Addisonia 49 



(Plate 105) 



OPUNTIA OPUNTU 

 Eastern Prickly Pear 



Native oj the eastern United States 



Family Cactacejas Cactus Family 



Cactus Opuntia L. Sp. PI. 468. 1753. 



Cactus Opuntia nana DC. PI. Succ. Hist. 2: pi. 138 [A]. 1799. 



Opuntia vulgaris Haw. Syn. PI. Succ. 190. 1812. Not Opuntia vulgaris Mill. 



1768. 

 Cactus humifusus Raf. Ann. Nat. 15. 1820. 

 Opuntia humifusa Raf. Med. Fl. U. S. 2: 247. 1830. 

 Opuntia mesacantha Raf. Bull. Bot. Seringe 216. 1830. 

 Opuntia cespitosa Raf. BuU. Bot. Seringe 216. 1830. 

 Opuntia intermedia Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 364. 1834. 

 Opuntia nana Visiani, Fl. Dalmatica 3: 143. 1852. 

 Opuntia Rafinesquei* Engelm. Proc. Am. Acad. 3: 295. 1856. 

 Opuntia vulgaris Rafinesquei A. Gray, Man. Bot. ed. 2. 136. 1856. 



A prostrate cactus, often forming large patches, some of the 

 joints erect or ascending, the roots long and fibrous. Its joints are 

 light green and glabrous, faintly shining or when old dull, normally 

 orbicular, elliptic, or obovate-elliptic, from two to four inches long 

 and about one third of an inch thick; when growing in shade some of 

 the joints may elongate and become six inches to ten inches long 

 and not more than two inches wide. The areoles are small, round, 

 and slightly elevated; the leaves, which fall away soon after the 

 joints are fully grown, are awl-shaped and about one quarter of an 

 inch long. The glochids are short, yellowish or brown. The plant 

 is either quite spineless or some of the areoles bear a needle-shaped 

 brownish or nearly white spine from half an inch to about two inches 

 long; rarely two spines are borne at a few areoles; seedling plants, 

 however, have several small spines at the areoles. The flowers, 

 which appear in June or July in the north and in May in the south, 

 are borne solitary at areoles on the edges of the joints; they vary 

 from about two inches to about three and one half inches broad 

 when fully expanded; the eight to ten petals are obovate, apiculate, 

 bright yellow or sometimes with orange or red bases; the numerous 

 yellow stamens are shorter than the petals and spread widely when 

 the flower is fully open, when a slight shock causes them to incurve 

 about the style; the obconic ovary is about an inch long and bears 

 a few areoles like those of the joints, with similar glochids; the 

 slender style is about as long as the stamens, and is topped by a 

 white, several-lobed stigma. The fruit is a red, oblong to obovoid, 



* Sometimes spelled Rafinesquiana, 



