locality: Near Dublin, Hidalgo, Mexico.
Distribution: Known only from type locality.
Except in size and color of fruit this species is very much like the common Opuntia
robusta of this part of Mexico.
215. Opuntia fusicaulis Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: 271.
1908.
Plant 5 meters high or less, the branches erect or spreading; joints oblong, elongated, 4 dm.
long or less, much longer than wide, glaucous, bluish green, spineless, narrowed at both ends;
glochids often wanting; areoles small, filled with tawny wool; fruit greenish white.
Type locality: Described from cultivated plants.
Distribution: Known only from cultivated specimens.
Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19: pl. 23, in part.
193
OPUNTIA
he following may be referable to this ‘’Series:
Opuntia crystalenia Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 528.
1916.
Erect, 2 to 2.5 meters high; joints broadly obovate, 25 cm. long, 18 cm. Wide, glaucous,
bluish green, becoming yellowish in age; leaves 4 mm. long, subulate; spines white, porrect, only
on the upper parts of the joints, 1 to 4, usually only 2, the longest 1 to 1.5 cm. long; glochids
yellow; flowers yellow; stigma-lobes 10, dark green; fruit subglobose, 4 to 4.5 cm. in diameter.
Type locality: Cardenas, Mexico.
Distribution: Highlands of Mexico, where it is also cultivated.
Series 23. POLYACANTHAE.
This series is confined chiefly to plains of the western United States. The species are all
low, creeping plants, very spiny, with dry fruits. On account of the dry fruit this series forms a
natural group, although some species in the series Basilares also have dry fruits. One species of
series Polyacanthae has fragile branches, in this respect resembling the Curassavicae. The species
hybridize with those of the Tortispinae.
Key to Species.
Joints readily detached, turgid, some of them subterete or subglobose . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints not readily detached, usually flat and thin, or in O. arenaria sometimes
nearly terete.
Joints turgid, usually small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joints thinner than the last, mostly flat, larger.
Spines, or some of them, very long, flexible and bristle-like.
Flowers 4 to 5 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers 5 to 6 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines stiff, acicular or subulate; areoles distant.
Spines subulate.
Fruit naked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fruit spiny.
Flowers yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flowers red. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines acicular, slender; areoles close together.
Ovary and f ruit without spines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ovary and f ruit with spines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
216. Opuntia fragilis (Nuttall) Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 82.
. . . . . . . . . . 216. O. fragilis
turgid and
. . . . . . . . . . 217. O. arenaria
. . . . . . . . . . 218. O. trichophora
. . . . . . . . . . 219. O. erinacea
. . . . . . . . . . 220. O. juniperina
. . . . . . . . . . 221. O. hystricina
. . . . . . . . . . 222. O. rhodantha
. . . . . . . . . . 223. O. sphaerocarpa
. . . . . . . . . . 224. O. polyacantha
1819.
Cactus fragilis Nuttall, Gen. Pl. 1: 296. 1818.
Opuntia brachyarthra Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 302. 1856.
Opuntia fragilis brachyarthra Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 440. 1896.
Opuntia fragilis caespitosa and tuberiformis Hortus, Stand. Cycl. Hort. Bailey 4: 2363. 1916.
(?) Opuntia columbiana Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 523. 1916.
Usually low and spreading, small and inconspicuous, but sometimes forming mounds 2 dm
high in the center and 4 dm. in diameter, with hundreds of joints; joints fragile (the terminal
ones especially breaking off at the slightest touch), often nearly globular but sometimes decidedly
flattened, usually dark green, 1 to 4 cm. long; areoles closely set, small, filled with white wool;
spines 5 to 7, brown or only with brown tips and lighter below, 1 to 3 cm. long; glochids yellowish; flowers pale yellow, about 5 cm. broad; fruit dry, spiny, 1.5 to 2 cm. long, with a truncate
or slightly depressed umbilicus; seeds large, 5 to 7 mm. broad.
Type locality: “From the Mandans to the mountains, in sterile but moist situations.”
Distribution: Wisconsin to central Kansas and northwestern Texas, westward to Arizona,
Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Dr. Engelmann says “it is rarely found in lower and still more rarely seen in fruit.” he
only fruit we have seen was collected by Dr. Rose near Liberal, Kansas, in 19, 12.
Opuntia brachyarthra, sometimes regarded as a variety of O. fragilis, we regard as not
speciically separable from that species. An examination of the type material now preserved
in the Missouri Botanical Garden does not warrant a separation of any kind.
This species is of wide distribution and is especially common on the plains. It usually
grows low, often being hidden by the grass. In the grazing country it is a most troublesome weed, for the joints easily break off and become attached by their spines to passing
objects, thus greatly annoying and pestering all animals on the range, even frightening
194
THE CACTACEAE.
horses. The wide distribution of the species is doubtless largely due to the fact that the
joints are so easily scattered. A hybrid with O. tortispina has been found in Kansas (Rose,
No. 17132).
he plant is of especial interest as the most northern in distribution of the opuntias.
It is stated that Opuntia cervicornis Späth (Cat. 156. 1906-7) is “probably a hybrid of
which O. fragilis is a parent” (Kew Bull. Misc. Inf. 1907: App. 74. 1907). O. sabinii (Pfeifer,
Enum. Cact. 147. 1837) was given as a synonym of O. fragilis.
Illustrations: Cact. Journ. 1: 100; Dict. Gard. Nicholson 2: f. 752; Förster, Handb. Cact.
ed. 2. f. 132; Gartenlora 30: 413; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 12, f. 9; Rümpler, Sukkulenten f. 126;
W. Watson, Cact. Cult. f. 78; Wiener Illustr. Gartenz. 10: f. 113, all as Opuntia brachyarthra.
Illustr. Fl. 2: f. 2532; ed. 2. 2: f. 2991; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 24, f. 5.
Plate xxxv, igure 1, shows old and young joints of the plant collected by C. Birdseye
at Florence, Montana, in 1910. Figure 239 is from a photograph of the plant taken by E.
R. Warren at San Acacio, Colorado, in 1912.
Fig. 239.—Opuntia f ragilis.
217. Opuntia arenaria Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 301.
1856.
Roots in clusters of 10 to 15, spindle-form, somewhat fleshy; stem prostrate, 2 to 3 dm.
long, much branched; joints during growing season quite turgid, afterwards much thinner, 4 to
8 cm. long, half as broad as long; areoles large, numerous, filled with brown wool, glochids, and
spines; spines 5 to 8 from an areole, 2 or 3 much longer than the others, sometimes 4 cm. long;
flowers red, 7 cm. broad; fruit dry, spiny, 3 cm. long; seeds large, 7 cm. broad.
Type locality: Sandy bottoms of the Rio Grande near El Paso.
Distribution: Texas and southern New Mexico.
his species is very rare and has been reported only a few times. Dr. Rose, who has
repeatedly collected at El Paso, was never able to ind it until October 1913, and then but
a single plant about 8 miles above El Paso on the New Mexican side of the Rio Grande.
It grows in nearly pure sand not far above the level of the river.
BRITTON AND ROSE
PLATE XXXV
M. E. Eaton del.
1.
Plant of Opuntia fragilis.
2. Flowering branch of Opuntia rhodantha.
3. Flowering joint of Opuntia polyacantha.
(All natural size.)
A HOEN & CO
195
OPUNTIA
Illustration: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 75, f. 15.
Figure 240 is from a drawing of the plant collected by Dr. Rose near El Paso, Texas,
in 1913.
218. Opuntia trichophora (Engelmann) Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 535.
1908.
Opuntia missouriensis trichophora Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 300. 1856.
Opuntia polyacantha trichophora Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 437. 1896.
A low, spreading plant, often forming small clumps 6 to 10 dm. in diameter; joints orbicular
to obovate, 6 to 10 cm. in diameter; areoles closely set; spines numerous, very unequal, the longer
one 4 cm. long or so, acicular, pale, often white, but on old joints developing into long, weak
hairlike bristles; flowers yellow, the sepals tinged with red; ovary with numerous areoles, these
bearing weak, pale bristles; fruit unknown.
Type locality: Mountains near Albuquerque, New
Mexico.
Distribution: New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.
his plant, while closely related to Opuntia polyacantha, seems worthy of speciic rank, its long weak spines
being apparently characteristic. Its northern extension
into Oklahoma has recently been determined
from plants collected by G. W. Stevens.
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 15, f. 1
to 4; pl. 23, f. 19, all as Opuntia missouriensis
trichophora.
Figure 241 is copied from the irst illustration above cited.
Fig. 240.—Opuntia arenaria.
× 0.75.
Fig. 241.—Opuntia trichophora.
219. Opuntia erinacea Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 301.
× 0.75.
1856.
Opuntia ursina Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 896. 1898.
Growing in small, low clumps, the branches ascending or erect; joints ovate to oblong, flattened or thick, sometimes nearly terete, 8 to 12 cm. long; areoles somewhat tuberculate, large,
numerous, closely set, 4 to 10 mm. apart; spines numerous, usually white or sometimes brownish
or with brown tips, slender, often 5 cm., sometimes 12 cm. long or even more, stiff, often developing on the old joints as long hairs or bristles; glochids numerous; flowers rather large, 6 to 7
cm. long, either red or yellow; ovary and fruit very spiny; seeds large, rather regular.
Type locality: On Mojave Creek, California.
Distribution: Northwestern Arizona, southern Utah, southern Nevada, and eastern
California.
196
THE CACTACEAE.
his species has long been passing under the name of Opuntia rutila Nuttall (Torrey and
Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 555. 1840). Dr. Engelmann referred it there in the Report of Simpson’s
Expedition (page 442), and again in the Botany of California, with the remark that “this
plant seems to be Nuttall’s long lost O. rutila.” And while it is true that the identiication
of Nuttall’s plant is still doubtful, it seems improbable that this reference is correct, for the
Fig. 242.—Opuntia erinacea.
description does not agree with that of the above, and the original station of O. rutila in
Wyoming is far removed from the other; keen collectors like A. Nelson and V. Bailey, who
have searched for the plant for us, have failed to ind it in Wyoming. We suspect that O.
rutila will prove to be O. polyacantha.
Opuntia ursina, which comes from the Mojave Desert, seems to be only a slender form
with long weak spines. his is known in the trade as the California grizzly bear cactus.
Alverson has described it as follows: “his curious plant is covered with tawny white hairs
197
OPUNTIA
or lexuous spines, some of which are from 3 to 6 inches long, and I have some extra ine
specimens with the spines or hairs 9 and 12 inches long.”
Illustrations: Alverson, Cact. Cat. 9 as Opuntia ursina; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 13, f. 8 to
11; pl. 24, f. 4.
Figure 242 is from a photograph of the plant taken by T. B. Headley at a point about
29 miles east of Fallon, Nevada, in 1910.
220. Opuntia juniperina sp. nov.
Somewhat of the habit of Opuntia polyacantha, but not so procumbent, stouter, and with fewer
and stouter spines; joints obovate, 10 to 12 cm. long, broad, rounded at top; areoles small, all below
the middle of the joint naked, the upper ones each bearing one stout spine and 1 to several very
short accessory ones; the longer spine very stout, 3 to 4 cm. long, brown; lowers not known; fruit
dry, oblong, 3 cm. long, spineless, with a shallow, lat umbilicus; seeds large, irregular, 6 to 8 mm.
broad.
Fig. 243.—Joint of Opuntia juniperina. × 0.5.
Fig. 244.—Seed
of same. × 0.5.
Fig. 245.—Opuntia hystricina.
× 0.5.
On dry hills among junipers in vicinity of Cedar Hill, San Juan County, New Mexico,
altitude about 1,900 meters, August 17, 1911, Paul C. Standley (No. 8051).
his species is nearest Opuntia rhodantha, but has stouter joints and much larger seeds.
Figure 243 represents a joint of the type specimen; igure 244 represents a seed.
221. Opuntia hystricina Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 299.
1856.
More or less diffuse; joints obovate to orbicular, 8 to 20 cm. long; areoles numerous, 10 to
15 mm. apart, rather large; spines numerous, pale brown to white, the longer ones 5 to 10 cm.
long, stout, flattish, often reflexed; glochids yellow; flowers 6 cm. long; petals broad, yellow; ovary
nearly globular; fruit oblong to obovoid, 2.5 to 3 cm. long, spiny above, dry, with a compressed
umbilicus; seeds 7 mm. broad.
Type locality: Colorado Chiquito and on San Francisco Mountains.
Distribution: New Mexico to Arizona and Nevada.
Although this species has a wide range, it is not very well understood; it approaches
O. rhodantha in some of its forms. We have referred here a very remarkable form collected
by E. W. Nelson at Lee’s Ferry, Arizona, in 1909, This plant has thick, obovate joints 17
198
THE CACTACEAE.
to 22 cm. long, strongly tuberculate, with some of the spines very strong, flattened, and
reflexed; the fruit is very spiny; the seeds are 8 mm. broad, angled, with margins thin and
acute. This may be the plant listed in Weinberg’s catalogue, also from the Grand Canyon,
under the name of Opuntia hochderfferi.
Opuntia xerocarpa Griiths (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29: 15. 1916), from Kingman,
Arizona, is of this relationship, described as “readily distinguished from other species of its
dry-fruited allies by its spines, shape of joints and color of plant body.”
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 15, f. 5 to 7; pl. 23, f. 15.
Figure 245 is copied from the irst illustration above cited.
222. Opuntia rhodantha Schumann, La Semaine Hort. 1897.
Opuntia xanthostemma Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 735. 1898.
Opuntia utahensis J. A. Purpus, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 19: 133. 1909.
Joints obovate to oblong, 5 to 12 cm. long; areoles distant, 10 mm. apart or more; spines rather
stout, 3 or 4, 2 to 3 cm. long, brownish, with 2 or 3 short accessory ones; lower areoles usually naked;
glochids brown; lowers, including ovaries, 5 to 6 cm. long, 8 cm. broad; petals red or pink to salmoncolored, obovate, apiculate; stamens red or yellow; fruit spiny; seeds small, 5 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Colorado, at 2,000 to 2,300 meters altitude.
Distribution: Western Nebraska, Colorado, and Utah.
After a careful examination of living plants of both O. rhodantha and O. xanthostemma,
we feel convinced that the latter is only a form of the other. he color of the stamens in
the opuntias does not furnish a constant character. It is hardy in cultivation at New York
and highly ornamental when in bloom.
Haage and Schmidt, in their 1915 catalogue, list several varieties of this species:
brevispina, flavispina, pisciformis, and schumanniana; and under Opuntia xanthostemma
in the same place they list the following
varieties: elegans, fulgens, gracilis, orbicularis,
and rosea.
