Family: Cactaceae
Opuntia vulgaris
Citation:
Miller, Gard. Dict. edn 8 (1768).
Synonymy: Cactus monacanthus Willd., Enum. Pl. Suppl. 33 (1813); O. monacantha (Willd.)Haw., Suppl. Pl. Succ. 81 (1819).
Common name: Drooping prickly-pear, prickly-pear, drooping tree pear, Barbary fig.
Description:
Bushy or tree-like, 2-7 m high, sometimes with a cylindrical trunk to 15 cm diam.; joints cylindrical, ovate to oblong, to 30 cm long, shiny or glossy; spines usually 1 or 2, yellowish to dark-brown, 1-3 cm long; areoles distant, glochids brown; leaves deciduous.
Flowers yellowish, with some reddening at the base of the petals, to 7 cm across.
Fruit red to reddish-purple, pear-shaped, spineless, 5 to 7 cm long, occasionally proliferous.
| Opuntia vulgaris
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Image source: fig. 188d in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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| Opuntia vulgaris
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Image source: fig 188b in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Parsons (1973) Noxious weeds of Victoria, figs 22 & 23; Graf (1963) Exotica 3:475, 481.
Distribution:
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Qld; N.S.W.; Vic. Native to Brazil and northern Argentine. Naturalised in many tropical and subtropical parts of the World.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: late spring — summer.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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