Opuntiads of the USA

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Opuntia Species

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Opuntia Species Found in Texas

©, Dave Ferguson, December, 2005

This list was prepared by our Editor-at-large, Dave Ferguson. He notes that several other non-native species are cultivated fairly often, but they are not known to escape into the wild.

Dave Ferguson also reports, “There are at least a couple additional species found in Texas that have no names, and which need more study. One is a very robust plant, similar to O. engelmannii, with few stout black and white spines found in Pecos County.” Perhaps O. leptocarpa (a plant mentioned by Del Weniger (Cacti of Texas and Neighboring States - a Field Guide, University of Texas Press 1984) will someday be on this list if anyone can figure out what it really is.

As a part of our mission, we hope to flesh out the explanations of these species. For instance, Dave treats O. engelmannii and O. lindheimeri as separate taxa; it is one goal of this Web site to explain that stance. Additionally, the O. alta that Dave Ferguson and Joe Shaw have seen growing in south Texas is apparently unlike any other description of O. alta; thus, it will be our goal to sort out our conceptions of these various species. But, such a large task will take time. Though Texas alone provides enough work, our editorial team hopes to cover all naturally occurring Opuntia (and opuntiads).

With luck, readers will provide feedback and comments, and participate in this ongoing goal of understanding Opuntia and opuntiads.

At the bottom of the list, Dave provides some comments about O. azurea and O. macrocentra.

DRY-FRUITED Opuntia Species in Texas

O. arenaria (diploid; far w. Trans-Pecos on sand)

O. fragilis (hexaploid; north Panhandle)

O. polyacantha var. polyacantha (tetraploid; Panhandle)

O. trichophora (diploid; Trans-Pecos)

FLESHY-FRUITED Opuntia Species in Texas

O. [lindheimeri var.] subarmata (= tardospina)

O. aciculata (= O. flexispina)

O. alta (and several different but related plants which may or may not be distinct species)

O. anahuacensis (east Gulf Coast into Louisiana; confused with O. stricta, which is very different; O. stricta (= O. inermis) is not native to Texas, but might be cultivated; it is common in s. Florida)

O. atrispina (a variety of O. strigil, with which it blends, but looks quite different)

O. azurea/macrocentra complex (incl. azurea, aureispina, minor, macrocentra=violacea, castetteri, chisosensis, etc.; highly variable; diploids will probably be called O. azurea with several varieties, and tetraploids will be called O. macrocentra with at least a couple of varieties)

O. cacanapa (= tricolor; includes common spineless cultivar ‘Ellisiana’, which has no history that includes Luther Burbank; he worked with very different O. ficus-indica)

O. camanchica (= brunnea & chihuahuensis)

O. chlorotica affinis var. setispina (dwarf variety similar to Mexican O. setispnia or a white-spined santa-rita is found very close to El Paso in Mexico, and may occur in Texas as well).

O. cyclodes

O. cymochila

O. dillenii (rare in state, probably only cultivated, but very closely akin to O. alta)

O. dulcis (= O. "phaeacantha" var. major [sensu strictu]

O. engelmannii (incl. gregoriana)

O. ficus-indica (variable tree-like octaploid; cultivated only; not reliably cold hardy in most of Texas; apparently does not escape in Texas; does not rampantly hybridize with native species as is often implied; O. ellisiana, O. subarmata and O. dillei are not related to O. ficus-indica)

O. gilvescens (blends with O. sanguinocula to east)

O. humifusa (= compressa; maybe in ne. corner of state?)

O. leptocarpa (maybe eastern version of O. dulcis)

O. lindheimeri (several synonyms; 'Linguiformis' is a mutant cultivar, not a botanically distinct variety; it can revert to normal O. lindheimeri; incl. "bentonii" Gulf Coast plants of se. Texas, w. to Mississippi, and perhaps e. Florida; O. lindheimeri bentonii was the primary pest pear of Australia (called inermis there, mistakenly)