Illustrations: Meehan’s Monthly 7: 133;
Gartenwelt 1: 83, this last as Opuntia xanthostemma; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 19: 135, this
last as Opuntia utahensis.
Plate xxxv, igure 2, represents a lowering plant received by the New York Botanical
Garden from Haage and Schmidt, of Erfurt,
Fig. 246.—Opuntia sphaerocarpa. × 0.66.
Germany, in 1913.
223. Opuntia sphaerocarpa Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 300.
1856.
Small, spreading plants; joints orbicular, 6 to 7 cm. broad, thickish, strongly tuberculate,
wrinkled in drying, light green or becoming more or less purple; areoles 8 to 10 mm. apart,
mostly spineless or the upper and marginal ones bearing short acicular spines, the longest ones
about 2 cm. long; glochids yellow; flowers not known; fruit naked, 18 mm. in diameter, with a
truncate umbilicus; seeds 5 mm. broad, very irregular.
Type locality: Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Distribution: Known only from type locality.
We have not, with certainty, identiied any recently collected plants with this species,
although some New Mexican specimens appear to be referable to it.
Illustrations: Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 13, f. 6, 7; pl. 24, f. 3.
Figure 246 is copied from the irst illustration above cited.
199
OPUNTIA
224. Opuntia polyacantha Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 82.
1819.
Cactus ferox Nuttall, Gen. Pl. 1: 296. 1818. Not Willdenow. 1813.
Opuntia media Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 82. 1819.
Opuntia missouriensis De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 472. 1828.
Opuntia splendens Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 159. 1837.
Opuntia missouriensis albispina Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 300. 1856.
Opuntia missouriensis microsperma Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 300. 1856. Not
O. raf inesquei microsperma Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 295. 1856.
Opuntia missouriensis platycarpa Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 300. 1856.
Opuntia missouriensis ruf ispina Engelmann and Bigelow, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 300. 1856.
Opuntia missouriensis subinermis Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 300. 1856.
Opuntia polyacantha albispina Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 437. 1896.
Opuntia polyacantha borealis Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 436. 1896.
Opuntia polyacantha platycarpa Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 436. 1896.
Opuntia polyacantha watsonii Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 437. 1896.
Opuntia schweriniana Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 9: 148. 1899.
Fig. 247.—Opuntia polyacantha.
Low, spreading plants, with fibrous roots, usually forming small clumps; joints not very thick,
orbicular, usually less than 10 cm. in diameter, generally light green; areoles small, closely set,
usually less than 1 cm. apart, all spiny; spines numerous, often 9, those from the sides mostly
short, appressed, and white, but often 1 or 2 of these elongated and like those from the upper
and marginal areoles, dark brown, with lighter tips and about 3 cm. long; glochids yellow; flowers
small, to 5 cm. long, including the ovary; sepals tinged with red; petals lemon-yellow; stigmalobes green; fruit dry, oblong, 2 cm. long, bearing small clusters of white, acicular spines at the
areoles; seeds white, 6 mm. long, acute on the margin.
Type locality: Arid situations on the plains of the Missouri.
Distribution: North Dakota to Nebraska, Texas, and Arizona to Utah, Washington, and
Alberta.
Opuntia sphaerocarpa utahensis Engelmann (Trans. St. Louis Acad. 2: 199. 1863) can not
be referred to O. sphaerocarpa, where Dr. Engelmann only provisionally placed it when he
irst described it. On account of its yellow lowers we have referred it here. Opuntia poly-
200
THE CACTACEAE.
acantha microsperma and O. polyacantha ruf ispina, mentioned in Bailey’s Standard Cyclopedia
of Horticulture (3: 2363. 1916), belong here.
Opuntia polyacantha was one of the irst of our western opuntias to be collected and
described. It was irst collected by homas Nuttall on his memorable trip to the Upper Missouri. He described it in 1818 as Cactus ferox, a name which had been previously used by
Willdenow, which led A. H. Haworth in 1819 to rename Nuttall’s plant, calling it Opuntia
polyacantha. At the same place Haworth published a second name, Opuntia media, undoubtedly based on a less spiny form of O. polyacantha. In 1828 Nuttall’s plant was again renamed,
this time by A. De Candolle, who called it Opuntia missouriensis, under which name it was
known for many years. In 1896 Dr. John M. Coulter very properly restored Haworth’s name
O. polyacantha.
his species has a wide distribution laterally and altitudinally. It is properly a plains’
species, but is found in mountain valleys and on dry hills, usually in the open, but sometimes in sparse pine woods. In a species of such wide distribution and growing under such
diverse circumstances, a wide range of forms is to be expected and a number of varieties
have been proposed for the various races, some of which may perhaps have red lowers. he
plant is hardy at New York, lowering freely in June.
Illustrations: Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 115: pl. 7046; Illustr. Fl. 2: f. 2531; ed. 2. 2: f. 2990;
N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 78: pl. [3]; Cact. Journ. 1: 167; Gard. Chron. 50: 340, the
last two as Opuntia missouriensis; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 14, f. 8 to 10; pl. 23, f. 18, the last
two as Opuntia missouriensis albispina; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 14, f. 5 to 7; pl. 24, f. 1, 2, the
last two as Opuntia missouriensis microsperma; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 14, f. 4; pl. 23, f. 17, these
last two as Opuntia missouriensis platycarpa; Pac. R. Rep. 4: pl. 14, f. 1 to 3; pl. 23, f. 16.
these last two as Opuntia missouriensis ruf ispina; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 9: 148, this last as
Opuntia schweriniana.
Plate xxxv, igure 3, represents
a lowering joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose in western Kansas
in 1912. Figure 247 represents joints
of the plant from Colorado, photographed by T. W. Smillie.
Series 24. STENOPETALAE.
This is an anomalous group in
Opuntia, since the flowers are diœcious
and the petals are linear and more or
less erect. It contains three species which
are very different in habit and color of
spines, but which were all united into
a single species by Professor Schumann.
Dr. Engelmann was so much impressed
by the peculiar structure of the flowers
of this group that he proposed for it a
new subgenus, Stenopuntia.
Key to Species.
Spines dark; plants low,
prostrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225. O. stenopetala
Spines white; plants erect.
Joints narrow; spines
acicular . . . . . . . . . . . 226. O. glaucescens
Joints broader; spines
stouter . . . . . . . . . . . . 227. O. grandis
Fig. 245.—Opuntia stenopetala.
225. Opuntia stenopetala Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 289. 1856.
Low bushy plant, often forming thickets, the main branches procumbent and resting on the
edges of the joints; joints obovate to orbicular, 1 to 2 dm. long, grayish green, but often more
OPUNTIA
201
or less purplish, very spiny; areoles often remote, 1 to 3 cm. apart, the lower ones often without
spines, bearing white wool when young; leaves only on young joints, spreading, dark red, about 2
mm. long; spines usually reddish brown to black, but sometimes becoming pale, usually 2 to 4, the
longest ones 5 cm. long, the larger ones somewhat flattened; glochids very abundant on young joints,
brown; flowers diœcious, small, including the ovary only 3 cm. long; petals orange-red, very narrow,
10 to 12 mm. long, with long acuminate tips; filaments short; style very thick in the middle, the
male flowers with an abortive, pointed style, but female flowers with 8 or 9 yellow stigma-lobes
on style; ovary leafy, the upper leaves similar to the sepals; fruit globular, 3 cm. in diameter, acid,
naked or spiny; seeds small, smooth, 3 mm. in diameter, with broad, rounded margins.
Type locality: On battleield of Buena Vista, south of Saltillo, Mexico.
Distribution: In States of Coahuila to Querétaro and Hidalgo, central Mexico.
Referred by Schumann to O. glaucescens, but surely a distinct species, as indicated by
Berger (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 14: 171. 1904).
Although in its habit this Opuntia is much like many others, its lowers are unique,
the petals being very narrow and erect; it is a very beautiful plant, and at lowering time
is covered with numerous, small, beautiful lowers. Dr. Griiths states that it is one of the
most valuable ornamental opuntias, and that it is hardy in southern California.
Illustrations: Cact. Mex. Bound. pl. 66; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 14: 172. f. 1.
Figure 248 is from a photograph of a
fruiting joint of a specimen collected by
Dr. Edward Palmer near Saltillo, Mexico,
in 1905; igure 249 is copied from the
illustration irst above cited.
226. Opuntia glaucescens Salm-Dyck, Hort.
Dyck. 362. 1834.
Probably erect; joints erect, oblong-obovate, 12 to 15 cm. long, 5 cm. broad, sometimes
narrowed at both ends, pale green, glaucous,
usually purplish around the areoles; leaves
small, reddish when young; areoles filled with
gray wool; spines 1 to 4, elongated, acicular,
white, 2.5 cm. long; glochids brownish to
rose-colored.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Mexico, but range unFig. 249.—Opuntia stenopetala.
known.
he lowers were not known when the species was irst described and we do not know
that they have since been observed. It has long been in cultivation, but specimens grown
under glass at New York have not lowered.
227. Opuntia grandis Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 155. 1837.
More or less erect, 6 dm. high or more; joints oblong, 12 to 18 cm. long, erect, when young
reddish, glaucous; leaves rose-colored; spines few, white; flowers small, a little open, 2 cm. broad;
petals few, narrowly lanceolate, 12 mm. long; filaments reddish; style shorter than the stamens,
rose-colored; stigma-lobes 2 or 3, acute.
Type locality: In Mexico.
Distribution: Mexico, but range unknown.
Referred by Schumann to O. glaucescens, but doubtless distinct, as indicated by Berger.
Illustration: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 14: 172. f. 2.
Series 25. PALMADORAE.
An erect plant with narrow flat joints, small, brick-red flowers, and apparently erect stamens;
the epidermis densely papillose-tuberculate when dry. The flowers suggest those of the Spinosissimae, but otherwise the plant is quite different. The series consists of a single species, from the
catinga region of eastern Brazil.
202
THE CACTACEAE.
228. Opuntia palmadora sp. nov.
Plant often 3 meters high, sometimes even 5, but often low; trunk
sometimes 9 cm. in diameter, sometimes with brown, smooth bark, but
usually very spiny; branches numerous, usually erect, at times forming a
compact, almost globular top, at other times quite open; joints unusually
thin and narrow, 1 to 1.5 dm. long, generally erect, very spiny; leaves
subulate, minute, 3 to 4 mm. long, green with reddish tips, found only
on very young joints; areoles filled with white wool; spines usually 1
to 4, sometimes 6, from an areole, all yellow at first, in age white, the
largest one porrect, 3 cm. long; petals erect or only slightly spreading,
brick-red in color; stamens short, erect; filaments orange-colored; style
cream-colored; stigma-lobes white; ovary broadly turbinate, 2 cm. long,
tuberculate; fruit small.
Collected by Rose and Russell at Barrinha, Bahia, Brazil, June 7,
8, 1915 (No. 19787).
his plant is common in the semiarid parts of Bahia, where it is
known as palmadora or palmatoria. Johnston and Tryon describe it
briely without giving it a name in their Report of the Prickly-Pear
Travelling Commission, 104. 1914.
Figure 250 represents joints of the type plant; igure 251 is from
a photograph of the wild plant from which the above was taken.
Series 26. SPINOSISSIMAE.
Erect species, mostly tall, with terete, continuous, unjointed, usually
densely spiny trunks, the ultimate branches spreading or divaricate, flat, Fig. 250.—O. palmadora.
usually elongated, spiny or sometimes unarmed; flowers small, yellow, orange or red, or changing from yellow to red; fruit fleshy. We recognize seven species, all natives
of the West Indies. The series represents the genus Consolea of Lemaire.
Fig. 251.—Opuntia palmadora. A thicket in Bahia,
Brazil.
Fig. 252.—Opuntia nashii.
Key to Species.
Areoles of the joints distant, 2 to 4 cm. apart.
Spines few, 3 cm. long or less, or none.
Areoles elevated, bearing 2 to 5 grayish spines 3 to 6 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Areoles scarcely elevated, spineless or with 1 to 4 weak yellow spines 1 to 2 cm. long . .
Spines, when present, many, the older up to 12 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Areoles of the joints closer together, 1 to 1.5 cm. apart.
Spines of the trunk-areoles, or most of them, deflexed.
Young spines straw-colored or whitish; plant up to 5 m. tall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Young spines purple; plant 6 dm. high or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spines of the trunk-areoles, when present, spreading.
Joints distinctly reticulate-areolate, light green; ovary prominently tuberculate . . . . . . . . .
Joints indistinctly reticulate-areolate, mostly dark green or reddish; ovary low-tuberculate
. . 229. O. nashii
. . 230. O. bahamana
. . 231. O. macracantha
. . 232. O. spinosissima
. . 233. O. millspaughii
. . 234. O. moniliformis
. . 235. O. rubescens
OPUNTIA
203
229. Opuntia nashii Britton, Bull. N. V. Bot. Gard. 3: 446. 1905.
Tree-like, or sometimes bushy, dull green; main axis round,
1 to 4 meters high, 5 to 12 cm. in diameter, spiny; branches flat
or, becoming round below, the principal ones continuous, 1 meter
long or more, 6 cm. wide or less, crenate, blunt; lateral branches
opposite or alternate, oblong to linear-oblong, often 3 dm. long,
and 8 cm. wide, only about 6 mm. thick, blunt, crenate; areoles 1
to 3 cm. apart, slightly elevated; spines mostly 5 at each areole (2
to 5), divergent, slender, straight, light gray, pungent, the longer
3 to 6 cm. long; glochids very small, brownish; ovary 3 cm. long,
1.5 cm. thick, somewhat clavate, tubercled, the tubercles bearing
areoles and spines similar to those of the joints, but the spines
somewhat shorter; flowers 1.5 cm. broad when expanded, red;
petals broadly oval to obovate, blunt, about 8 mm. long, much
longer than the stamens.
Type locality: Inagua, Bahamas.
Distribution: Andros, Crooked Island, Fortune Island, Atwood Cay, Caicos Islands, Turks Islands, Ship Channel Cay,
and Inagua, Bahamas.
Figure 252 is from a photograph of a plant at Matthew
Town, Inagua, Bahamas, taken by George V. Nash, in 1904;
igure 253 is from a photograph of a plant from the same
place in the collection of the New York Botanical Garden.
230. Opuntia bahamana sp. nov.
Branched from near the base, bushy, about 1.5 m. high;
joints oblong to lanceolate, lat, and thin, 1 to 5 dm. long, 4
to 10 cm. wide, dull green, obtuse, scarcely undulate; leaves
red, subulate, 3 cm. long; areoles 1.5 to 3 cm. apart, scarcely
elevated, about 2 mm. in diameter, spineless, or bearing 1
to 4 acicular yellow spines 2 cm. long or less when young;
glochids few and short; lower about 6 cm. broad; petals obovate, rose-tinted below, yellowish rose above; sepals dark rose,
whitish margined.
