Opuntia quitensis

Description

Opuntia quitensis is a species of columnar cactus found in Peru and Ecuador. The plant extends with small stems, forming a large shrub with a size of 0.4 to 3 meters high. The pads are flattened, elongated and almost circular, bare and well connected. They are 6 to 40 cm long and 5 to 13 cm wide. From the areoles emerging brown glochids, 2 to 4 millimeters long, with two to seven spines that are sometimes missing, like needles and on the top a few beards. They are yellowish white, flattened at the top of 0.5 to 8 centimeters. The unisex flowers are orange-red to yellow-orange, 2.3 - 7 centimeters long and have diameters of 1 - 2.5 centimeters. The fruits are barrel-shaped, brown-green in color and are ripen reddish, 2.5 to 4 cm long and 2 to 4 cm in diameter. They are adorned with glochids and sometimes thorns or bristles. Opuntia, commonly called prickly pear or pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae. Prickly pears are also known as tuna (fruit), sabra, nopal (paddle, plural nopales) from the Nahuatl word nōpalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nōchtli for the fruit; or paddle cactus. The genus is named for the Ancient Greek city of Opus, where, according to Theophrastus, an edible plant grew and could be propagated by rooting its leaves. The most common culinary species is the Indian fig opuntia (O. ficus-indica). O. ficus-indica is a large, trunk-forming, segmented cactus that may grow to 5–7 m (16–23 ft) with a crown of over 3 m (10 ft) in diameter and a trunk diameter of 1 m (1 yd). Cladodes (large pads) are green to blue-green, bearing few spines up to 2.5 cm (1 in) or may be spineless. Prickly pears typically grow with flat, rounded cladodes (also called platyclades) containing large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles called glochids that readily adhere to skin or hair, then detach from the plant. The flowers are typically large, axillary, solitary, bisexual, and epiperigynous, with a perianth consisting of distinct, spirally arranged tepals and a hypanthium. The stamens are numerous and in spiral or whorled clusters, and the gynoecium has numerous inferior ovaries per carpel. Placentation is parietal, and the fruit is a berry with arillate seeds. Prickly pear species can vary greatly in habit; most are shrubs, but some, such as Opuntia galapageia of the Galápagos, are trees.