O. mackensenii (renamed O. edwardsii later, but type specimen of that name is a hybrid)

O. macrocentra (see O. azurea, also see notes below at bottom)

O. macrorhiza var. fusco-atra (incl. allairei, etc.)

O. macrorhiza var. grandiflora

O. macrorhiza var. greenii

O. macrorhiza var. macrorhiza

O. microcarpa (= discata; this is NOT the same thing as O. engelmannii)

O. microdasys (occasionally escapes in far west Texas, not native)

O. orbiculata [sensu Britton & Rose] (incl. O. dillei, which is based on nearly spineless plants)

O. phaeacantha (= nigrispina)

O. pottsii var. montana

O. pottsii var. pottsii

O. pusilla (= drummundii, etc.)

O. pyrocarpa

O. robusta (commonly cultivated, not native, but found in mountains of n. Mexico not far from Texas)

O. rosei

O. rufida

O. sanguinocula

O. species resembles O. chlorotica var. santa-rita (Big Bend canyons, perhaps a hybrid involving O. rufida and something in the O. macrocentra complex)

O. spinosibacca

O. strigil

O. tortispina

O. valida (2 vars., one not named yet)

O. wootonii (2 vars., one not named yet)

NOTES AND ADDENDA FROM DAVE FERGUSON ABOUT O. azurea:

The diploids of the O. macrocentra complex have mostly been published as varieties of O. azurea now. They are in the book on Trans-Pecos Cactus by Weedin and Powell. The varieties are as follows.

• O. azurea var. azurea (probably not in Texas, but may have grown in the lower Big Bend before the flats were all plowed. Grows within sight of Mariscal Mountain nearby in Coahuila and Chihuahua. This one tends to look a lot like O. chlorotica var. santa-rita with usually darker spines and with the O. macrocentra style flower and fruit.
• O. azurea var. aureispina is the variant with spiny fruit that tend to dry fast, and that has lots of spines usually yellow in color. It is very restricted in the lower Big Bend on both sides of the river, usually in rocky volcanic areas.
• O. chisosensis is the most distinctly different, and since no intemediates have been proven to exist so far, it is still recognized as a good species.

The next three I would consider as one variety, but Powell and Weedin split the plants into three varieties.

O. azurea var. parva tends to grow vertically, but has small thickish pads, few areoles, and long spines. It is near the Rio Grande along the west side of the Trans-Pecos, mostly between the park and Presidio. This one is really popular in the garden trade in Arizona, and a large percentage of "O. violacea" and "O. macrocentra" in gardens and collections there are really this plant (but var. diplopurea and the native to Arizona O. macrocentra are well represented as well).

O. azurea var. diplopurpurea is usually a bit lower-growing, and has usually larger pads with more areoles. Spines are variable and usually long. An older name might be castetteri, but the ploidy of the type population of that name needs to be studied more in relation to the others. It is not certain if TL castetteri is diploid or tetraploid (but it looks diploid to me). This is a flip-flop on my part for the name castetteri, which several years ago I considered to be nothing more than a spine color variant of O. macrocentra (now I think it's a spine color variant of the diploid types, which I consider a separate species - O. azurea - from the tetraploid O. macrocentra). The spine color and plant coloration of var. diplopurpurea is highly variable, which leads us to var. discolor.

O. azurea var. discolor which grows primarily in a small area to the sw. corner of the Big Bend park near the river. It is distinguished from var. diplopurpurrea only in coloration, being less purple in pad color and with spines yellow (the population is mixed with "normal" dark-spined plants, and it is only a minor color variation within the population - I wouldn't give it a separate name). The other varieties can have yellow spines too, and in some areas var. azurea has more yellow-spined plants than dark.

There is also a thing that looks like a diploid that occurs through most of the distribution of O. macrocentra to the north (from near Van Horn and Alomogordo to near Tucson). O. macrocentra is tetraploid, generally more northern (they overlap widely though), found from about Ft. Stockton and Hobbs to near Tucson, and never has yellow spines (that I've seen so far anyway). Powell and Weedin put the var. minor into O. mackensenii, but I disagree. It belongs with O. macrocentra as evidenced by intergradation, and like flowers and fruit.

Var. minor has spines over the whole pad, usually arranged more as in O. phaeacantha or O. tortispina, and the coloration is less striking. It is found from Presidio to near Del Rio and Ft. Stockton along the south edge of the range of the species. I haven't seen it in Mexico yet, but it is bound to be there, at least near the river across from Presidio. Also, O. macrocentra var. minor grows alongside of O. mackensenii, and they are different. This is not the same as "O. macrocentra var. minor" as I recognized it in the Cactus and Succulent Journal (about 1989?). I used the name "minor" for all the Texas diploids except aureispina and chisosensis then. That was based on a misinterpretation of the type specimen, which I took to be a specimen of what would be called O. azurea var. parva now