Distribution: Rocky slopes, he Bright, Cat Island, Bahamas, collected by N. L. Britton and C. F. Millspaugh, March
1907, No. 5794.
his plant was tentatively referred by us (Smiths. Misc.
Fig. 253.—Opuntia nashii.
Coll. 50: 525. 1908) to Opuntia lanceolata Haworth. It has
been grown under glass at New York ever since, but does not
respond well to greenhouse conditions.
It is here included in the series Spinosissimae, but with hesitation, its bushy habit and
larger lowers being anomalous in this group.
Figure 254 represents a joint of the type specimen above cited; igure 255 is copied
from a sketch of a lower made by Dr. Millspaugh on Cat Island, when the plant was
discovered.
231. Opuntia macracantha Grisebach, Cat. Pl. Cub. 116. 1866.
Erect, the trunk up to 15 cm. in diameter, its areoles 1 to 2 cm. broad, bearing many brownish glochids and several divergent spines 1 cm. long or less; upper portion of the trunk, and the
ultimate, oblong, or oblong-ovate, spreading branches flat, green, faintly shining, the areoles 2 to
3 cm. apart, scarcely elevated, the numerous glochids brown; spines 1 to 4, up to 15 cm. long,
nearly white, stout, subulate, or wanting; flowers often numerous; ovary 2.5 to 3 cm. long, densely
beset with glochid-bearing areoles; petals orange-yellow, 1 to 1.3 cm. long.
Type locality: Cuba, in maritime depressions.
Distribution: Southern coast of eastern Cuba and adjacent plains.
204
THE CACTACEAE.
Specimens of the plant were erroneously referred by Grisebach to O. triacantha. It is a
picturesque feature of the lora of its native habitat.
Figure 256 is from a photograph of the plant on the United States Naval Station, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, taken by Marshall A. Howe in 1909; igure 257 is from a photograph
of a plant from the same place, grown at the New York Botanical Garden.
Fig. 254.—Joint of Opuntia
bahamana.
Fig. 255.—Flower
of the same.
Fig. 256.—Opuntia macracantha.
232. Opuntia spinosissima Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 8.
1768.
Cactus spinosissimus Martyn, Cat. Hort. Cant. 88. 1771.
Consolea spinosissima Lemaire, Rev. Hort. 1862: 174. 1862.
Erect, up to 5 m. high, the trunk sometimes 8 cm. in diameter, densely clothed with areoles
bearing many long brownish glochids and acicular, deflexed or spreading spines up to 8 cm. long;
ultimate branches flat, dull green, narrowly oblong, 2 to 4 times as long as wide, their areoles
1 to 1.5 cm. apart, slightly or not at all elevated, bearing brown glochids and 1 to 3 acicular,
straw-colored or whitish spines 8 cm. long or less, or spineless; ovary 3 to 8 cm.. long, often
flattened, its areoles bearing short glochids; petals about 1 cm. long, oblong-obovate, rounded at
the apex, at first yellow, turning dull red.
Type locality: Jamaica.
Distribution: Southern coast of Jamaica.
Plate xxxvi, from a painting by Miss H. A. Wood at Hope Gardens, Jamaica, sent by
William Harris in 1907. Figure 258 is from a photograph of a plant obtained by Professor
John F. Cowell in Jamaica and sent from the Bufalo Botanical Garden to the New York
Botanical Garden in 1904.
233. Opuntia millspaughii Britton, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 513.
1908.
Trunk terete, 7 cm. thick at base, 5 cm. thick at top, 6 dm. high or less, branching at the
summit, the branches divaricate-ascending, narrowly oblong, much compressed, 40 cm. long or
BRITTON AND ROSE
H. A. Wood del.
PLATE XXXVI
Opuntia spinosissima.
1. Flowering joints.
2, 3. Single flowers.
4, . Longitudinal section of flower.
6.
.
A HOEN & CO
Cross-section of ovary.
Style.
205
OPUNTIA
less, 5 to 10 cm. wide, 1 to 1.5 cm. thick, light green; branchlets obliquely lanceolate, obtuse, as
wide as the branches, but shorter, 1 cm. thick or less, floriferous at and near the apex; areoles
of the older branches pitted, about 1 cm. apart, those of very young shoots slightly elevated, the
glochids very short, yellowish brown; spines of the trunk 15 cm. long or less, very numerous
and densely clothing the trunk, very slender, gray, mostly strongly reflexed, pungent, those of the
branches and branchlets restricted to the areoles on their edges, shorter than those of the trunk but
Fig. 257.—Opuntia macracantha.
Fig. 258.—Opuntia spinosissima.
similar, purple when young, those of the fruit yellowish gray, 2 cm. long or less; flowers cupulate,
crimson-lake, 1 cm. wide; sepals fleshy, ovate, acute, 4 mm. long and wide; petals erect-ascending,
obovate, mucronulate, about 4 mm. wide; stamens half as long as the corolla; style about as long
as the corolla; stigma-lobes oblong, yellowish crimson; fruit compressed-obovoid, 2 cm. long, 1.5
cm. thick, bearing one or two spines at most of the areoles.
206
THE CACTACEAE.
Type locality: Rock Sound, Eleuthera Island, Bahamas.
Distribution: Eleuthera and Great Ragged Island, Bahamas; Cayo Paredón Grande, Cuba.
Figure 259 is from a photograph of the type plant taken at the type locality by Dr. C.
F. Millspaugh, February 22, 1907.
234. Opuntia moniliformis (Linnaeus) Haworth in Steudel, Nom. ed. 2. 2: 221. 1841.
Cactus moniliformis Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 468. 1753.
Cactus ferox Willdenow, Enum. Pl. Suppl. 35. 1813.
Opuntia ferox Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 82. 1819.
Cereus moniliformis De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 470. 1828.
Consolea ferox Lemaire, Rev. Hort. 1862: 174. 1862.
Opuntia microcarpa Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 714.
1898. Not Engelmann. 1848.
Nopalea moniliformis Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 750.
1898.
Opuntia testudinis-crus Weber in Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist.
Nat. Paris 10: 389. 1904.
Opuntia haitiensis Britton, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 513.
1908.
Trunk somewhat flattened above, 3 to 4 m. high,
branching at the top, densely armed with acicular, yellowish
or gray spines 12 cm. long or less, their bases clothed
with yellowish-white wool 1 to 2 cm. long; joints obliquely
linear-oblong to obovate, 1 to 3 dm. long, 13 cm. wide
or less, about 1 cm. thick, obtuse, distinctly areolatereticulate, the areoles somewhat elevated, 1 to 1.5 cm.
apart, those of young joints bearing near the edges 3 to
6 acicular spines 1 to 2.5 cm. long, those on the sides of
the young joints often spineless or with 1 to 3 yellowish
Fig. 259.—Opuntia millspaughii.
Fig. 260.—Opuntia moniliformis on the plain at Azua, Santo Domingo.
207
OPUNTIA
spines, and with small tufts of grayish wool; older joints bearing at all areoles 5 to 8 yellowish
spines similar to those of the trunk, and brown glochids 6 or 8 mm. long; flowers about 2.5
cm. broad; sepals as broad as long, or broader, apiculate; petals yellow to orange, ovate, apiculate,
spreading; stamens much shorter than the petals; ovary cylindric to obovoid-cylindric, terete or
nearly so, 4 to 5 cm. long, its distinctly elevated areoles close together, only 5 or 6 mm. apart,
bearing brown glochids 2 mm. long, but no spines; f ruit oblong-obovoid, about 6 cm. long.
Type locality: Hispaniola.
Distribution: Hispaniola; Desecheo Island, Porto Rico.
he ovaries, fruits and small joints of this species are readily detached and on falling
to the ground strike root and proliferate, forming masses of subglobose or turgid joints
entirely diferent in aspect from the fully developed, tree-like plant. It was on this stage of
the organism that the Cactus moniliformis of Linnaeus, founded on Plumier’s conventionalized
plate above cited, was based; this illustration is, however, apparently erroneous in showing
the style as long-exserted.
he names Opuntia dolabriformis and Opuntia cruciata were published by Pfeifer (Enum.
Cact. 167. 1837) as synonyms of O. ferox. Some of the joints and, perhaps, some whole
plants of this species are nearly or quite spineless.
Illustrations: Descourtilz, Fl. Med. Antill. ed. 2. 7: pl. 514, as Cactier moniliforme;
Plumier, Pl. Amer. ed. Burmann. pl. 198, as Cactus, etc.
Fig. 261.—Opuntia moniliformis. The same species as 260, but
showing a different mode of growth.
Fig. 262.—Opuntia moniliformis. × 0.66.
Figure 260 is from a photograph of a plant at Azua, Santo Domingo, taken by Paul
G. Russell in 1913; igure 261 is from a photograph taken by Frank E. Lutz on Desecheo
Island, Mona Passage, Porto Rico, in 1914, showing a mass of proliferating sterile ovaries
or small joints below and the mature stage of the plant above; igure 262 represents several
of the small joints of the Desecheo plant.
208
THE CACTACEAE.
235. Opuntia rubescens Salm-Dyck in De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 474,
1828.
Opuntia catacantha Link and Otto in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 166. 1837.
Consolea rubescens Lemaire, Rev. Hort. 1862: 174. 1862.
Consolea catacantha Lemaire, Rev. Hort. 1862: 174. 1862.
Opuntia guanicana Schumann in Gürke, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 18: 180. 1908.
Trunk erect, nearly cylindric below, flattened above, 3 to 6 meters high, sometimes 1.5 dm.
in diameter, branching above, its areoles bearing several or many acicular spines up to 8 cm.
long or more, or spineless: ultimate joints thin and flat, mostly dark green or reddish green, not
reticulate-areolate except when young, oblong to oblong-obovate, 2.5 dm. long or less, mostly 2
to 4 times as long as wide, the terminal ones often much smaller; areoles 1 to 1.5 cm. apart,
bearing several acicular nearly white spines 1 to 6 cm. long, or spineless; flowers yellow, orange or
red, about 2 cm. broad; ovary long-tuberculate, 4 to 5 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. in diameter; petals
obovate, apiculate; stamens about half as long as the petals; fruit reddish, obovoid or subglobose,
5 to 8 cm. in diameter, spiny or spineless; seeds suborbicular, 5 to 8 mm. in diameter.
Figs. 263, 264.—Opuntia rubescens.
Type locality: Cited as Brazil, but erroneously.
Distribution: Mona and Porto Rico to Tortola, St. Croix, and Guadeloupe.
Culebra, St. homas, St. Jan, and Montserrat plants agree with the description of Opuntia
rubescens, which clearly belongs with the Spinosissimae (Cruciformes), as pointed out by Berger,
rather than with the South American series Inarmatae, where it was placed by Schumann; it
is a spineless state of O. catacantha, as was conclusively proven by us through ield observations in the Virgin Islands, and greenhouse plants of O. rubescens develop spines.
Both the spiny and spineless races exhibit remarkable proliferation of the ovaries, these
often forming chains of several joints while attached to the plant; these, falling to the
ground, strike root and form many small, lattened joints 2 to 4 cm. long, as in Opuntia
moniliformis, to which this species is otherwise closely related.
Illustration: Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 7: f. 6, as Opuntia.
209
OPUNTIA
Figure 263 is f rom a photograph of the plant taken by Professor John F. Cowell at
Guanica, Porto Rico, in 1915; figure 264 is f rom a photograph taken by Professor Cowell
at the same time and place, showing in the foreground a mass of young plants arisen
f rom proliferating joints, and a mature plant behind; figure 265 represents proliferating
joints of a plant grown at Nisky, St. Thomas, collected by Dr. Britton and Dr. Rose in
1913; figure 266 represents a f ruit, collected by Dr. Britton and Dr. Shafer on Buck
Island, St. Thomas, in 1913.
Figs. 265, 266.—Opuntia rubescens.
× 0.66.
Fig. 267.—Opuntia brasiliensis.
× 0.75.
Series 27. BRASILIENSES.
This series represents one of the five subgenera described by Dr. Schumann, which he called
Brasiliopuntia. It perhaps should be recognized as a distinct genus. We recognize three species
in the series, which may be races of a single one, characterized by an erect cylindric trunk with
cylindric, horizontal branches terminating in a series of flattened, thin, leaf-like branches. The
leaves are small and caducous. The spines are few on the young growth, but large clusters are
developed on the old stem and trunk. The flowers are small, the fruit is juicy, and the seeds are
large and covered with a dense mass of wool. Unlike most species of Opuntia, these grow in the
moist tropical forests, forming tall, slender, tree-like plants.
Key to Species.
Fruit globular, yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236. O. brasiliensis
Fruit clavate to oblong, red.
Fruit oblong, 3 to 4 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237. O. bahiensis
Fruit clavate, 5 cm. long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238. O. argentina
236. Opuntia brasiliensis (Willdenow) Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 79.
1819.
Cactus brasiliensis Willdenow, Enum. Pl. Suppl. 33. 1813
Cactus paradoxus Hornemann, Hort. Hafn. 2: 443. 1815.
Cactus arboreus Vellozo, Fl. Flum. 207. 1825.
Opuntia arborea Steudel, Nom. ed. 2. 2: 220. 1841.
Cereus paradoxus Steudel, Nom. ed. 2. 1: 335. 1841.
Becoming 4 meters high, with a cylindric woody trunk and a small rounded top; old trunk
either naked or spiny; branches dimorphic, the lateral ones horizontal, terete; the terminal joints
flat and leaf-like, many of these in time dropping off; flowers 5 to 5.5 cm. long; petals yellow,
oblong, obtuse; filaments very short; fruit yellow, globular, 3 to 4 cm. in diameter, with a low or
nearly truncate umbilicus, bearing large areoles; seed usually one, very woolly, 10 mm. broad.
Type locality: Near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Distribution: Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and central Bolivia. Naturalized in
southern Florida.
210
THE CACTACEAE.
A number of varieties of this species appear in literature, of which we may mention
the following: minor Pfeifer (Enum. Cact. 169. 1837); schomburgkii Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort.
Dyck. 1849. 74. 1850); spinosior Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck. 184. 1834); tenuifolia Forbes (Hort.
Tour Germ. 159. 1837); and tenuior Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck. 376. 1834).
Dr. John H. Barnhart recently called our attention to a number of cactus names published
by St. Hilaire which have been overlooked by later writers. One of these, Cactus heterocladus
St. Hilaire (Voy. Rio de Janeiro and Minas Geraes 2: 103. 1830) seems to belong here, as
the following free translation would indicate:
“Another cactus, which I have already seen near Rio de
Janeiro, raised its branches in the midst of tortuous lianas;
its trunk, which grows more slender from the base to the
summit, is covered with fascicles of spines arranged in a
quincunx, and it shows various stages of verticillate, horizontal, rounded branches, to the number of seven in each
whorl; these branches, like those of the spruce tree, grow
shorter toward the summit of the plant, and they bear secondary branches, flattened and oval-oblong, which may in
a certain sense be taken as leaves.”
