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  1. Family: Cactaceae Juss.

    1. Opuntia Mill.

        2. This genus is accepted, and its native range is New World.

    [FTEA]

    Cactaceae, R. Hunt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1968

    Habit
    Shrubby or arborescent cacti with cylindrical, club-shaped, subglobose or flattened branches
    Areoles
    Areoles tufted with barbed bristles (glochids) and usually 1–∞ longer stouter spines
    Leaves
    Leaves small, subulate to terete, usually early deciduous
    Flowers
    Flowers solitary, sessile; perianth rotate or erect,brightly coloured, segments ∞
    Ovules
    Ovules circinotropous (the funicles circinnate)
    Fruits
    Berry bearing areoles, glochids, and sometimes spines
    Seeds
    Seeds ∞, encased by the hard, white funicular aril; endosperm scanty
    Distribution
    A large genus distributed naturally throughout the Americas from British Columbia to the Strait of Magellan
    Note
    Widely introduced in the warmer parts of the world, some species as food-plants for the cochineal insect, some for forage or for their edible fruits.

    Images

    Distribution

    Native to:

    Alabama, Alberta, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Argentina South, Arizona, Arkansas, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, British Columbia, California, Colombia, Colorado, Connecticut, Costa Rica, Cuba, Delaware, District of Columbia, Dominican Republic, East Himalaya, Ecuador, El Salvador, Florida, Galápagos, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Jamaica, Kansas, Kentucky, Lebanon-Syria, Leeward Is., Louisiana, Manitoba, Maryland, Masachusettes, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Netherlands Antilles, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nicaragua, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Panamá, Paraguay, Pennsylvania, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Utah, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Windward Is., Wisconsin, Wyoming

    Introduced into:

    Albania, Algeria, Andaman Is., Angola, Ascension, Austria, Bahamas, Baleares, Bangladesh, Benin, Bermuda, Bulgaria, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Cayman Is., Central European Rus, China South-Central, China Southeast, Corse, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, East Aegean Is., Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Free State, Gambia, Great Britain, Greece, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Hainan, India, Iraq, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Kriti, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Libya, Madeira, Malaya, Mauritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New South Wales, Nicobar Is., Northern Provinces, Northern Territory, Palestine, Portugal, Queensland, Rodrigues, Rwanda, Réunion, Sardegna, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sicilia, Somalia, South Australia, South China Sea, Spain, Sri Lanka, St.Helena, Sudan, Swaziland, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tibet, Tunisia, Turkey, Turks-Caicos Is., Victoria, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Western Australia, Western Sahara, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zaïre

    Accepted Species

    Synonyms

    Other Data

    Opuntia Mill. appears in other Kew resources:

    Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status
    Ecuador 44886.000

    Bibliography

    First published in Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4: s.p. (1754)

    Literature

    Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Gard. Dict., Abr. ed. 4 (1754)

    Sources

    Art and Illustrations in Digifolia
    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Herbarium Catalogue Specimens
    'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2020. 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

    Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2020. 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

    Neotropikey
    Milliken, W., Klitgard, B. and Baracat, A. (2009 onwards), Neotropikey - Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics.
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0