Opuntia-wrinkles

[bluetexasbonnie]

I found this in a sandy pasture in the Darst Field area (oil producing area, near Luling, Texas). None of the wrinkly ones like this were much bigger than the one I collected. There were other 'normal' pasture prickly pears there that were mature size. There was no obvious reason for this one to not be a mature size.

Opuntia-wrinkles1.jpg (170.6 KiB) Viewed 2713 times

That is a 5-gallon sized kitty-litter bucket it is on.

[John C]

That looks like what the Opuntia humifusa looks like here in winter. My plant looks almost identical to that one. Unless I have IDed mine incorrectly, then I would guess that is what yours is as well. They stay small and very low to the ground. Don't have many spines except for the newest pads. They turn purple, shrivel up, and flop over every winter. Mine have all plumped back up and are about to bloom.

[bluetexasbonnie]

Thank you very much. There are so many opuntias and I am never sure what the defining characteristics are between them.

Your help is very much appreciated.

[John C]

Thank you very much. There are so many opuntias and I am never sure what the defining characteristics are between them.

Your help is very much appreciated.

Your welcome. Honestly, I can't tell the difference between some of them either. Some of the local ones look VERY similar.

[A. Dean Stock]

The spines on the terminal end of the pad, the wrinkles, and the fruit morphology suggest either O. macrorhiza or O. humifusa. Flower color would settle the question. I'm thinking more likely O. macrorhiza but I'd have to check on where that locality is.
Dean

[bluetexasbonnie]

This is about 60 miles east of San Antonio. Most of the land is sandy and poor. Poor for plants, some sour oil wells for some no longer so poor people.

It has buds. Hope it doesn't bloom while all the grandkids are here. When they are here, I often forget to walk about and see what is blooming for the day. From the pics, it looks like the O. macrorhiza has red in the center of the bloom and the O. humifusa is solid yellow?

[A. Dean Stock]

If it blooms with a yellow flower with a red center then most likely it is O.macrorhiza. They are fairly common in the hill country north of San Antonio so probably also east of there as well. It has been many years since I lived in Texas and I don't remember the ranges of different species exactly in that region.
Dean

[bluetexasbonnie]

Wrinkles bloomed today. Opuntia macrorhiza is what it appears to be.



I did not notice the cucumber beetle busy chomping away on it. Glad it hadn't had a chance to completely disfigure it.