Illustrations: Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 61: pl. 3293; Dept.
Agr. N. S. W. Misc. Publ. 253: pl. [6]; Martius, Fl. Bras.
42: pl. 61; Pfeifer and Otto, Abbild. Beschr. Cact. 1:
pl. 29; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 100; Vellozo, Fl.
Flum. 5: pl. 28, this last as Cactus arboreus.
Plate xxx, igure 2, represents a lowering joint taken
from a specimen in the New York Botanical Garden;
Fig. 268.—Opuntia brasiliensis.
Figs. 269, 270.—Opuntia bahiensis.
× 0.5.
igure 3 is from the same plant, showing terete and lat joints. Figure 267 represents a fruit
collected by Dr. Rose near Iguaba Grande, Brazil, in 1915; igure 268 is from a photograph
taken by Paul G. Russell in a public park in Bahia, Brazil.
237. Opuntia bahiensis sp. nov.
Trunk 3 to 15 meters high, cylindric, 20 to 25 cm. in diameter, tapering gradually upward;
the center of trunk pithy, hollow in age, surrounded by an open woody cylinder; lateral joints
terete, the terminal ones flat and thin, ovate to oblong; leaves small, 2 to 3 mm. long, turgid;
spines on terminal joints, if present, 1 or 2, slender, red at first, then brown; spines on old trunk
forming large clusters at all the areoles; flowers not seen; fruit deep red both within and without,
oblong, 3 to 4 cm. long; its small areoles with brown glochids; seeds 1 to 5, mostly 1 or 2 in
each fruit, very hairy, thick, 8 mm. broad.
Collected in the vicinity of Toca da Onca, Bahia, Brazil, by Rose and Russell, June 27
to 29, 1915 (No. 20068).
211
OPUNTIA
Figure 269 represents joints of the type plant above cited; igure 270 represents a joint
with fruit; igure 271 is from a photograph of the type specimen.
Fig. 271.—Opuntia bahiensis. The tree to the left and
somewhat in the foreground.
Fig. 272.—Opuntia ammophila.
238. Opuntia argentina Grisebach, Abh. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen 24: 140.
1879.
Opuntia hieronymi Grisebach, Abh. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen 24: 140. 1879.
Erect, 5 to 15 meters high, branching at the top, the lateral branches subverticillate, teretes
terminal branches flat, 5 to 12 cm. long, 3 to 8 cm. broad; ovary 2 to 2.5 cm. long; petals elliptic
to spatulate, 1.8 cm. long, 8 mm. broad, greenish yellow; filaments white; style white; stigmalobe; yellowish green; ovary flattened, tuberculate, deeply umbilicate; fruit clavate, 5 cm. long, dull
purplish violet, with wine-colored pulp; seeds lens-shaped, 5 to 6 mm long 2 5 to 3 mm broad
Type locality: Near San Andrés, Oran, Argentina.
Distribution: Northern Argentina.
This species was considered identical with O. brasiliensis by Schumann, but they separate on very good f ruit
characters.
Figure 274 is from a photograph of a lowering branch
furnished by Dr. C. Spegazzini.
Series 28. AMMOPHILAE.
One peculiar species, native of Florida, constitutes this
series, characterized by a continuous erect subterete trunk,
lat, spiny branches, and large, yellow lowers.
239. Opuntia ammophila Small, Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 10: 29.
1919.
Plant erect, more or less branched throughout or ultimately
Fig. 273.—Opuntia ammophila.
with a stem I to 2 meters tall or more, becoming 2 to 2.5 dm.
in diameter, bearing several spreading branches near the top, thus tree-like, tuberous at the base;
joints various, those of the main stem elongate, ultimately fused on the ends and subcylindric,
those of the branches typically obovate or cuneate, varying to elliptic or oval, thickish, 5 to 17
cm. long, becoming grayish green; leaves stout-subulate, 6 to 10 mm. long, green; areoles relatively
212
THE CACTACEAE.
numerous, conspicuous on account of the densely crowded long bristles, especially on the older
joints, the marginal ones, at least, armed; spines very slender, solitary or 2 together, reddish or red,
at maturity gray, mostly 2 to 6 cm. long, nearly terete, scarcely spirally twisted; flowers several on
a joint; sepals lanceolate, acute or slightly acuminate; buds sharply pointed; corolla bright yellow,
5 to 8 cm. wide; petals obovate, cuneate, notched, and prominently apiculate, 3 cm. long, scarcely
erose; stigma-lobes cream-color; berries obovoid, 2 to 3 cm. long, more or less flushed with reddish
purple, many-seeded; seeds about 4 mm. in diameter.
Fig. 274.—Opuntia argentina.
Fig. 275.—Opuntia chaffeyi. Photograph
by Señor Don Teodoro Chairez.
Type locality: Fort Pierce, Florida.
Distribution: Inland sand-dunes (scrub), peninsular Florida.
he plant was irst collected by Dr. Small near Fort Pierce, Florida, in 19 17, and again
studied by him in its more northern range west of St. George in 19 I 8. He describes it as
the most conspicuous native prickly pear of Florida, always viciously armed and with a characteristically unjointed trunk. In spite of its many slender spines, cattle browse upon it.
Illustration: Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 224.
OPUNTIA
213
Figure 272 is from a photograph of the plant taken by Dr. Small near Fort Pierce,
Florida; igure 273 shows a fruiting joint of the type specimen.
Series 29. CHAFFEYANAE.
This series contains a single Mexican species, differing from all the other opuntias in having
an annual stem which arises from a large, fleshy root or rootstock. The joints, which are elongated
and nearly terete, resemble somewhat those of O. leptocaulis, but are more fleshy, while the flowers
and fruit are like those of the platyopuntias.
240. Opuntia chaffeyi Britton and Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 16: 241. 1913.
Perennial by a large, leshy, deep-seated root or rootstock often 35 cm. long by 4 cm. in diameter; stems normally annual, 5 to 15 cm. long, sometimes in cultivated specimens 25 cm. long, much
branched, often weak and prostrate; joints elongated, 3 to 5 cm. long, 6 to 7 mm. broad, slightly
Fig. 276.—Opuntia chaffeyi.
lattened, glabrous, pale bluish green or sometimes purplish; leaves minute, caducous; areoles small,
circular, with white wool in the lower parts and brown wool in the upper parts; spines 1, rarely 2
or 3, acicular, 2 to 3 cm. long, whitish or pale yellow; glochids numerous, pale yellow; lower-buds,
including ovary, 8 cm. long; lower opening at 10 a. m., closing at 2 p. m., 6 cm. broad; sepals few,
small, ovate to oblong, greenish; petals few, 7 to 9, pale lemon-yellow, but slightly pinkish on the
outside; ilaments numerous, about 1 cm. long; style slender, extending beyond the stamens, about
22 mm. long, somewhat swollen at base; ovary deeply umbilicate, somewhat club-shaped, 4 to 5 cm.
long, bearing lattened tubercles and large areoles illed with white wool; upper areoles on ovary
bearing also white bristly spines; ovules numerous, borne in the upper third of the ovary; fruit and
seeds still unknown.
Type locality: Hacienda de Cedros, near Mazapil, Zacatecas, Mexico.
Distribution: State of Zacatecas, Mexico.
Illustration: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 16: pl. 72.
214
THE CACTACEAE.
Figure 275 is from a photograph of part of the original collection as grown by Dr. E.
Chafey, taken and contributed by Señor Don Teodoro Chairez, of Ciudad Lerdo, Mexico;
igure 276 is from a photograph of the type showing the large root and the young shoot.
As stated in the original description, this is a remarkable Opuntia, being the only one
known which has an annual stem. In cultivation, where the plant is grown under abnormal
conditions, the stem persists for more than a year; but Dr. Chafey assures us that in the
desert, where the species grows naturally, the stem dies down to the ground in the dry
season. We have had it in cultivation since 1910, but it does not do well, and is gradually
dying out. It has not been found in lower in a wild state, but it lowered with Dr. Chafey
at Ciudad Lerdo, Durango, Mexico, in 1915. Dr. Chafey, who has been studying this species
for several years, has made a number of interesting observations; he states that the large
base, which usually is found 15 to 20 cm. beneath the surface of the ground, when allowed
to grow above the ground develops clusters of spines like those on the normal stems, and
inds that the plant is easily started from cuttings which soon develop the normal, large,
underground part. He further states that the desert turtle eats this plant. It is well known
that the Galapagos turtles feed upon the native opuntias of those islands.
he native name of this plant is sacacil.
he following described Opuntias we have been unable to refer to any of the species
otherwise mentioned in this work:
Opuntia bicolor Philippi, Linnaea 33: 83. 1864.
glaucophylla Wendland, Cat. Hort. Herrenh. 1835.
laevior Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 46. 1845.
longiglochia C. Z. Nelson, Galesburg Register. July 20, 1915.
lucida Hortus, Wiener Illustr. Gartenz. 14: 146. 1889.
prostrata spinosior Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 723. 1898.
spinaurea Karwinsky in Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 46. 1845. As synonym for O. pseudotuna
elongata Salm-Dyck.
tuberculata Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 80. 1819, first described as Cactus tuberculatus (Enum. Hort.
Berol. Suppl. 34. 1813).
he following names of Opuntia are chiely found in catalogues or in lists, or have been
so briely described that we have not been able to identify them, and it does not seem
worth while even to cite the places where they irst occur in literature:
Opuntia alpicola Schumann
americana Forbes
attulica Forbes
barbata K. Brandegee
barbata gracillima K. Brandegee
bernhardinii Hildmann
betancourt Murillo
calacantha
calacantha rubra
carolina Forbes
ciliosa Forbes
consoleana Todaro
consolei Haage and Schmidt
demorenia Forbes
demoriana Förster
deppei Wendland
dichotoma Forbes
eborina Förster
erecta Schumann
festiva Sencke
f icus-indica albispina Haage and Schmidt
flavispina Förster
hevernickii Hildmann
hitchenii Forbes
italica Tenore
joconostle Haage and Schmidt
jussieuii Haage
leucostata Forbes
macrophylla Haage and Schmidt
Opuntia missouriensis elongata Salm-Dyck
erythrostemma Haage and Schmidt
salmonea Haage and Schmidt
montana Sencke
morenoi Schumann
myriacantha Link and Otto. Not Weber
ottonis Salm-Dyck
pachyarthra flava Haage and Schmidt
pachyclada rosea Haage and Schmidt
spaethiana Haage and Schmidt
parote Forbes
piccolomini Hort.
platyclada Haworth
praecox Forbes
protracta Lemaire
elongata Salm-Dyck
pseudococcinellifer Bertoloni
pseudotuna Salm-Dyck
elongata Salm-Dyck
spinosior Salm-Dyck
pulverata Förster
retans Karwinsky
salmii Forbes
schomburgkii Salm-Dyck
speciosa Steudel
spinuliflora Salm-Dyck
spinulosa Salm-Dyck
straminea Sencke
stricta spinulescens Salm-Dyck
subinermis Link
OPUNTIA
215
Opuntia clavata Philippi (Anal. Univ. Chile 41: 722. 1872), O. ottonis G. Don (Hist.
Dichl. Pl. 3: 172. 1834), O. phyllanthus Miller (Gard. Dict. ed. 8. No. 9. 1768), O. salicornioides Sprengel (Pfeifer, Enum. Cact. 141. 1837), and O. spiniflora Philippi (Linnaea 30: 2
211. 1859) are of the tribe Cereeae.
7. GRUSONIA F. Reichenbach in Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 6: 177. 1896.
A low, much branched cactus, the branches terete, jointed, and ribbed; areoles borne on the
tops of the ribs, very spiny, but all except the flowering ones without glochids, subtended by
small deciduous leaves; corolla rotate, yellow; fruit baccate.
his was irst described as a Cereus from specimens collected by Mrs. Anna B. Nickels
in 1895, then as a new genus Grusonia, and lastly as an Opuntia. It clearly is not Cereus,
but when growing might easily be mistaken by its habit for Echinocereus. he leaves, glochids,
lowers, and fruit are those of Opuntia, but its ribbed stem is unlike that of any known
species of that genus.
1. Grusonia bradtiana (Coulter).
Cereus bradtianus Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 406. 1896 (April).
Grusonia cereiformis F. Reichenbach in Schumann, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 6: 177. 1896 (December).
Opuntia bradtiana K. Brandegee, Erythea 5: 121. 1897.
Opuntia cereiformis Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois 897. 1898.
Forming dense, often impenetrable thickets 2 meters high or less, very spiny; stems light
green, 4 to 7 cm. thick, with 8 to 10 low, longitudinal, somewhat tuberculate ribs; areoles 1 to
1.5 cm. apart, 3 to 5 mm. in diameter; leaves linear, fleshy, green, 8 mm. long, early deciduous;
spines 15 to 25, yellowish brown when young, soon becoming white, acicular, terete or slightly
compressed, 1 to 3 cm. long, not sheathed, some of the longer ones reflexed; wool white, turning brown, early disappearing; corolla rotate, opening in bright sunlight, 3 to 4 cm. broad; sepals
ovate, acute, fleshy; petals bright yellow, spatulate, fringed; filaments brownish yellow; stigma-lobes
8, yellow; areoles of the ovary with long, yellow, weak spines, white wool, and yellow glochids;
berry (according to Schumann) ellipsoid, deeply umbilicate; seeds not seen.
Type locality: Plains of Coahuila, Mexico.
Distribution: Coahuila, Mexico.
This species first appeared in print in the catalogue of Johannes Nicolai under the name
of Grusonia cereiformis, but we are informed that there was no description and therefore
it was not technically published. The same name next appears in the Monatsschrift für
Kakteenkunde for 1894. Here Dr. Schumann wrote a long article about the name, especially
condemning the loose manner in vogue of publishing new names without descriptions, but
giving no characters of the plant, and as a matter of fact he did not then know it. Two
months later this name again appears in this same publication, but without description.
Two years later Dr. Schumann records seeing this plant and describes it briefly, although
he does not approve of the name Grusonia. If the name is to be considered published, it
should not date earlier than this (December 1896), although Dalla Torre and Harms accept the date of 1894. In 1898 Weber transferred the name to Opuntia, publishing it as
Opuntia cereiformis; in the meantime Coulter (in 1896) published the name Cereus bradtianus
for the plant and Mrs. Brandegee (in 1897) transferred it to Opuntia, calling it Opuntia
bradtiana.
