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Opuntia sulphurea
Opuntia sulphurea falls under the Opuntia, or prickly pear, genus within the family Cactaceae named such because of their round shape, green color, and long thick spines. Opuntia sulphurea is the widest spread of the Opuntia that can be found in and around Argentina, occupying mostly arid areas of the region from the plains in the Western portion of Argentina up to much higher altitudes on the Eastern side of the Andes mountain range. As a result of its ability to survive in such a diverse array of environments there are several subspecies of O. sulphurea that are identifiable based on the number of spine per areole, for example. A commonality across the three is a bright yellow flower, often considered to be the color of sulfur, from which the species name is derived.
Found mostly in, and thought to originate from, the northwestern region of Argentina, from the Mendoza province up to Jujuy in the North and the Buenos Aires province to the West, Opuntia sulphurea can also be seen in parts of Paraguay and Bolivia, Chile, Western Brazil as well as a specific population that is notably naturalised "in localised areas of southern Queensland (Australia)". This species can inhabit locations at a wide range of altitudes, from areas at sea level to heights of 3,500meters. In a paper from Kiesling and Ferrari about species of cacti from Argentina they describe variants in the color of the fruit of Opuntia sulphurea based on their geographic location within its range. They refer to three varieties: the sulphurea variant which bears the signature yellow fruit, seen in ranging from the province of Mendoza to the province of Catamarca, the hildemannii which grows near the southern border of Bolivia and produces a red fruit, and the pampeana variant, named after the area of central Argentina known as the Pampas.
Big Pine Key Prickly Pear · Chenille pricklypear · Texas Plains Pricklypear · Devil's-tongue · Opuntia anacantha · Opuntia anahuacensis · Sand Prickly Pear · Border pricklypear · Opuntia auberi · Tiger-pear · Golden pricklypear · Devil's-tongue
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Opuntia sulphurea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
