- Family:
- Cactaceae Juss.
- Genus:
- Opuntia Mill.
Opuntia humifusa (Raf.) Raf.

[FTEA]
Cactaceae, R. Hunt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1968
- Morphology General Habit
- Erect or sprawling shrub up to 3–4 m. tall, sometimes with a definite cylindric trunk.
- Morphology General Spines
- Joints usually narrowly obovate, flattened, 10–30 cm. long, 5–12 cm. broad, bright green; areoles densely and shortly woolly; glochids brownish; spines 1–2 per areole (–12 on trunk), stout acicular, up to 7 (–10) cm. long, 1.5 mm. in diameter, one generally conspicuously longer than the other when present, greyish, dark-tipped.
- Morphology Leaves
- Leaves subulate, 2–3 mm. long, early deciduous.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
- Flowers 5–7.5 cm. in diameter; outer perianth-segments yellow, striped or shaded red, inner golden yellow, widely spreading.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
- Fruit obovoid, 5–7.5 cm. long, 2–4 cm. in diameter, glochidiate, spineless, reddish-purple, with edible pulp.
- Figures
- Fig. 1, p. 4.
- Habitat
- Bushland, coastal bluffs, roadsides; often planted to make fences; 0–1650 m.
- Distribution
- K4 K6 K7 T1 T3 T6 Z native of South Americawidely introduced elsewhere, notably in South Africa and India where it was commonly used in the cochineal dye industry
Native to:
Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mexico Northeast, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
Introduced into:
Austria, Bulgaria, Central European Rus, East Himalaya, France, Free State, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Korea, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, Lesotho, Netherlands, New South Wales, North Caucasus, Queensland, South Australia, Spain, Switzerland, Transcaucasus, Victoria, Western Australia, Yugoslavia
- Cactus compressus Salisb.
- Cactus humifusus Raf.
- Cactus italicus Ten.
- Cactus opuntia L.
- Opuntia allairei Griffiths
- Opuntia arkansana Engelm. ex Hirscht
- Opuntia calcicola Wherry
- Opuntia carolina J.Forbes
- Opuntia compressa J.F.Macbr.
- Opuntia fuscoatra Engelm.
- Opuntia humifusa f. jeollaensis E.J.Kim & S.S.Whang
- Opuntia humifusa var. parva A.Heller
- Opuntia intermedia Salm-Dyck
- Opuntia intermedia A.Gray
- Opuntia italica (Ten.) Pfeiff.
- Opuntia opuntia (L.) H.Karst.
- Opuntia prostrata Monv. & Lem. ex C.F.Först.
- Opuntia rafinesquiana Urlandt
- Opuntia turbinata Small
- Opuntia vulgaris Mill.
- Platyopuntia vulgaris (Mill.) F.Ritter
Opuntia humifusa (Raf.) Raf. appears in other Kew resources:
Date | Reference | Identified As | Barcode | Type Status | Has image? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
K000100987 | No | ||||
Elafmann [0], Spain | K000100472 | No | |||
Europe | K000100473 | No | |||
Glen [3779] | K000100097 | No | |||
73423.000 | No | ||||
K000100988 | No | ||||
Yugoslavia | K000100470 | No | |||
Ball, J. [0], Yugoslavia | K000100471 | No | |||
Lucas, G. Ll. [268], Kenya | Opuntia vulgaris | 22960.000 | No |
First published in Med. Fl. 2: 247 (1830)
Accepted by
- (1984). Flora of Australia 4: 1-354. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
- Bailey, C. & al. (2015). Guide to the Vascular Plants of Tennessee: 1-813. University of Tennessee press.
- Chadde, S.W. (2019). Minnesota Flora. An illustrated guide to the vascular plants of Minnesota ed. 2: 1-776. Steve W. Chadde.
- Flora of North America Editorial Committee (2003). Flora of North America North of Mexico 4: 1-559. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
- Jones, R.L. (2005). Plant life of Kentucky. An illustrated guide to the vascular flora: 1-833. The universitry press of Kentucky.
- Kral, R., Diamond, A.R., Ginzbarg, S.L., Hansen, C.J., Haynes, R.R., Keener, B.R., Lelong, M.G., Spaulding, D.D. & Woods, M. (2011). Annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Alabama: 1-112. Botanical reseach institute of Texas.
- Mohlenbrock, R.H. (2014). Vascular Flora of Illinois. A Field Guide, ed. 4: 1-536. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.