Illustrations: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 21: 121, as Opuntia bradtiana; Schumann, Gesamtb.
Kakteen f. 101, as Opuntia cereiformis.
Plate xxxiii, igure 4, represents a joint of the plant collected by C. A. Purpus at Cerro
de Cypriano, near Morano, Mexico, in 1910.
APPENDIX.
3 a. Nopalea gaumeri sp. nov.
(See page 37, ante.)
About 3 meters high, much branched; joints small, linear-oblong or oblong-oblanceolate, 6 to
12 cm. long, 2 to 3 cm. broad, rather thin; areoles small, 1 to 2 cm. apart; spines very unequal,
5 to 20 mm. long, acicular, 4 to 12, yellowish when young; flower small, including ovary and
stamens about 4 cm. long; sepals ovate, acute; petals oblong, 12 mm. long; stamens long-exserted;
style longer than the stamens; stigma-lobes 6, greenish; fruit red, darker within, obovoid, 3 cm.
long, its numerous areoles bearing spines and yellow glochids; umbilicus prominent, 1 cm. deep;
seeds about 4 mm. broad, with a very narrow margin and a very thin testa.
Figs. 277 and 278.—Nopalea gaumeri.
× 0.8.
Collected by George F. Gaumer and sons near Sisal, Yucatan, March 1916 (No. 23250,
type); also by Dr. Gaumer from Port Silam, 1895 (No. 647).
Dr. Gaumer’s ield note is as follows: “A coastal cactus, 10 feet high, much branched,
small-jointed and of slight build, not of robust build like the interior species. It blooms from
February to June. he birds are very fond of the fruit and consume it as fast as it ripens.”
Figures 277 and 278 show joints of the type-specimen.
77 a. Opuntia depauperata sp. nov. (See page 101, ante.)
Plant 1 to 2 dm. high, with a flattened, much
branched top; joints dark green, readily detached, terete
or slightly flattened, to 12 cm. long, 2 to 3 cm. thick,
puberulent; spines on young joints 2 or 3, on old joints
sometimes 6 at each areole, reddish to pale brown,
acicular, 1 to 2.5 cm. long, nearly porrect; glochids
tardily developing, conspicuous on old joints, yellow;
ovary with a deep umbilicus.
Collected by Dr. and Mrs. J. N. Rose north of
the station of Zig Zag, along the railroad above Caracas, Venezuela, October 17, 1916 (No. 21751).
his little cactus is very inconspicuous and only
a few specimens were observed. he station is near
the top of the mountains which separate the valley,
in which Caracas lies, from the sea. he region here
is not so dry as it is farther down on the seaward
side of the mountains, but there are several other
species of cacti associated with it.
Figure 279 is from a photograph of type plant
Fig. 279.—Opuntia depauperata.
taken by Mrs. Rose; igure 280 shows a joint.
A plant, apparently of this relationship, was collected by Dr. H. H. Rusby in 1917 on
granite rocks, narrows of Magdalena River, Colombia. he joints, however, are glabrous,
only 2 to 3 cm. long, the young joints have numerous brown spines and the young areoles
produce long white wool.
216
217
APPENDIX
82a. Opuntia pestifer nom. nov.
(See page 103, ante.)
Cactus nanus Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Sp. 6: 68. 1823.
Cereus nanus De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 470. 1828.
Low and nearly prostrate but sometimes 2 dm. high, much branched; the
joints very fragile, glabrous; young joints 2 to 5 cm. long, or when old up to
8 cm. long, nearly terete, 1 to 3 cm. in diameter, or when young flattened and
2 to 3 cm. broad, very spiny; spines 2 to at each areole, acicular, brownish, 1
to 3 cm. long; glochids numerous, yellow; flowers and fruit unknown.
Type locality: Near Sondorello and Guancabamba. In Humboldt’s time
these places were in southern Ecuador, but they are now in northern
Peru.
Distribution: Northern Peru to central Ecuador.
Dr. Rose observed the plant in various places in Ecuador, usually at
an altitude ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 meters. he following collections
were made: at Huigra (No. 22306); at Sibambe (No. 22433); and west of
San Pedro, Province of Loja (No. 23352).
his plant, although widely distributed and very common, has never Fig. 280.—Opuntia depauperata. × 0.5.
been seen by botanists in lower or fruit. he joints, which come loose
easily, are freely distributed by animals. It is so small that, growing half-hidden in the grass,
it is easily overlooked but very annoying when one comes upon it unawares. Humboldt
speaks of its being troublesome to men and dogs.
Fig. 281.—Opuntia pestifer.
× 0.5
Kunth who described it as Cactus nanus referred it with hesitancy to the Section Cereus.
De Candolle transferred it from Cactus to Cereus placing it in a new subgenus Opuntiacei
along with C. moniliformis (which we know now is an Opuntia) and C. serpens. He thought
these might represent a genus between Opuntia and Cereus.
Schumann (Gesamtb. Kakteen 166) considered it an Opuntia but did not formally refer
it to that genus.
his name should not be confused with Opuntia nana (Fl. Damatica 3: 143. 1852)
which is Opuntia opuntia.
Figure 281 is from a photograph taken by George Rose at Sibambe, Ecuador, in 1918;
igure 283 shows the joints of the same plant (Rose, No. 22433.)
218
96 a. Opuntia discolor sp. nov.
THE CACTACEAE.
(See page 109, ante.)
A low plant, forming small dense clumps; joints slender, 4 to 12 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm.
in diameter, turgid, glabrous, dark green with dark purple blotches extending downward from
the under margin of the areoles; spines 1 to 6, acicular, nearly porrect, somewhat variegated but
mostly brown, 3 cm. long or less; glochids tardily developing but conspicuous on old branches,
dark brown; flowers light yellow to orange-yellow, only 3 cm. long including the ovary; filaments
white; style and stigma-lobes nearly white; fruit evidently very small, bright red.
Fig. 282.—Opuntia discolor.
This species is represented by two collections made by Dr. J. A. Shafer in 1917
which slightly differ from each other. They are No. 111, from sandy thickets, Santiago
del Estero, Argentina, February 23 (type), and
No. 95, from gravelly hills near Tapia, Tucuman,
February 9.
Apparently common in dry sandy thickets,
growing best under bushes where it is least disturbed. he joints easily become detached, sticking
readily to any disturbing object.
he species difers from Opuntia retrorsa in its
more nearly terete joints and spreading spines.
Figure 282 is from a photograph of the type
plant; igure 284 represents a joint of the plant
from near Tapia, Tucuman.
101 a. Opuntia guatemalensis sp. nov. (See page113,
ante.)
Fig. 283.—Opuntia
pestifer. × 0. 5.
Fig. 284.—Opuntia discolor.
Low, spreading plant, resembling O. decumbens, but joints glabrous and shining; joints deep
green, sometimes with dark blotches below the areoles; areoles small, filled with brown wool, subtended by small leaves; spines 1 to 3 at the areoles, terete, acicular, shining white with blackish tips
when young, soon gray, mostly deflexed, somewhat spreading; flower-buds reddish; flowers much
smaller than those of O. decumbens; petals lemon-yellow, 2.5 cm. long; stigma-lobes cream-colored.
Collected by Dr. Glover B. Wilcox in 1909 while acting as surgeon on a ship plying
between Guatemala and San Francisco. Living specimens were sent directly to Washington
and lowered there in April 1915.
Figure 285 represents a joint of the type specimen.
219
APPENDIX
102 a. Opuntia pennellii sp. nov. (See page 115, ante.)
Plant low; joints 1 to 1.5 cm. long, obovate, turgid, bright green; spines 1 or 2 at each
areole, nearly porrect, subulate, 3.5 cm. long or less, white with dark tips; glochids not very
conspicuous, yellowish.
Collected near Magangue, coastal plain of Colombia, Department of Bolivar, at about
100 meters altitude, by Francis W. Pennell in 1918.
Figure 286 shows a joint of the type plant.
Here may belong herbarium specimens which we have seen from northern Colombia
but with the material at hand it is impossible to determine them definitely. One of these
was collected by William R. Maxon, April 10, 1906 (No. 3849) at Puerto Colombia. This
plant is described as consisting of 3 to 6 joints, branching at the third or fourth joint,
the joints all being in one place. The flowers are yellow and small, only about 4 cm. long,
including the ovary. Another was collected by H. H. Smith near Bonda in 1898-1899 (No.
2728); this has joints very similar to those of Dr. Pennell’s plant. It is said to be from
2 to 4 feet high.
Fig. 285.—Opuntia guatemalensis.
× 0.33.
Fig. 286.—Opuntia pennellii.
× 0.5.
Fig. 287.—Opuntia caracasana.
× 0.5.
103 a. Opuntia caracasana Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 238. 1850. (See page 116, ante.)
Stems low, bushy, 4 to 12 dm. high; joints oblong, 10 to 12.5, cm. long, turgid, pale green,
“leaves squamiform, minute”; spines 2 to 4, unequal, 2.5 to 4 cm. long or less, pale yellow; flowers and fruit unknown.
Type locality: Near Carácas, Venezuela.
Distribution: Mountains about Caracas, Venezuela.
he type specimens were collected near Caracas by E. Otto, prior to 1849. Dr. Rose
found the plant abundant above Carácas in 1916. It usually grows on exposed hillsides near
the top of the divide which separates Carácas from the coast, and it was especially common along the railroad just below the little station of Zig Zag. Several other cacti are to
be found in this neighborhood, among which are O. elatior and O. depauperata.
Figure 287 shows a joint of the plant collected by Dr. Rose above Caracas in 1916.
104 a. Opuntia aequatorialis sp. nov. (See page 116, ante.)
Bushy, much branched; 1 to 1.5 meters high; the branches spreading or recurved; joints narrowly oblong to obovate, 1.5 to 2 dm. long, 3 to 8 cm. broad, easily becoming detached; spines pale
yellow, at first only 2 to 4 but more in age, subulate, 2.5 to 6 cm. long; flower-buds ovoid, acute,
red; petals few, 8 to 10, orange-red, spatulate; filaments and style red; stigma-lobes cream-colored.
220
THE CACTACEAE.
Collected in thickets on dry hills near Sibambe, Province of Chimborazo, Ecuador, by
J. N. Rose and George Rose, August 29, 1918 (No. 22432).
he locality at which this species is
found is semiarid and a number of other
cacti are associated with it, among which
is the little O. pestifer, described on a
preceding page. O. aequatorialis was not
so common as some of the other species
and was usually found growing up through
open-branched bushes and was in this way
more or less protected.
Figure 288 is from a photograph of the
type plant taken by George Rose; igure
289 shows one of its joints.
116 a. Opuntia lata Small, Journ. N. V. Bot.
Gard. 20: 26. 1919. (See page
126, ante.)
Plant prostrate, often radially branched,
sometimes forming mats nearly a meter in
width, the tip of the branches sometimes
assurgent, with elongate cord-like roots;
joints elliptic to narrowly obovate, often
narrowly so, thick, 4 to 15 cm. long, deep
green, sometimes glaucous, especially when
young; leaves subulate, 6 to 11 mm. long,
green or purple-tinged; areoles scattered, often conspicuous, sometimes very prominent
and densely bristly, the marginal ones, at
least, armed; spines slender, solitary or 2
together, pink, turning red or red-banded,
at maturity gray or nearly white, nearly
Fig. 289.—O. aequatorialis.
× 0.4.
Fig. 288.—Opuntia aequatorialis.
Figs. 290 and 291.—O. lata.
× 0.4.
Figs. 292 and 293.—
Opuntia macateei.
× 0.4.
APPENDIX
221
terete, slightly spirally twisted; flowers usually several on a joint, conspicuous; sepals subulate to
lanceolate, acute; corolla yellow, 7 to 9 cm. wide; petals numerous, the inner ones broadly obovate
to flabellate, erose at the broad minutely mucronate apex; berries clavate, 5 to 6.5 cm. long, red
or reddish purple, many-seeded; seeds about 5 mm. in diameter.
Type locality: Twelve miles west of Gainesville, Florida,
Distribution: Pinelands, northern peninsular Florida.
It was irst observed by Dr. Small near Gainesville, Florida, in 1917, and plants were
taken to Mr. Charles Deering’s cactus garden at Buena Vista, Miami, where it has grown
luxuriantly, lowering and fruiting freely alongside of O. pollardii which it resembles in habit,
but difers from in its long clavate berries and more numerous petals.
Figure 290 shows joints of the plant; igure 291 shows its fruit.
127 a. Opuntia macateei sp. nov. (See page 133, ante.)
Small prostrate plant; joints 2.5 to 6 cm. long, orbicular to obovate, glabrous, dull green,
in age somewhat tuberculate; leaves linear, 10 mm. long or less, green; spines 1 to 3, brownish,
the longer ones up to 2.5 cm. long; flowers, including the ovary, 8 to 10 cm. long, 7 to 8 cm.
broad, yellow with a red center; ovary subcylindric, 5 to 6 cm. long, bearing conspicuous leaves,
sometimes 12 mm. long.
Difers from related species by its small joints and slender, elongated, leafy ovaries. Collected by W. L. MacAtee at Rockport, Texas, December 28, 1910 (No. 1992).
Figures 292 and 293 represent the joints and lower of the plant.
159 a. Opuntia soederstromiana sp. nov.
(See page 154, ante.)
Sometimes spreading and bushy,
but usually erect, 6 to 10 dm. high, very
spiny; joints obovate, 2 to 4 dm. long,
bright green when young, or sometimes
slightly glaucous, grayish green in age;
leaves subulate, small, reddish at top;
spines at first 2 to 5, but in age 10
or more, when young reddish or pinkish at base and paler above, soon gray
throughout, unequal, subulate, 4 cm.
long or less; flowers at first yellow
but soon orange to brick-red, rather
large, 5 to 6 cm. long; petals few, about
10, oblong, retuse; filaments and style
reddish; stigma-lobes pale green; f ruit
obovate to oblong, 4 to 5 cm. long, usually spiny, red, juicy, with a depressed
umbilicus.
Collected at San Antonio, Province of Quito, Ecuador, by J. N. Rose
and George Rose, October 29, 1918
(No. 23559).
This plant was first collected for
us by Ludovic Söderstrom of Quito,
at the request of the President of
the Central and South American
Fig. 294.—Opuntia soederstromiana.
Cable Company. Although great
care was taken in shipping the plants they all died in transit. In 1918 Dr. Rose visited Mr. Söderstrom’s locality and collected herbarium, living, and formalin material
which has enabled us to describe the plant fully. The illustration here used was made
at the same time.
Figure 294 is from a photograph of the type plant taken by George Rose.
222
THE CACTACEAE.
161 a. Opuntia zebrina Small, Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 20: 35.
1919.
(See page 155, ante.)
