Opuntia cochenillifera (Cochineal Cactus)

Overview

Succulent shrub or tree from southern Mexico grown ornamentally in Hawaii. Formerly widely cultivated as a host for cochineal insects that furnish cochineal dye. Fruits of the related prickly pear, Opuntia ficus-indica, a succulent tree from Mexico, were eaten raw by the Hawaiians or were used to make a fermented drink.

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Aztec:

Nopal Nochetzli

Common Names in English:

Cochineal Cactus, Cochineal Nopal Cactus, Cochineal-Plant, Nopal Cactus, Nopalea Grande, Nopales Opuntia, Prickly Pear, Velvet Opuntia, Warm Hand, Wooly Joint Prickly Pear

Common Names in French:

Cochenillier, Raquette Espagnole

Common Names in Norwegian:

Cochenillekaktus

Common Names in Portuguese:

Cacto-De-Cochonilha, Palma, Palma-De-Engorda, Palma-Doce, Palma-Miuda, Palmatória

Common Names in Spanish:

Nopal Chamacuero, Nopal De Cochinilla, Nopal De La Cochinilla

Common Names in unspecified:

Cochineal Cactus, Cochineal Nopal Cactus

Description

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Family Cactaceae

Fleshy perennials , shrubs , trees or vines , terrestrial or epiphytic. Stems jointed , terete , globose , flattened, or fluted , mostly leafless and variously spiny . Leaves alternate, flat or subulate to terete, vestigial, or entirely absent; spines, glochids (easily detached, small, bristlelike spines), and flowers always arising from cushionlike, axillary areoles (modified short shoots ) . Flowers solitary, sessile, rarely clustered and stalked (in Pereskia), bisexual , rarely unisexual , actinomorphic or occasionally zygomorphic. Receptacle tube (hypanthium or perianth tube) absent or short to elongate , naked or invested with leaflike bracts, scales , areoles, and hairs , bristles , or spines; perianth segments usually numerous , in a sepaloid to petaloid series. Stamens numerous, variously inserted in throat and tube; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary (pericarpel) inferior, rarely superior, 1-loculed, with 3 to many parietal (rarely basal) placentas; ovules usually numerous; style 1; stigmas 2 to numerous, papillate , rarely 2-fid. Fruit juicy or dry, naked, scaly , hairy , bristly , or spiny, indehiscent or dehiscent , when juicy then pulp derived from often deliquescent funicles (except in Pereskia) . Seeds usually numerous, often arillate or strophiolate ; embryo curved or rarely straight; endosperm present or absent; cotyledons reduced or vestigial, rarely leaflike.

About 110 genera and more than 1000 species: temperate and tropical America; Rhipsalis baccifera (J. S. Mueller) Stearn native in tropical Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, Mascarenes, and Sri Lanka; some species of other genera now extensively naturalized in the Old World through human agency; more than 60 genera and 600 species cultivated as ornamentals or hedges in China, of which four genera and seven species more or less naturalized.[1]

Genus Opuntia

Trees or shrubs , erect to trailing , usually many branched, sometimes forming clumps or mats; trunk , when present, initially segmented , appearing continuous with age, main axis determinate, usually terete . Stem segments green or sometimes reddish to purple, usually flattened, circular, elliptic , ovate , lanceolate, or obovate to oblanceolate , 2-60(-120) × 1.2-40 cm, nearly smooth to tuberculate , glabrous or pubescent ; areoles usually elliptic, circular, or obovate, 3-8(-10) × 1-7(-10) mm; wool white, gray, or tan to brown, aging white or gray to black. Spines 0-15+ per areole, white, yellow to brown, red-brown to gray, or black, sometimes partly to wholly white chalky (chalkiness disappearing when wet), aging gray to dark brown to black, with epidermis intact, not sheathed, acicular to subulate , sometimes setose or with hairlike bristles , terete to angular-flattened, to 75(-170) mm, tips sometimes paler or yellow. Glochids in adaxial crescent at margin of areole, in tuft or encircling areole margin, white to yellow to brown, or red-brown, aging white to brown or red-brown. Flowers bisexual or sometimes functionally staminate , radially symmetric ; outer tepals green to yellow with margins tinged color of inner tepals; inner tepals pale yellow to orange, pink to red or magenta, rarely white (unicolored) or with base of a different color (bicolored ), oblong to spatulate , emarginate-apiculate; nectar chamber simple , open, not covered by proximal thickening style. Pollen yellow, grains reticulate or foveolate (opuntioid type). Fruits sometimes proliferating (sprouting from another fruit), if fleshy , green, yellow, or red to purple or, if dry, tan to gray, straight, sometimes stipitate , clavate to cylindric , ovoid , or obovoid to subspheric, 10-120 × 8-120 mm, fleshy to juicy or dry, smooth or tuberculate, spineless or spiny , sometimes burlike. Seeds pale yellow to tan or gray, generally circular to reniform , flattened (discoid ) to subspheric, angular to squarish, sometimes warped, 2-7 × 2-7 mm, glabrous, commonly bearing 1-4 large, shallow depressions due to pressures from adjacent developing seeds; girdle protruding 0.3-3.5 mm, forming ridge or flat wing , or not protruding. x = 11.

