| | The genera of Cactaceae |
~ Opuntia, cf. Hunt(1967)
The plants opuntioid (mostly), or condensed-cactoid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The plants’ appearance dominated by crowded interlacing areolar structures obscuring any tubercles, ribs or furrows, or dominated neither by crowded areolar structures nor by tubercles covering the areoles. The stems spiny (usually), or not spiny. The plants branched; prostrate, or erect; neither shrubby nor tree-like (from tuberous roots, usually, loosely branched or forming dense cushions), or shrubby; to 0.5–5 m high. The main stem more or less cylindrical. The branches thick or thin, cylindrical, or globose. The stems segmented, or not segmented; not ribbed and grooved. The plants conspicuously tuberculate (as represented by swellings and grooving of the stems). The tubercles not connected by ribs; spirally disposed. The areoles associated with tubercles. The components of adjacent areoles and hairs so extensively covering the mature plant body as to obscure any ribs or furrows (in A. floccosa), or not obscuring details of the plant body. The areoles spirally disposed; simple; hairy; with glochids; with spines. The spines solitary, or paired, or clustered; 1–25; 1–8 cm long; mostly showing little or no difference between radials and centrals; without sheaths; variable in size and stiffness. The mature stems with well developed leaves (fairly so, more or less persistent). Leaves of mature stems minute to small (but to more than 4 mm long); fleshy (though subsequently drying off); terete.
Flowering at night. The flowers ostensibly lateral, or terminal (or not truly terminal?); one per areole; opening widely or not; sessile; medium-sized to large; 2.5–7(–8) cm long; regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium to not produced beyond the ovary (?). The perianth segments short; yellow, or orange, or red, or pink. The perianth segments relatively short, broad; blunt, or apiculate. Stamens not exserted. The funicles circinate.
The mature fruit 1.5–10 cm long; ellipsoidal; naked, or not naked; spiny, or spiny and with glochids, or without spines; thick walled, fleshy; indehiscent. The seeds 3.5–7 mm long; with smooth to slightly rugose funicular envelopes and a rudimentary funicular girdle; fairly conspicuously hairy (the funicular envelopes finely so); globose or sub-globose, or ovoid, or pyriform (sometimes laterally ridged); wingless; encased in their bony arils. Cotyledons fleshy, foliaceous.
Natural Distribution. Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru.
Classification. About 20 species. Subfamily Opuntioideae. Tribe Austrocylindropuntieae.
Images. • Austrocylindropuntia vestita: © Zoya Akulova (2007). • Austrocylindropuntia vestita: © Zoya Akulova (2017). • C. alcahes, C. imbricata, C. prolifera and Austrocylindropuntia vestita (all as Opuntia):Britton & Rose (1919). • C. alcahes var. burrageana, Austrocylindropuntia cylindrica, Grusonia emoryi (all as Opuntia), Opuntia macrorhiza: Britton & Rose (1919). • Austroylindropuntia subulata (as exaltata), with Opuntia stricta (as macrartha) and O. macrorhiza (as tortispina): Britton & Rose (1919).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2018 onwards. The genera of Cactaceae: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 14th November 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