Plant erect, more or less branched throughout, fully 1 meter tall or less, the roots fibrous;
joints oval or obovate, thickish, mostly 1 to 2 dm. long, deep green, sometimes obscurely glaucous;
leaves ovoid, 2 to 3 mm. long, bright green; areoles scattered, some of them, usually the lower
ones, unarmed, the upper ones irregularly armed; spines slender, solitary or 2, 3, or 4, together,
red-brown, finely banded, nearly terete, closely spirally twisted; flowers few on a joint, or solitary; sepals deltoid to deltoid-reniform or nearly reniform; corolla yellow, rotate, 6 to 7 cm. wide;
petals rather numerous, the inner ones broadly obovate, undulate, minutely mucronate or notched
at the apex; berries obovoid, not constricted at the base, 3.5 to 4.5 cm. long, red-purple; seeds
many, 6 to 7 mm. in diameter.
Fig. 295.—Opuntia zebrina.
Type locality: Middle Cape Sable, Florida.
Distribution: Coastal sand-dunes, Cape Sable, Florida, and the lower
Florida Keys.
he plant was irst discovered by Dr. Britton on Boot Key, Florida, in
1909, and this is the most northern locality yet known for it. he species is
interesting not only from its strikingly banded spines but also as being the
only known member of the series Elatiores growing wild within the United
States. In habit it resembles O. dillenii, and on Key West the two species
Fig. 296.—Fruit of
were observed growing close together.
O. zebrina. × 0.5.
Illustration: Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 226.
Figure 295 is from a photograph of the plant on Cape Sable, Florida, in cultivation at
Buena Vista, Miami, Florida; igure 296 shows a fruit collected by Dr. Rose on Key West,
Florida, in 1918.
173 a. Opuntia keyensis Britton in Small, Journ. N. V. Bot. Gard. 20: 31. 1919. (See p. 162, ante.)
Plant erect, much branched, sometimes forming clumps 3 meters tall, with long fibrous roots;
joints elliptic, oval, obovate, or spatulate, thick, 1 to 3 dm. long, bright green; leaves ovoid, 2 to
3 mm. long, green; areoles rather conspicuous, often relatively large and prominent, apparently
unarmed; spines stout, 4 to 13 together, very short, mostly hidden in the bristles; at first pink,
at maturity salmon-colored, slightly flattened; flowers solitary or 2 or 3 on a joint; sepals deltoid
to subreniform, acute or acutish; corolla salmon-colored, cup-like, or short-campanulate, 3 to 3.5
cm. wide; petals rather few, thinner ones broadly obovate or orbicular-obovate, undulate, scarcely,
if at all, mucronate; berries obovoid, 4 to 6 cm. long, purple; seeds numerous.
223
APPENDIX
Fig. 297.—Opuntia keyensis.
Type locality: Boot Key, Florida.
Distribution: Hammocks, Florida Keys and Cape
Sable.
Opuntia keyensis was irst collected by Dr. Britton in
1909 On Boot Key, Florida. Plants brought subsequently
by Dr. Small from the Keys to Buena Vista, Miami, and
there observed by him under cultivation show the species
to be distinct from either O. dillenii or O. stricta, with
both of which it has been associated.
Illustration: Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 20: pl. 225.
Figure 297 is from a photograph of the plant in
cultivation at Buena Vista, Miami, Florida; igures 298
and 299 show its lowers, collected by Dr. Small on Key
Largo, Florida, in 1909. See also plate xxx, igure 1.
183 a. Opuntia bonplandii (HBK.) Weber, Dict. Hort. Bois
894. 1898. (See page 168, ante.)
Figs. 298 and 299.—Flower of Opuntia
keyensis. × 0.5.
Cactus bonplandii Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Sp. 6: 69. 1823.
Plants tall, 2 to 4 meters high, open-branching; joints ovate to obovate, 2 to 3 dm. long, dull
green; spines at irst 2 to 7, pale yellow, acicular, 1 to 1.5 cm. long but soon falling of; lowers orangecolored, about 6 cm. long and nearly as broad when fully expanded; petals obtuse; stamens short.
Type locality: Cuenca, Ecuador.
Distribution: Ecuador.
This species was collected by Humboldt and Bonpland at Cuenca, Ecuador, and was
first described as Cactus (Opuntia) bonplandii. Apparently the type was not preserved
224
THE CACTACEAE.
as Dr. Rose did not find it either at Berlin or Paris in 1912. Schumann mentions it
only in a note under O. quitensis following Weber who associates the two. Dr. Rose,
while in Ecuador in 1918, spent about a week at Cuenca collecting plants in all directions f rom the town. The only Opuntia in this whole region is the one above described
which grows in hedges and along the roadsides. It may be an introduced species which
has escaped f rom gardens but we know nothing in cultivation just like it. It resembles
Fig. 300.—Opuntia bonplandii.
× 0.5.
somewhat the Nopal de Castilla, so common in Mexico and the southwestern states
Humboldt compared it with the tuna de Espana which may be the same. Bonpland
seems to have called his plant Cactus coccinellifer which it very much resembles in the
shape of the joints and in being spineless in age. If we are right in our interpretation
of this species it has no close alliance with O. quitensis which Dr. Rose collected also;
it has very small flowers with erect petals which are not readily affected by the sun
as are those of O. bonplandii and most of the other species.
Fig. 301.—Opuntia dobbieana.
APPENDIX
225
Figure 300 shows a joint collected by Dr. Rose at Cuenca, Ecuador, in 1918.
207 a. Opuntia dobbieana sp. nov.
(See page 187, ante.)
Usually low and bushy, forming dense thickets, but sometimes tall and then 3 to 4 meters high;
joints orbicular to short-oblong or obovate, 1 to 2.5 dm. long, pale green in color, very spiny; leaves
minute, 1 to 2 mm. long, green, spreading; areoles small, closely set; spines white, 5 to 12, usually
acicular but on old joints subulate, 1 to 3 dm. long, accompanied by 2 to 4 relexed hairs from the
lower side of the areole; lower, including ovary, 5 to 6 cm. long; petals chocolate-colored, oblong,
2 cm. long; ilaments and style pinkish; stigma-lobes dull green; ovary strongly tubercled, leafy, very
spiny, especially towards the top; fruit juicy, red, at irst spiny, 3 to 5 cm. long.
Common in dry places from Huigra to Sibambe, Province of Chimborazo, Ecuador.
Collected by J. N. Rose and George Rose, August to November 1918, at Huigra (No.
22201, type); at Sibambe, August 29 (No. 22434).
his species, on account of its white spines, is referred to the Streptacanthae, although it
usually is more bushy than these species generally are. So far as we could learn, the fruit is
not used by the Ecuadoreans; the plant was never seen cultivated, and there is every reason
to believe it is native to Ecuador.
he species is named for John Dobbie, general manager of the Guayaquil and Quito
Railway, whose courtesies and assistance added greatly to the success of Dr. Rose’s visit to
Ecuador in 1918.
Figures 301 and 302 (the latter at the bottom of this page) are from photographs of
the type plant, taken by George Rose.
INDEX.
(Pages of principal entries in heavy-face type.)
Cactus—continued.
Aaron’s beard, 175
moniliformis, 206, 207
Agave, 117
nanus, 217
Ahoplocarpus, 11
nigricans, 153
Airampo, 161
opuntia, 43, 115, 127, 128, 129, 163, 177
Alfilerillo, 26
opuntia inermis, 161, 162
Ammophilae, 45, 211
opuntia nana, 127, 128
Apple, 9
opuntia polyanthos, 115
Aurantiacae, 45, 74, 106
opuntia tuna, 157
Ayrampo, 135
opuntiaeflorus, 27
Barbados gooseberry, 10
ottonis, 121
Basilares, 45, 118, 193
ovoides, 95
Beaucarnea, 117
paradoxus, 209
Beaver-tail, 120
pentlandii, 98
Bigelovianae, 44, 58
pereskia, 9, 10, 11
Blade apple, 10
polyanthos, 113, 115
Brasilienses, 45, 209
portulacifolius, 23
Brasiliopuntia, 209
pseudococcinellifer, 153
Bullsucker, 43, 116
pusillus, 105
Cactaceae, 3, 8
rosa, 19, 20
Cactales, 8
rotundifolia, 27
Cacti, 5, 6, 7, 9, 28, 33, 39, 42, 49, 66, 67, 80, 87, 94, 95,
salmianus, 74
111, 126, 137, 151, 216, 219, 220
sericeus, 134
Cactodendron, 42, 43
spinosissimus, 204
Cactus, 5, 6, 8, 9, 23, 30, 32, 34, 35, 43, 49, 87, 88, 93,
strictus, 161
107, 113, 114, 116, 120, 121, 146, 164, 177, 186,
subinermis, 34
207, 210, 215, 216, 217, 221
subquadrifolius, 65
Cactus, arboreus, 209, 210
sulphureus, 134
aurantiacus, 107
tomentosus, 173
bleo, 17, 63
triacanthos, 112
bonplandii, 223
tuberculatus, 214
bradypus, 121
tuna, 113, 114, 163
brasiliensis, 209
tuna elatior, 153
californicus, 58
tuna nigricans, 153
chinensis, 156, 157
tunicatus, 65
coccinellifer, 179, 224
urumbeba, 156, 157
cochenillifer, 34, 35, 173
urumbella, 157
compressus, 127
zinniaeflora, 21
corrugatus, 95
Camuessa, 191
curassavicus, 102
Cane cactus, 43
cylindricus, 63, 77
Cephalocereus, 116
decumanus, 180
Cereeae, 8, 24, 215
dillenii, 162, 163
Cereus, 8, 75, 151, 215,217
eburneus, 95
articulatus, 89
elatior, 153
bradtianus, 215
elongatus, 179
californicus, 58
ferox, 199, 200, 206
chiloensis, 79
ficus-indica, 177
fimbriatus, 13
clavarioides, 73
foliosus, 105
cylindricus, 77
f ragilis, 193
imbricatus, 63
f rutescens, 27
moniliformis, 206, 217
heterocladus, 210
nanus, 217
horridus, 21
ovatus, 91
humifusus, 127
paradoxus, 209
humilis, 113
sericeus, 73
indicus, 156
serpens, 217
lanceolatus, 179
syringacanthus, 89
linkii, 121
tunicatus, 66
lucidus, 10
Chaetophorae, 174
mammillaris, 4
Chaffeyanae, 45, 213
microdasys, 120, 121
Cholla, 43, 61
monocanthos, 156
Clavarioides, 44, 72
227
228
THE CACTACEAE.
Clavatae, 44, 79, 84
Cola de diablo, 26
Consolea, 42, 43, 202
catacantha, 208
ferox, 206
leucacantha, 175
rubescens, 43, 208
spinosissima, 204
Corotilla, 96
Cow’s tongue, 164
Criniferae, 140, 176
Cruciformes, 208
Cuija, 149
Curassavicae, 45, 102, 104, 106, 193
Cylindropuntia, 32, 44, 45, 46, 71, 75, 79, 84, 100, 142
Dildoes, 105
Dillenianae, 45, 159, 169
Durasnilla, 175
Echinocactus, 117
Echinocarpae, 44, 56
Echinocereus, 79, 215
Elatae, 45, 152, 156
Elatiores, 45, 149, 152, 155, 156, 222
Epiphyllum, 9
gaillardae, 6
Erythrina, 181
Espina, 76
Espina blanca, 41
Espinha de São Antonio, 19
Etuberculatae, 72, 73
Eupereskia, 10
Ficindica, 42, 43
Ficus-indicae, 45, 156, 166, 177, 191
Floccosae, 44, 86
Flor de Cêra, 19
Frutescentes, 73
Fulgidae, 44, 67
Fulvispinosae, 148
Glomeratae, 44, 87
Grandifoliae, 9, 11
Grizzly bear cactus, 196
Grusonia, 24, 215
Grusonia bradtiana, 215
cereiformis, 215
Guamacho, 17
Harrisia, 24
Hibiscus, 19
Hibiscus esculentus, 19
Hylocereus, 24
Imbricatae, 44, 60
Inamoenae, 45, 125
Inarmatae, 208
Iniabanto, 19
Lemaireocereus, 116
Lemon vine, 10
Lengua de vaca, 164
Leon, 96
Leoncito, 96
Leptocaules, 44, 46, 49
Leucotrichae, 45, 174
Loranthus aphyllus, 79
Macdougalianae, 45, 169
Maihuen, 40
Maihuenia, 8, 24, 40-42, 43, 95
brachydelphys, 41, 42
patagonica, 41
philippii, 41
poeppigii, 41, 42
Maihuenia—continued.
tehuelches, 41, 42
valentinii, 40, 41, 42
Malus, 9
Mammillaria, 4
Matéare, 13
Miquelianae, 44, 78
Mission cactus, 186
Najú de Culebra, 19
Nopal, 34
Nopal cardón, 184
Nopal de Castilla, 224
Nopalea, 8, 24, 33-39, 43, 155, 216
auberi, 34, 37, 38, 39
cochenillifera, 34, 181
dejecta, 34, 36, 37
gaumeri, 34, 37, 216
guatemalensis, 33, 34, 35
inaperta, 33, 34, 37, 38
karwinskiana, 34, 37, 38, 39
lutea, 33, 34, 35
moniliformis, 33, 206
Nopaleta, 26
Nopalnochetzli, 35
Ohulago, 103
Olago, 103
Opuntia, 8, 14, 24, 25, 30, 32, 33, 34, 38, 39, 40, 42-215,
217-224
acanthocarpa, 56, 57
aciculata, 160, 165
acracantha, 91
aequatorialis, 110, 116, 219, 220
affinis, 169, 170
airampo, 161
albicans, 191
albicans laevior, 191
albiflora, 73, 74
albisetosa, 134
alcahes, 58, 67, 69, 70
alfagayucca, 185
alfayucca, 185
allairei, 126
alpicola, 214
alpina, 33
alta, 165, 166
americana, 214
ammophila, 211
amyclaea, 112, 177, 181, 185
amyclaea ficus-indica, 177
anacantha, 107, 109, 110
anahuacensis, 169
andicola, 89, 90
andicola elongata, 89
andicola fulvispina, 89
andicola major, 89
andicola minor, 90
angusta, 101
angustata, 124, 129, 140, 142, 149
angustata comonduensis, 124
antillana, 110, 115, 163
aoracantha, 90, 91
aquosa, 29
arborea, 209
arborescens, 43, 63, 64, 65
arborescens versicolor, 62
arbuscula, 47, 50, 51
arechavaletai, 156, 158
arenaria, 193, 194, 195
INDEX
Opuntia—continued.
