Exit78 Photo of the Day #122
Prickly pear cactus, City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico, October 12, 2011 (Pentax K-r)
Prickly Pear (Wikipedia)
Prickly pears typically grow with flat, rounded cladodes (also called platyclades) armed with two kinds of spines; large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles called glochids, that easily penetrate skin and 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 echios of the Galápagos, are trees.
Like most true cactus species, prickly pears are native only to the Americas, but they have been introduced to other parts of the globe. Prickly pears originated during the Pliocene in the Chaco and Monte regions of Chile, then spread to 1) eastern South America (Caatinga), 2) the central Andean valleys of western South America, 3) the Caribbean region of northern South America, 4) Central America, Mexico, and Caribbean islands, 5) the North American deserts of the southwest, and 6) the North American southeast. Prickly pear species are found in abundance in Mexico, especially in the central and western regions, and in the Caribbean islands (West Indies). In the United States, prickly pears are native to many areas of the arid Western United States, including the lower elevations of the Rocky Mountains, where species such as Opuntia phaeacantha and Opuntia polyacantha become dominant, and to the desert Southwest, where several types are endemic. Prickly pear cactus is also native to sandy coastal beach scrub environments of the East Coast from Florida to southern Connecticut (Opuntia humifusa).
Opuntia species are the most cold-tolerant of the lowland cacti, extending into western and southern Canada; one subspecies, O. fragilis var. fragilis, has been found growing along the Beatton River in central British Columbia, southwest of Cecil Lake at 56° 17’ N latitude and 120° 39’ W longitude.
(Note: I am also posting photos in a series called Photography Now & Then at Haw-Creek.com)
Series notes:
- The photos in this series are (usually) randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
- Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.