- Retief, E. & Meyer, N.L. (2017). Plants of the Free State inventory and identification guide Strelitzia 38: 1-1236. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.
- Saksonov, S.V. & al. (2014). Addition to the "synopsis of the flora of Eastern Europe vol. 1" (2012) in the middle Volga region and adjacent regions Botanicheskii Zhurnal. Moscow & Leningrad 99: 1067-1072.
- Takhtajan, A.L. (ed.) in Takhtajan, A.L. (ed.) (2012). Konspekt Flora Kavkaza 3(2): 1-623. Editio Universitatis Petropolitanae.
- Tashev, A. (2012). Characteristics of the Opuntia humifusa (Cactaceae) locality in the Harmanli district, South Bulgaria Phytologia Balcanica 18: 11-16.
- Tohmé, G. & Tohmé, H. (2014). Illustrated Flora of Lebanon, ed. 2: 1-610. CNRS Publication.
- Villaseñor, J.L. (2016). Checklist of the native vascular plants of Mexico Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 87: 559-902.
- Vladimirov, V. Aybeke, M. & Kit Tan (2018). New floristic records in the Balkans: 37 Phytologia Balcanica 24: 397-461.
- Vladimirov, V., Aybeke, N. & Kit Tan (eds.) (2017). New floristic records in the Balkans: 32 Phytologia Balcanica 23: 119-146.
- Vladimirov, V., Dane, F. & Kit Tan (2012). New floristic records in the Balkans: 19 Phytologia Balcanica 18: 205-230.
- Vladimirov, V., Dane, F. & Kit Tan (2013). New floristic records in the Balkans: 21 Phytologia Balcanica 19: 131-157.
- Vázquez Pardo, F.M. & García Alonso, D. (2017). Aproximación al conocimiento del grupo Opuntia Mill. (s.l.) (Cactaceae) en Extremadura (España) Folia Botanica Extremadurensis 11: 51-75.
Not accepted by
- Tutin, T.G. & al. (eds.) (1968). Flora Europaea 2: 1-469. Cambridge University Press. [Cited as Opuntia vulgaris.]
Literature
Kew Backbone Distributions
- (1984). Flora of Australia 4: 1-354. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
- (2019). http://www.abcjournal.org/index.php/BothaliaABC/article/view/39/33 epublication.
- Grierson, A.J.C. & Long, D.G. (1984). Flora of Bhutan 1(2): 189-462. Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.
- Jones, R.L. (2005). Plant life of Kentucky. An illustrated guide to the vascular flora: 1-833. The universitry press of Kentucky.
- Kral, R., Diamond, A.R., Ginzbarg, S.L., Hansen, C.J., Haynes, R.R., Keener, B.R., Lelong, M.G., Spaulding, D.D. & Woods, M. (2011). Annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Alabama: 1-112. Botanical reseach institute of Texas.
- Retief, E. & Meyer, N.L. (2017). Plants of the Free State inventory and identification guide Strelitzia 38: 1-1236. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.
- Saksonov, S.V. & al. (2014). Addition to the "synopsis of the flora of Eastern Europe vol. 1" (2012) in the middle Volga region and adjacent regions Botanicheskii Zhurnal. Moscow & Leningrad 99: 1067-1072.
- Takhtajan, A.L. (ed.) in Takhtajan, A.L. (ed.) (2012). Konspekt Flora Kavkaza 3(2): 1-623. Editio Universitatis Petropolitanae.
- Tashev, A. (2012). Characteristics of the Opuntia humifusa (Cactaceae) locality in the Harmanli district, South Bulgaria Phytologia Balcanica 18: 11-16.
- Tohmé, G. & Tohmé, H. (2014). Illustrated Flora of Lebanon, ed. 2: 1-610. CNRS Publication.
- Tutin, T.G. & al. (eds.) (1968). Flora Europaea 2: 1-469. Cambridge University Press.
- Villaseñor, J.L. (2016). Checklist of the native vascular plants of Mexico Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 87: 559-902.
- Vázquez Pardo, F.M. & García Alonso, D. (2017). Aproximación al conocimiento del grupo Opuntia Mill. (s.l.) (Cactaceae) en Extremadura (España) Folia Botanica Extremadurensis 11: 51-75.
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Flora of Tropical East Africa
Flora of Tropical East Africa
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Herbarium Catalogue Specimens
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Kew Backbone Distributions
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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Kew Science Photographs
Copyright applied to individual images