argentina, 209, 211, 212
arizonica, 147, 148
arkansana, 128
articulata, 89
assumptionis, 159
atacamensis, 90, 94
atrispina, 140, 142
atropes, 169, 170
attulica, 214
auberi, 37
aulacothele, 95
aurantiaca, 101, 107
aurantiaca extensa, 107
australis, 87, 88
austrina, 45, 126, 130
azurea, 140, 143
bahamana, 202, 203, 204
bahiensis, 209, 210, 211
balearica, 161
ballii, 137
barbata, 214
barbata gracillima, 214
bartramii, 181
basilaris, 118, 119, 120, 136
basilaris albiflora, 120
basilaris coerulea, 120
basilaris cordata, 120
basilaris cristata, 120
basilaris nana, 120
basilaris nevadensis, 120
basilaris pfersdorffii, 120
basilaris ramosa, 119, 120
basilaris treleasei, 119
beckeriana, 168
bella, 110, 111, 112
bentonii, 161, 163
bergeriana, 149, 152, 169
bernardina, 57, 81
bernardina cristata, 57
bernhardinii, 214
betancourt, 214
bicolor, 214
bigelovii, 58, 59
blakeana, 144, 145
boldinghii, 149, 155
boliviana, 71, 97, 98
bonaerensis, 156, 158
bonplandii, 160, 168, 223,224
borinquensis, 102, 103, 104
brachyarthra, 193, 194
brachyclada, 120
brachydelphis, 42
bradtiana, 215
brandegeei, 25, 28
brasiliensis, 209, 210, 211
brasiliensis minor, 210
brasiliensis schomburgkii, 210
brasiliensis spinosior, 210
brasiliensis tenuifolia, 210
brasiliensis tenuior, 210
brunnescens, 149, 150
bulbispina, 79, 83
bulbosa, 131
burrageana, 67, 70
cacanapa, 165, 166
caerulescens, 51
caesia, 144
Opuntia—continued.
caespitosa, 127
calacantha, 214
calacantha rubra, 214
calantha, 136
californica, 58
calmalliana, 60, 61
calva, 89
camanchica, 144, 145
cananchica albispina, 144
camanchica luteo-staminea, 144
camanchica orbicularis, 144
camanchica rubra, 144
camanchica salmonea, 144
campestris, 90, 99
camuessa, 191
cañada, 160, 167, 168
candelabriformis, 182
candelabriformis rigidior, 182
canina, 107, 108
cantabrigiensis, 121, 160, 167
canterai, 159
caracasana, 110, 116, 219
cardenche, 64
cardiosperma, 156, 157, 158
cardona, 184
caribaea, 47, 48, 49
carolina, 214
carrizalensis, 79
castillae, 185, 186
catacantha, 43, 208
cereiformis, 79, 215
cervicornis, 194
chaetocarpa, 182
chaffeyi, 30, 212, 213
chakensis, 158
chapistle, 27
chavena, 184
chihuahuensis, 144, 145
chlorotica, 142, 159, 160, 161
chlorotica santa-rita, 142
cholla, 60, 61, 62
chrysacantha, 167
ciliosa, 214
ciribe, 58, 59, 60
clavarioides, 72, 73
clavarioides cristata, 73
clavarioides fasciata, 73
clavarioides fastigiata, 73
clavarioides monstruosa, 73
clavata, 79, 81, 215
clavellina, 52, 54
coccifera, 35
coccinea, 114
cochenillifera, 33, 34,35
cochinelifera, 34
cochinera, 192
coerulea, 134
coindettii, 184
columbiana, 193
comonduensis, 118, 124
confusa, 147
congesta, 50
consoleana, 214
consolei, 214
convexa, 165
cordobensis, 181, 189
cornigata, 95
229
230
Opuntia—continued.
corotilla, 96
corrugata, 90, 95
corrugata monvillei, 95
costigera, 65
covillei, 140, 145, 146
crassa, 178, 179
crassa major, 178
cretochaeta, 183
crinifera, 159, 176
crinifera lanigera, 176
cristata, 64
cristata tenuior, 64
cruciata, 207
crystalenia, 193
cubensis, 163
cucumiformis, 97
cuija, 149, 167
cumingii, 77
curassavica, 102, 103, 112
curassavica elongata, 102
curassavica longa, 102
curassavica major, 102
curassavica media, 102
curassavica minima, 102
curassavica minor, 102
curassavica taylori, 103
curvospina, 160
cyanella, 165, 166
cyclodes, 147, 148
cycloidea, 128
cylindrica, 71, 75, 77
cylindrica cristata, 78
cylindrica cristata minor, 78
cylindrica monstruosa, 78
cylindrica robustior, 78
cymochila, 131, 132
dactylifera, 97, 98
darrahiana, 102, 106
darwinii, 88, 90, 93, 94, 97
davisii, 52, 54, 55
deamii, 181, 187
decipiens, 63, 65
decipiens major, 64
decipiens minor, 65
decumana, 157, 180, 181, 186
decumbens, 111, 116, 117, 121, 218
decumbens irrorata, 117
decumbens longispina, 117
deflexa, 157
dejecta, 37
delaetiana, 149, 152
delicata, 126, 132, 133
deltica, 165
demissa, 146, 147
demorenia, 214
demoriana, 214
depauperata, 100, 101, 216, 217, 219
deppei, 214
depressa, 111, 117, 118
deserta, 57, 58
diademata, 89, 90
diademata calva, 89
diademata inermis, 89
diademata oligacantha, 89
diademata polyacantha, 89
dichotoma, 214
diffusa, 37
THE CACTACEAE.
Opuntia—continued.
digitalis, 72
diguetii, 26, 29
dillei, 147, 148
dillenii, 106, 114, 115, 116, 159, 162, 163, 181, 222, 223
dillenii minor, 163
dillenii orbiculata, 163
dimorpha, 96
diplacantha, 184
discata, 140, 149
discolor, 107, 109, 218, 219
distans, 149, 155
dobbieana, 181, 187, 224, 225
dolabriformis, 207
drummondii, 102, 104, 106
dulcis, 165, 166
durangensis, 169
eborina, 214
eburnea, 95
echinocarpa, 56, 57, 81
echinocarpa major, 57
echinocarpa nuda, 57, 58
echinocarpa parkeri, 57, 8
echinocarpa robustior, 57
eichlamii, 181, 187, 188
elata, 110, 156, 157
elata delaetiana, 152
elatior, 149, 153, 219
elatior deflexa, 157
ellemeetiana, 75
ellisiana, 166
elongata, 179, 181
elongata laevior, 180
emoryi, 80
engelmannii, 140, 147, 148, 149, 164, 165, 167
engelmannii cuija, 167
engelmannii cyclodes, 147, 148
engelmannii dulcis, 165
engelmannii littoralis, 165
engelmannii monstrosa, 148
engelmannii occidentalis, 146
eocarpa, 144
erecta, 214
erinacea, 193, 195, 196
erythrocentron, 174
exaltata, 71, 75, 76, 77
expansa, 147, 148
extensa, 107
exuviata, 63, 65
exuviata angustior, 63
exuviata major, 64
exuviata spinosior, 63
exuviata stellata, 63
exuviata viridior, 63
ferox, 206, 207
ferruginispina, 165
festiva, 214
ficus-barbica, 177
ficus-indica, 43, 156, 157, 177, 178, 18 1, 18, 189, 191
ficus-indica albispina, 214
ficus-indica amyclaea, 185
ficus-indica decumana, 180
ficus-indica gymnocarpa, 180
filipendula, 137, 138
flavicans, 191
flavispina, 214
flexibilis, 114
flexospina, 165
INDEX
Opuntia—continued.
floccosa, 71, 86, 87
floccosa denudata, 86, 87
floribunda, 74
foliosa, 105, 106
formidabilis, 91, 92
f ragilis, 193, 194
f ragilis brachyarthra, 193
f ragilis caespitosa, 193
f ragilis f rutescens, 47
f ragilis tuberiformis, 193,
f rustulenta, 104, 105
f rutescens, 47, 48
f rutescens brevispina, 47, 48
f rutescens longispina, 47, 48
fulgida, 67
fulgida mamillata, 67
fuliginosa, 149, 155
fulvispina, 174
fulvispina badia, 175
fulvispina laevior, 175
furiosa, 66
fuscoatra, 126, 133
fusicaulis, 191, 192
fusiformis, 130, 131
galapageia, 45, 149, 150, 151, 152
galeottii, 65
geissei, 78
gilliesii, 91
gilva, 163
gilvescens, 149
gilvoalba, 165, 166
glaberrima, 178
glauca, 178
glaucescens, 200, 201
glaucophylla, 214
glaucophylla laevior, 214
glomerata, 87, 89, 90, 94, 96
glomerata albispina, 90
glomerata flavispina, 90
glomerata minor, 90
golziana, 26
gomei, 165, 166
gorda, 191, 192
gosseliniana, 140, 141, 151
gracilis, 47
gracilis subpatens, 48
grahamii, 79, 83, 84
grandiflora, 126, 127, 129
grandis, 200, 201
grata, 92, 94, 95
greenei, 131
gregoriana, 147, 148
griffithsiana, 165
grosseiana, 107, 110
guanicana, 208
guatemalensis, 110, 113, 218, 219
guerrana, 191, 192
guilanchi, 173, 174
gymnocarpa, 180
haematocarpa, 166
haitiensis, 206
hanburyana, 149, 153, 154
hattoniana, 103
helleri, 150, 152
hempeliana, 86, 87
hernandezii, 181
heteromorpha, 79
Opuntia—continued.
hevernickii, 214
hickenii, 90, 92, 93
hieronymi, 211
hitchenii, 214
hochderfferi, 198
horizontalis, 37, 90
horrida, 162
humifusa, 127, 128, 132
humifusa cymochila, 128
humifusa greenei, 128
humifusa macrorhiza, 128
humifusa microsperma, 127
humifusa oplocarpa, 128
humifusa parva, 127
humifusa stenochila, 128
humifusa vaseyi, 146
humilis, 113, 114
humistrata, 120
hypsophila, 71, 72
hyptiacantha, 176, 181, 183, 184
hystricina, 193, 197
hystrix, 65, 66
icterica, 173
ignescens, 90, 98
ignota, 90, 99
imbricata, 48, 55, 60, 63, 64, 65, 66
imbricata crassior, 63
imbricata ramosior, 64
imbricata tenuior, 64
inaequalis, 128
inaequilateralis, 181, 187, 188, 189
inamoena, 121, 125
incarnadilla, 185, 186
inermis, 161, 162, 163
insularis, 150, 152
intermedia, 127, 128
intermedia prostrata, 128
intricata, 119
invicta, 79
involuta, 87
irrorata, 116, 117
italica, 214
ithypetala, 190
jamaicensis, 110, 113
joconostle, 214
juniperina, 193, 197
jussieuii, 214
karwinskiana, 38
keyensis, 159, 162, 163, 222, 223
kiska-loro, 107, 108
kleiniae, 47, 51, 64, 65
kleiniae cristata, 51
kleiniae laetevirens, 51
kunzei, 80
labouretiana, 180, 189
labouretiana macrocarpa, 181
laevis, 159, 161, 168
lagopus, 86, 87, 88
lanceolata, 177, 179, 203
lanigera, 176
larreyi, 191
lasiacantha, 181, 182, 183, 184
lata, 126, 220
laxiflora, 165
ledienii, 153
lemaireana, 156
leonina, 96
231
232
THE CACTACEAE.
Opuntia—continued.
leptarthra, 101
leptocarpa, 166, 167
leptocaulis, 47, 48, 49, 73, 213
leptocaulis brevispina, 47
leptocaulis laetevirens, 48
leptocaulis longispina, 47
leptocaulis major, 48
leptocaulis stipata, 47
leptocaulis vaginata, 47
leucacantha, 174, 175
leucacantha laevior, 175
leucacantha subferox, 175
leucantha, 175
leucophaea, 96
leucostata, 214
leucosticta, 174
leucotricha, 151, 174, 175
leucotricha fulvispina, 174
ligustica, 128
lindheimeri, 44, 148, 160, 164, 165, 166
lindheimeri cyclodes, 147
lindheimeri dulcis, 165
lindheimeri littoralis, 165
lindheimeri occidentalis, 146
linguiformis, 160, 163
littoralis, 147, 160, 164, 165
lloydii, 60, 63
longiclada, 161
longiglochia, 214
longispina, 95
lubrica, 118, 119
lucayana, 106, 163
lucens, 149
lucida, 214
lurida, 173
macateei, 126, 133, 220, 221
macdougaliana, 169, 170, 171
mackensenii, 137, 138, 139
macracantha, 187, 202, 203, 204, 205
macrarthra, 126, 129
macrocalyx, 118, 122
macrocentra, 140, 141, 176
macrophylla, 214
macrorhiza, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 139, 166
maculacantha, 134
maelenii, 134
magenta, 142, 146
magna, 64
magnarenensis, 147
magnifolia, 34
maihuen, 41
maldonadensis, 75
mamillata, 67, 68
maritima, 162
maxillare, 77
maxima, 177, 180, 181
media, 199, 200
mediterranea, 128
megacantha, 178, 181, 182, 185, 186
megacantha lasiacantha, 182
megacantha tenuispina, 184
megacantha trichacantha, 186
megacarpa, 145
megalantha, 169
megalarthra, 192
megarhiza, 137
mendocienses, 65
Opuntia—continued.
mesacantha, 127, 132
mesacantha cymochila, 131
mesacantha grandiflora, 129
mesacantha greenei, 131
mesacantha macrorhiza, 130
mesacantha microsperma, 127
mesacantha oplocarpa, 131, 144
mesacantha parva, 127, 128
mesacantha sphaerocarpa, 144
mesacantha stenochila, 132
mesacantha vaseyi, 146
metternichii, 176
mexicana, 34
micrarthra, 171
microcarpa, 144, 206
microdasys, 118, 120, 121, 122, 123, 136
microdasys laevior, 120
microdasys minor, 120
microdasys rufida, 122
microdisca, 133, 135, 136
microthele, 73
mieckleyi, 156, 158
militaris, 102, 104, 163
millspaughii, 202, 204, 206
minima americana, 102
minor, 139
minor caulescens, 102
miquelii, 78
missouriensis, 199, 200
missouriensis albispina, 199, 200
missouriensis elongata, 214
missouriensis erythrostemma, 214
missouriensis microsperma, 199, 200
missouriensis platycarpa, 199, 200
missouriensis rufispina, 199, 200
missouriensis salmonea, 214
missouriensis subinermis, 199
missouriensis trichophora, 195
modesta, 67
mojavensis, 140, 145
molesta, 54, 60, 62, 66, 67
monacantha, 127, 1563 157
monacantha deflexa, 156
monacantha gracilior, 156, 157
monacantha variegata, 157
moniliformis, 33, 202, 206, 207, 208
montana, 214
montevidensis, 107, 109
monticola, 95
morenoi, 214
morisii, 128
mortolensis, 47
multiflora, 113, 114
myriacantha, 150, 152, 214
nana, 127, 217
nashii, 106, 163, 202, 203
nelsonii, 172
nemoralis, 102, 104
neoarbuscula, 50
nigricans, 152, 153
nigrispina, 90, 97
nigrita, 183, 184
nopalilla, 38
oblongata, 173
occidentalis, 140, 146, 147, 153, 163, 165
oligacantha, 89, 182
oplocarpa, 132
INDEX
Opuntia—continued.
