Cactaceae
Opuntia

Opuntia elatior Mill.

First published in Gard. Dict., ed. 8.: n.° 4 (1768)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is S. Caribbean, Costa Rica to Venezuela. It is a succulent shrub or tree and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome. It is used to treat unspecified medicinal disorders, as animal food and a medicine, has environmental uses and for food.

Distribution

Native to:

Colombia, Costa Rica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Panamá, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles

Introduced into:

Assam, Baleares, Bangladesh, Canary Is., East Himalaya, India, Kenya, Morocco, Myanmar, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Society Is., South Australia, Spain, St.Helena, Tunisia, Victoria, Western Australia

Synonyms

Homotypic Synonyms

Heterotypic Synonyms

Classification

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Publications

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  • Barooah, C. & Ahmed, I. (2014). Plant diversity of Assam. A checklist of Angiosperms and Gymnosperms: 1-599. Assam science technology and environment council, India.
  • Dobignard, A. & Chatelain, C. (2011). Index synonymique de la flore d'Afrique du nord 3: 1-449. Éditions des conservatoire et jardin botaniques, Genève.
  • Dogignard, A. (2009). Contributions à la connaissance de la flore du Maroc et de l'Afrique du Nord. Nouvelle série. 2. La flore du Nord-Maroc. Le Journal de Botanique de la Société Botanique de France 46-47: 1-136.
  • Florence, J. (2004). Flore de la Polynésie Française 2: 1-503. IRD editions, Paris.
  • George, A.S. & Menadue, M. (eds.) (1984). Flora of Australia 4: 1-354. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
  • Guiggi, A. & Mariotti, M. (2019). Notes about the Berger’s new Opuntia s.l. species (Cactaceae) described from the Hanbury Botanical Gardens collection. Phytotaxa 410: 21-55.
  • Hokche, O., Berry, P.E. & Huber, O. (eds.) (2008). Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Venezuela: 1-859. Fundación Instituto Botánico de Venezuela.
  • Idárraga-Piedrahita, A., Ortiz, R.D.C., Callejas Posada, R. & Merello, M. (eds.) (2011). Flora de Antioquia: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares 2: 1-939. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín.
  • Kotiya, A., Solanki, Y. & Reddy, G.V. (2020). Flora of Rajasthan: 1-769. Rajasthan state biodiversity board.
  • Lambdon, P. (2012). Flowering plants & ferns of St Helena: 1-624. Pisces publications for St Helena nature conservation group.
  • Maliya, S.D. & Datt, B. (2010). A contribution to the flora of Katarniyaghat wildlife sanctuary, Baharaich district, Uttar Pradesh. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 34: 42-68.
  • Mao, A.A. & Dash, S.S. (2020). Flowering Plants of India an Annotated Checklist (Dicotyledons) 1: 1-970. Botanical Survey of India.
  • Serapio, J. & al. (2023). Contribution to the alien flora of the Balearic Islands. Butlletí de la Institució Catalana d’Història Natural. Secció de botanica 87: 11-28.
  • Verloove, F. & Guiggi, A. (2019). Futher records of cacti (Cactaceae) from Tarragona province (Catalonia), Spain. Haseltonia 26: 23-35.
  • Verloove, F. & al. (2018). New cactus records from Gran Canaria with a key to the opuntioid species now established in the Canary islands. Haseltonia 25: 115-124.

An alternative taxonomy had been proposed by the following authorities:

  • Mottram, R. (2013). Linnaean cactus legacy. The Cactician 3: 1-83. [Cited as Opuntia tuna.]

Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Useful Plants of Boyacá Project

  • Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humbodlt (2014). Plantas alimenticias y medicinales nativas de Colombia. 2567 registros, aportados por: Castellanos, C. (Contacto del recurso), Valderrama, N. (Creador del recurso, Autor), Castro, C. (Proveedor de metadatos), Bernal, Y. (Autor), García, N. (Autor). Versión 11.0. http://i2d.humboldt.org.co/ceiba/resource.do?r=ls_colombia_magnoliophyta_2014
  • Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) http://apps.kew.org/sepasalweb/sepaweb in The State of the World’s Plants Report–2016. (2016). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew https://stateoftheworldsplants.org/2016/

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • (2019). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23818107.2019.1652848. epublication.
  • Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  • Barooah, C. & Ahmed, I. (2014). Plant diversity of Assam. A checklist of Angiosperms and Gymnosperms: 1-599. Assam science technology and environment council, India.
  • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (2014-continuously updated). Atlas of Living Australia http://www.ala.org.au/.
  • Correa A., Mireya D. Galdames, Carmen Correa A., M. D., C. Galdames & M. S. de Stapf (2004). Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares de Panamá: 1-599. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
  • Dogignard, A. (2009). Contributions à la connaissance de la flore du Maroc et de l'Afrique du Nord. Nouvelle série. 2. La flore du Nord-Maroc. Le Journal de Botanique de la Société Botanique de France 46-47: 1-136.
  • Florence, J. (2004). Flore de la Polynésie Française 2: 1-503. IRD editions, Paris.
  • Grierson, A.J.C. & Long, D.G. (1984). Flora of Bhutan 1(2): 189-462. Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.
  • Hokche, O., Berry, P.E. & Huber, O. (eds.) (2008). Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Venezuela: 1-859. Fundación Instituto Botánico de Venezuela.
  • Kress, W.J., DeFilipps, R.A., Farr, E. & Kyi, D.Y.Y. (2003). A Checklist of the Trees, Shrubs, Herbs and Climbers of Myanmar. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 45: 1-590. Smithsonian Institution.
  • Lambdon, P. (2012). Flowering plants & ferns of St Helena: 1-624. Pisces publications for St Helena nature conservation group.
  • Maliya, S.D. & Datt, B. (2010). A contribution to the flora of Katarniyaghat wildlife sanctuary, Baharaich district, Uttar Pradesh. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 34: 42-68.
  • Mottram, R. (2013). Linnaean cactus legacy. The Cactician 3: 1-83.
  • Pasha, M.K. & Uddin, S.B. (2013). Dictionary of plant names of Bangladesh, Vasc. Pl.: 1-434. Janokalyan Prokashani, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
  • Serapio, J. & al. (2023). Contribution to the alien flora of the Balearic Islands. Butlletí de la Institució Catalana d’Història Natural. Secció de botanica 87: 11-28.
  • Verloove, F. & Guiggi, A. (2019). Futher records of cacti (Cactaceae) from Tarragona province (Catalonia), Spain. Haseltonia 26: 23-35.
  • Verloove, F. & al. (2018). New cactus records from Gran Canaria with a key to the opuntioid species now established in the Canary islands. Haseltonia 25: 115-124.

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
  • CITES (2021). Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. https://cites.org/eng/app/appendices.php
  • Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
  • FPI (2021). Food Plants International. https://fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World?homeurl=https://foodplantsinternational.com/plants/
  • GBIF.org (2021). GBIF species matching tool. https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup
  • IUCN (2021). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-2. https://www.iucnredlist.org.
  • Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humbodlt (2014). Plantas alimenticias y medicinales nativas de Colombia. 2567 registros, aportados por: Castellanos, C. (Contacto del recurso), Valderrama, N. (Creador del recurso, Autor), Bernal, Y. (Autor), García, N. (Autor). http://i2d.humboldt.org.co/ceiba/resource.do?r=ls_colombia_magnoliophyta_2014
  • Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. (2014). Plantas alimenticias y medicinales nativas de Colombia. 2567 registros, aportados por: Castellanos, C. (Contacto del recurso), Valderrama, N. (Creador del recurso, Autor), Bernal, Y. (Autor), García, N. (Autor). http://i2d.humboldt.org.co/ceiba/resource.do?r=ls_colombia_magnoliophyta_2014
  • Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images

  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Useful Plants of Boyacá Project

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/