The Plant w/Flowers
The Flower
The Fruit
Description
"Plants shrubby, much-branched to about 0.8 m in height and about 2 meters across; main stems with lateral "joints" primarily in whorls at ends of each year's growth, some of these elongating into secondary main stems; stems 1.5-2 cm thick; lateral joints about 10-15 cm long, readily detached; stems with about 8 rows of longitudinally elongate tubercles, each tubercle about 1.5-2 cm long and bearing an areole near the apical end; spines apically barbed, 2-8 per areole on young stems (often more on older stems), 2-2.5 cm long, mostly brownish, epidermis forming a pale-purplish, pinkish, or brownish loose sheath; flowers 2-2.5 cm in diameter, comparatively brownish-orange in the center with greenish peripheral tepals (varying to a purplish-brownish-red); fruits tuberculate, firm and leathery, not juicy, yellow when ripe, persistent, 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter; seeds covered in a hard pale-yellowish aril, discoid with a narrow not prominent rim, about 3 mm in diameter. Flowers in July.
Populations of this species are impacted by urban development and human activity. As with other opuntias, this species is subject to a fungal disease believed to be Gleosporium lunatum." (New Mexico Rare Plants)
Internet Resource