opuntia, 43, 126, 127, 128, 217
orbiculata, 176
orbiculata metternichii, 176
ottonis, 214, 215
ovallei, 95, 214
ovata, 90, 95, 96
ovoides, 95
pachona, 184
pachyarthra flava, 214
pachyclada rosea, 214
pachyclada spaethiana, 214
pachypus, 75, 77
pallida, 60, 65, 66
palmadora, 202
palmeri, 161
pampeana, 134
papyracantha, 89, 90
paraguayensis, 158
parishii, 57, 79, 81, 82
parkeri, 58
parmentieri, 95
parote, 214
parryi, 56, 57, 58, 81
parva, 161
parvispina, 117
parvula, 178
pascoensis, 100, 101
patagonica, 41
pelaguensis, 90
penicilligera, 135
pennellii, 110, 115, 219
pentlandii, 71, 72, 77, 90, 97, 98
perrita, 65, 66
pes-corvi, 104
pestifer, 102, 103, 217, 218, 220
phaeacantha, 139, 140, 142, 144
phaeacantha brunnea, 144
phaeacantha major, 144
phaeacantha nigricans, 144
philippii, 41
phyllacantha, 96
phyllanthus, 215
piccolomini, 214
piccolominiana, 191
pilifera, 176, 177, 184
pintadera, 176
pititache, 29
pittieri, 181, 188, 189
platyacantha, 33, 89
platyacantha deflexispina, 89, 90
platyacantha gracilior, 89
platyacantha monvillei, 89
platyclada, 214
platynoda, 109
plumbea, 126, 131
plumosa nivea, 89, 90
poeppigii, 40, 41
pollardii, 126, 221
polyacantha, 193, 195, 196, 197, 199,200
polyacantha albispina, 199
polyacantha borealis, 199
polyacantha microsperma, 200
polyacantha rufispina, 200
polyacantha trichophora, 195
polyacantha platycarpa, 199
polyacantha watsonii, 199
polyantha, 113, 114, 115
Opuntia—continued.
polymorpha, 89
porteri, 28
pottsii, 137, 138
praecox, 214
prate, 191
procumbens, 160, 167
prolifera, 61, 67, 69, 70
prostrata, 128
prostrata spinosior, 214
protracta, 214
protracta elongata, 214
pruinosa, 191
pseudococcinellifer, 153
pseudotuna, 184, 214
pseudotuna elongata, 214
pseudotuna spinosior, 214
puberula, 116, 117, 121, 122
pubescens, 100, 101, 173
pulchella, 79, 82
pulverata, 214
pulverulenta, 78
pulverulenta miquelii, 78
pulvinata, 120
pumila, 100, 101
purpurea, 97
pusilla, 102, 105, 106
pycnantha, 118, 123
pycnantha margaritana, 123
pyriformis, 160, 168
pyrocarpa, 166
pyrrhacantha, 97
quimilo, 181, 190, 191
quipa, 125
quitensis, 149, 154, 224
rafinesquei, 127, 128, 129
rafinesquei arkansana, 127, 129
rafinesquei cymochila, 131
rafinesquei cymochila montana, 131
rafinesquei fusiformis, 130
rafinesquei grandiflora, 129
rafinesquei greenei, 132
rafinesquei macrorhiza, 131
rafinesquei microsperma, 127, 199
rafinesquei minor, 127, 128
rafinesquei parva, 128
rafinesquei stenochila, 132
rafinesquei vaseyi, 146
rafinesquiana, 127, 129
rafinesquiana arkansana, 129
rahmeri, 94
ramosissima, 46, 48, 52
ramulifera, 47
rastrera, 140, 149
rauppiana, 90, 92
recedens, 128
recondita, 52, 53
recurvospina, 144
reflexa, 165
repens, 102, 103, 104, 115, 116
reptans, 214
retrorsa, 107, 109, 218
retrospinosa, 95
rhodantha, 193, 197, 198
rhodantha brevispina, 198
rhodantha flavispina, 198
rhodantha pisciformis, 198
rhodantha schumanniana, 198
233
234
Opuntia—continued.
riparia, 149
robusta, 182, 191, 192
robusta viridior, 191
rosea, 17, 63, 65, 78
roseana, 130
rosiflora, 78
rotundifolia, 27
roxburghiana, 156
rubescens, 163, 202, 208, 209
rubiflora, 133, 146
rubrifolia, 144
rufescens, 175
rufida, 118, 119, 122
rugosa, 145
russellii, 90, 94
ruthei, 64
rutila, 196
sabinii, 194
sacharosa, 14
salicornioides, 215
salmiana, 73, 74
salmii, 214
sanguinocula, 131
santa-rita, 140, 142
scheeri, 159, 176
schickendantzii, 74, 107
schomburgkii, 214
schottii, 79, 80, 81
schottii greggii, 80
schumannii, 90, 149, 155
schweriniana, 199, 200
segethii, 75, 76, 79
seguina, 130
semispinosa, 147
senilis, 86, 159, 176
sericea, 134
sericea coerulea, 134
sericea longispina, 134
sericea maelenii, 134
serpentina, 56, 57, 58, 69, 81
setispina, 45, 137, 138
shaferi, 71, 72
shreveana, 142
sinclairii, 165, 166
skottsbergii, 90, 96, 97
soederstromiana, 149, 154, 221
soehrensii, 133, 134, 135
spathulata, 28, 29
spathulata aquosa, 30
speciosa, 2 14
spegazzinii, 73, 74
sphaerica, 90, 96
sphaerocarpa, 193, 198, 199
sphaerocarpa utahensis, 199
spinalba, 130
spinaurea, 214
spiniflora, 215
spinosior, 52, 67, 68
spinosior neomexicana, 68
spinosissima, 103, 175, 202, 204, 205
spinotecta, 64
spinulifera, 178, 181, 182
spinuliflora, 214
spinulosa, 214
splendens, 199
squarrosa, 165
stanlyi, 79, 80
THE CACTACEAE.
Opuntia—continued.
stapelia, 66
stapeliae, 65, 66
stellata, 64
stenarthra, 158
stenochila, 126, 132
stenopetala, 200, 201
straminea, 214
streptacantha, 181, 184, 185
stricta, 159, 161, 178, 223
stricta spinulescens, 214
strigil, 136
subarmata, 165, 166
subferox, 175
subinermis, 214
subterranea, 90, 92
subulata, 71, 75, 76, 77, 79
sulphurea, 133, 134, 150
sulphurea laevior, 134
sulphurea major, 134
sulphurea minor, 134
sulphurea pallidior, 134
superbospina, 144
syringacantha, 89
tapona, 124, 160, 164
tarapacana, 90, 94
tardospina, 140, 141
taylori, 102, 103
tenajo, 49
tenuispina, 137, 139
teres, 71
tesajo, 47, 48, 49
tessellata, 46
tessellata cristata, 46
testudinis-crus, 206
tetracantha, 52, 53, 54
texana, 165, 166
thurberi, 52, 53, 54
tidballii, 160
tomentella, 173, 174
tomentosa, 173, 174
tortisperma, 131, 132
tortispina, 126, 128, 131, 194
toumeyi, 144
tracyi, 102, 105
treleasei, 118, 119
treleasei kernii, 119
triacantha, 110, 112, 113, 115, 204
tribuloides, 186
tricolor, 165, 166
trichophora, 193, 195
tuberculata, 214
tuberiformis, 92
tuberosa, 32, 33
tuberosa spinosa, 89
tuna, 110, 113, 114, 116, 149, 157, 163
tuna humilis, 114
tuna laevior, 114
tuna orbiculata, 114
tunicata, 60, 65, 66, 83, 121
tunicata laevior, 66
tunoidea, 116, 162
tunoides, 116
turpinii, 89
turpinii polymorpha, 89
tweediei, 134
umbrella, 156
undosa, 177, 179
INDEX
Opuntia—continued.
undulata, 65, 177, 179
ursina, 174, 195, 196, 197
urumbella, 157
utahensis, 198
utkilio, 107, 109, 110
vaginata, 47, 48
valida, 147
vaseyi, 140, 142, 145, 146
velutina, 169, 172
verschaffeltii, 44, 71, 72
verschaffeltii digitalis, 71, 72
versicolor, 44, 52, 54, 60, 62
vestita, 71, 72, 87
vexans, 64, 65
vilis, 79, 82, 83
violacea, 144
virgata, 47
viridiflora, 52, 55
vivipara, 52
vulgaris, 127, 128, 156, 157, 163, 177
vulgaris balearica, 161
vulgaris major, 127
vulgaris media, 127
vulgaris minor, 127
vulgaris nana, 127, 129
vulgaris rafinesquei, 127
vulgo, 157
vulpina, 134
wagneri, 74
weberi, 84, 85
wentiana, 110, 116
whipplei, 31, 43, 52, 55, 68
whipplei laevior, 55
whipplei spinosior, 68
wilcoxii, 169, 172
winteriana, 166
wootonii, 147, 148
wrightii, 51
xanthoglochia, 130, 131
xanthostemma, 198
xanthostemma elegans, 198
xanthostemma fulgens, 198
xanthostemma gracilis, 198
xanthostemma orbicularis, 198
xanthostemma rosea, 198
xerocarpa, 198
youngii, 130
zebrina, 149, 155, 222
zacuapanensis, 183
zuniensis, 144
Opuntiacei, 217
Opuntieae, 8, 24
Orbiculatae, 45, 176
Palmadora, 202
Palmadorae, 45, 201
Palmatoria, 202
Pataquisca, 76
Peirescia, 9
Peireskia, 9
Pentlandianae, 44, 90
Perescia, 9
Pereskia, 8-24, 25, 26, 40, 75
acardia, 10
aculeata, 10, 11, 14
aculeata lanceolata, 10
aculeata latifolia, 10
aculeata longispina, 10
Pereskia—continued.
aculeata rotunda, 10
aculeata rotundifolia, 10
aculeata rubescens, 10
affinis, 24
amapola, 14
argentina, 14
autumnalis, 9, 11, 12
bahiensis, 9, 19, 20
bleo, 4, 9, 17, 18, 20
brasiliensis, 10
calandriniaefolia, 29
colombiana, 9, 17
conzattii, 9, 24
crassicaulis, 29
cruenta, 24
cubensis, 9, 22
foetens, 10
f ragrans, 10
glomerata, 94
godseffiana, 10, 11
grandiflora, 24
grandifolia, 9, 18, 19, 20, 21
grandispina, 24
guamacho, 9, 15, 16
haageana, 24
horrida, 9, 21
lanceolata, 10
longispina, 10
lychnidiflora, 9, 12, 13
moorei, 9, 15
nicoyana, 9, 13
ochnacarpa, 19
opuntiaeflora, 26, 27
panamensis, 17, 18
pereskia, 7, 9, 10
philippii, 41
pititache, 29
plantaginea, 24
poeppigii, 41
portulacifolia, 9, 22, 23, 24
rosea, 17
rotundifolia, 27
sacharosa, 9, 10, 14, 15
spathulata, 28, 29
subulata, 75, 76
tampicana, 9, 17
undulata, 10
weberiana, 9, 15
zehntneri, 9, 13, 14
zinniaeflora, 9, 17, 20, 21
Pereskieae, 8, 24
Pereskiopsis, 8, 14, 17, 24, 25-30, 43
acuosa, 25, 29
autumnalis, 11, 12
brandegeei, 28
chapistle, 25, 27
diguetii, 25, 26, 27
kellermanii, 25, 30
opuntiaeflora, 25, 26, 27
pititache, 25, 29
porteri, 25, 28
rotundifolia, 25, 27, 28
spathulata, 25, 28
velutina, 25, 26
Pereskiopuntia, 25
Pest pear, 161, 163
Phaeacanthae, 45, 136, 139, 141, 148
235
236
THE CACTACEAE.
Pin pillow, 102
Platyopuntia, 45, 73, 84, 92, 99, 100, 135, 211
Polar bear cactus, 87
Polyacanthae, 45, 193
Portulaca, 9
Prickly pear, 43, 212
Pterocactus, 24, 30-33
decipiens, 32, 33
fischeri, 31
hickenii, 31
kuntzei, 30, 32, 33
kurtzei, 32
pumilus, 31, 32
tuberosus, 31, 32, 33
valentinii, 88
Pubescentes, 141
Puipute, 13
Pumilae, 45, 100
Quiabento, 14
Quimilo, 190
Quipa, 125
Ramosissimae, 44, 46
Rhipsalis, 8
Robustae, 45, 191
Sacacil, 214
Sacharosa, 10, 14
Salmianae, 44, 73, 75
Scheerianae, 45, 159
Sempervivum tomentosum, 41
Setispinae, 45, 136
Spear-shaped opuntia, 179
Spinosissimae, 43, 45, 201, 202, 203, 208
Stenopetalae, 45, 200
Stenopuntia, 200
Streptacanthae, 45, 112, 156, 177, 181, 192, 225
Strigiles, 45, 136
Subulatae, 44, 71, 75
Sucker, 43, 103
Sulphureae, 45, 133, 135
Tacinga, 24, 39, 40
funalis, 38, 39
Tapuna pear, 192
Tasajillo, 26, 30
Tasajo, 43
macho, 63
Tephrocactus, 42, 43, 44, 71, 72, 79, 84, 85, 90, 95, 97,
106, 135
andicolus, 89
aoracanthus, 91
calvus, 89
diadematus, 43, 89
platyacanthus, 89
pusillus, 106
retrospinosus, 95
turpinii, 89
Teretes, 71
Thurberianae, 44, 52
Tomentosae, 45, 172
Tortispinae, 45, 104, 126, 130, 133, 136, 193
Tuna, 35, 43, 114, 181, 186
Tuna cardona, 184
Tuna elatior, 153
Tuna de agua, 30
Tuna de Espana, 224
Tuna major, 163
Tunae, 45, 110, ,116, 148
Vestitae, 44, 71
Weberianae, 44, 84
West Indian gooseberry, 10
Wilcoxia, 6
Zamia pumila, 181
Zygocactus, 9
Jonathan German Alacio