Opuntiads of the USA

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Opuntia mojavensis (-like)

Opuntia mojavensis Engelm. & J.M. Bigelow 1856

These plants have some similarities with the original description of O. mojavensis. However, they also they also have much in ommon with the O. dulcis-like plants of Mt. Charleston that grow about 30 miles north at a bit higher elevation. Peraps these plants are the are same species at the Mt. Charelson plants; thus, O. mojavensis (as shown here) may be nothing more than a variant of O. dulcis.

O. dulcis, the O. dulcis-like plants of Mt. Charleston, NV, and the plants shown here (from Mt. Potosi, NV), are all spreading, sometimes semi-upright, and woody. They are not O. phaeacantha.

These plants are common along Highway 160, just west of the Mt. Potosi summit. The location is about 30 miles west-southwest of downtown Las Vegas, NV, about 5,500 ft. elevation. The plants are particularly prominent and easily found on both sides of the highway a mile or two west of the summit, especially in rocky locations adjacent to the road. The plants are also found in nearby areas of Mt. Potosi (e.g., Camp Potosi Clark County Park on Highway 582) on sunny, rocky slopes. Depending upon precise location they may occur with pinyon pine (pinon), junipers, Echinocereus engelmannii, O. polyacantha, O. gilvescens, O. phaecantha, and Agave utahensis ssp. nevadensis.

The main difference vegetative difference between these plants and the O. dulcis-like plants of Mt. Charleston is that the plants depicted on this page typically produce an exeptionally long and flat spine from pad surface areoles. Such spines are typical on the uppper 1/2 or 2/3 of the cladode surface (in addition to a shorter deflexed spine). The long spine is often visually prominent because it is stongly pale (not white) and can be 2 mm wide, or a bit wider.