24.
Opuntia microdasys
(Lehmann) Pfeiffer, Enum. Diagn. Cact. 154. 1837.
Bunny-ears pricklypear
Cactus
microdasys
Lehmann, Index Seminum (Hamburg), 1827: 16. 1827
Shrubs
, erect to sprawling, to 1 m, with many small stem segments.
Stem segments
not disarticulating, bright green, flattened, circular to elliptic-obovate, (5-)7-10(-15) × (3-)4-8(-10) cm, low tuberculate, puberulent; areoles (9-)11-16 per diagonal row across midstem segment, subcircular, 2-5 mm diam.; wool white to tan, aging gray.
Spines
absent.
Glochids
numerous, nearly filling areole, usually yellow or whitish, sometimes reddish brown, to 3 mm.
Flowers:
inner tepals bright yellow throughout, aging peach, 25-30 mm; filaments and style white; anthers yellowish; stigma lobes dark green.
Fruits
red, spheric to ovoid, 20-25 × 12-16 mm, fleshy, pubescent, spineless; areoles 35-50.
Seeds
tan, nearly spheric (slightly flattened), 1-1.2 mm (perhaps infertile); girdle protruding to 0.5 mm.
2
n
= 22.
Flowering spring (Apr-May). Desert hills, uplands, sandy to loamy calcareous soils; 1700-2100 m; introduced; Ariz.; Mexico (Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas).
Opuntia microdasys
is widely cultivated and sometimes naturalized in Arizona. In Mexico,
O. microdasys
hybridizes with
O. rufida
.
