''Opuntia anahuacensis'' is a cactus species in the genus ''
Opuntia
''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 f ...
'' of the family
Opuntioideae
Opuntioideae is a subfamily of the cactus family, Cactaceae. It contains 15 genera divided into five tribes. The subfamily encompasses roughly 220–250 species, and is geographically distributed throughout the New World from Canada, to Argentina ...
. It grows along the Gulf Coast of Texas, and perhaps northern Mexico. The plants are short, perhaps 1- or 2-ft tall, but they are wide. Some thickets may be 20- to 40-ft across and composed of multiple plants. The fruit is purplish. The cladodes are uniquely shaped, obovate with a neck. The original description claimed the plants were yellowish green, but they may be green or rarely blue-green.
As with any largish ''Opuntia'' in the USA, ''O. anahuacensis'' has been mistaken for other species. It is commonly misidentified as ''O. lindheimeri'' and less commonly as ''O. bentonii''.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q55911497
External links
''Opuntia anahuacensis'' photo gallery at Opuntia Web
anahuacensis