Comments
provided by eFloras
This species was first recorded in China in 1702.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Description
provided by eFloras
Shrubs sprawling or erect, 1-3 m tall. Trunk absent or short. Larger, terminal joints green to gray-green, obovate or elliptic-obovate to suborbicular, 10-35(-40) × 7.5-20(-25) cm. Areoles 2-9 mm in diam. Spines 1-12(-20) per areole on most areoles, spreading, yellow, ± brown banded or mottled, subulate, straight or curved, 1.2-4(-6) cm, basally flattened; glochids yellow. Leaves subulate, 4.5-6 mm, deciduous. Flowers 5-9 cm in diam. Sepaloids greenish with yellow margin, broadly deltoid-obovate to obovate, 10-25 × 6-12 mm, margin entire or slightly crisped, apex mucronate. Petaloids spreading, bright yellow, obovate or cuneate-obovate, 25-30 × 12-20 mm, margin entire or slightly undulate, apex rounded, truncate, or emarginate. Filaments yellow, ca. 12 mm; anthers yellow, ca. 1.5 mm. Style yellow or yellowish, 12-20 mm; stigmas 5, pale green, ca. 4.5 mm. Fruit purple, turbinate to obovoid, 4-6 × 2.5-3(-4) cm, fleshy at maturity, umbilicus deep. Seeds light tan, irregularly orbicular, 4-5 × 4-4.5 mm. Fl. Jun-Oct(-Dec).
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Habitat & Distribution
provided by eFloras
Thickets, rocks, sandy soils, also cultivated as a hedge; near sea level. S Guangdong, S Guangxi, Hainan [native to the Caribbean region; widely introduced and naturalized in tropical regions].
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Synonym
provided by eFloras
Cactus dillenii Ker Gawler, Bot. Reg. 3: t. 255. 1818; Opuntia stricta (Haworth) Haworth var. dillenii (Ker Gawler) L. Benson.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Cuban Cactus Scrub Flora Associations
provided by EOL authors
Lying in the rainshadow of upwind mountains, the Cuban Cactus Scrub ecoregion is a semi-arid region of the Caribbean Basin supporting a thorny cactus scrub. The most characteristic and abundant flora species correspond to the xeromorphous coastal and subcoastal scrubland with abundant cacti succulents, also called coastal manigua. Cactus associate species to Opuntia dillenii include: O. triacantha, Harrisia eriophora, H. taetra, Pilosocereus robinii and Dendrocereus nudiflorus. Evergreen shrubs and small trees include: Bourreria virgata, Capparis cynophallophora, Eugenia buxifolia, Bursera glauca and B. cubana.
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- C.Michael Hogan
- bibliographic citation
- C.Michael Hogan. 2011. Cactus. Topic ed. Arthur Dawson. Ed.-in-chief Cutler J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC
- author
- C. Michael Hogan (cmichaelhogan)