Species ca. 150 species: widespread in North America, Mexico, West Indies, South America, including the GalÃ¡pagos Islands; some species introduced to and naturalized in the Old World.

Many taxa are cultivated for ornamental plants , food, and animal fodder . Some species of Opuntia become obnoxious weeds ; some species have been planted in Africa for stabilization of sand dunes.

Many interspecific hybrids are known and have been named; only five are fully treated here; two other named hybrids recognized by the author are briefly described and cross-referenced under putative parent taxa.[2]

Physical Description

Species Opuntia cochenillifera

Shrubs or small trees , 2-4 m tall. Trunk (when present) terete . Large joints green, elliptic to narrowly obovate , 8-40(-50) × 5-7.5(-15) cm, thick, margin entire, base and apex rounded . Areoles ca. 2 mm in diam. Spines usually absent, when present: 1-3 per areole, spreading , grayish tan, acicular , 3-9 mm; glochids early deciduous. Leaves conic, 3-4 mm, early deciduous. Flowers 1.2-1.5 cm in diam., erect . Sepaloids with brilliant red or green midrib , largest ones ovate-deltoid, 5-12 × 6-9 mm, margin entire, apex acute. Petaloids bright red, ovate to obovate, 1.3-1.5 × 0.6-1 cm, margin entire or undulate , apex rounded or acute. Filaments pink, 3-4 cm; anthers pink, ca. 1.5 mm. Style pink, 4-4.5 cm; stigmas 6-8, greenish, ca. 3 mm. Fruit red, ellipsoid , 3-5 × 2.5-3 cm, umbilicus developed but not conspicuous . Seeds gray or tannish, thickened discoid , ca. 3 mm in diam. Fl. Jul-Feb. [source]

This species was first introduced to China in 1901. Some authorities now recognize this species in the genus Nopalea, as distinct from Opuntia, based on pollen-morphological differences. [source]

Habit: Deciduous.

Flowers: Bloom Period: March, April, May. • Flower Color: magenta

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 18-24" tall.

Habitat

Slopes ; low altitudes [3].

Biology

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Growth

Culture: Space 4-6' apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 6.1 • Maximum pH: 7.8

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b. (map)

Taxonomy

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Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
- Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
    - Phylum: Tracheophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
      - Subphylum: Euphyllophytina ()
        Infraphylum: Radiatopses () - Kenrick & Crane, 1997
        Class: Spermatopsida () - Brongniart, 1843
        Subclass: Caryophyllidae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Superorder: Caryophyllanae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Order: Caryophyllales () - Perleb, 1826
        Suborder: Portulacineae ()
        Family: Cactaceae () - Durande, 1782 ex A.L. de Jussieu, 1789, nom. cons. - cactus
        Subfamily: Opuntioideae ()
        Genus: Opuntia () - P. Miller, 1754 - Pricklypear, nopal [origin uncertain; possibly based on name of Greek town (Opus perhaps) where a cactus-like plant grew]
        Specific epithet: cochenillifera - (L.) P. Mill.
        Form: d as a host for cochineal insects that furnish
        Botanical name: - Opuntia cochenillifera (L.) P. Mill.

Synonyms

Cactus cochenillifer Linnaeus • Cactus cochenillifera Linnaeus • Cactus cochenilliferus L. • Nopalea cochenillifera (L.) Salm-Dyck • Nopalea cochenillifera (Linnaeus) Salm-Dyck.

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Opuntia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 389 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

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Notes

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Contributors

Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 9, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 01, 2008:

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Bishop Museum Natural History Specimen Data
Comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad, Herbario del Instituto de Ecología, A.C., México
Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
, Biodiversidad de Costa Rica
Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Arizona State University Vascular Plant Herbarium
USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers

Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2646169
Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-19699
GRIN Nomen Number: 25830
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 19699
Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: PDCAC0D0B0
U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: NOCO4
Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 24998

Footnotes

Zhen-yu Li & Nigel P. Taylor "Cactaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 209. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Donald J. Pinkava "Opuntia". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 93, 94, 95, 102, 123, 232, 381. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
"Opuntia cochenillifera". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 210, 211. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

Opuntia cochenillifera

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Cactaceae

Genus Opuntia

Physical Description

Species Opuntia cochenillifera

Size/Age/Growth

Habitat

Biology

Growth

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Notes

Similar Species

Members of the genus Opuntia

More Info

Further Reading

Notes

Contributors

Data Sources

Identifiers

Footnotes