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Prickly Pear
This is the Opuntia santa-rita cactus, also known as the Purple Prickly Pear or Santa Rita Prickly Pear and it is a variety of Opuntia gosseliniana. This photo was taken in Phoenix, Arizona but they are mostly found in areas of New Mexico. The Opuntia genus describes many species of prickly pear that generally grow with flat, round cladodes and in large clonal colonies. They generally produce asexually but some also have flowers that do contain pollen for pollinators to spread. Several species are grown in Mexico for the fruit that they yield but in many other places like South Africa and Australia they are considered to be invasive. Interestingly, Opuntia is known to hybridize with between species which makes it hard to classify. They can also tend towards polyploidy meaning that instead of 2 paired sets of chromosomes they may have 6 (hexaploid) or even 8 (octaploid).
Prickly Pear
This is the Opuntia santa-rita cactus, also known as the Purple Prickly Pear or Santa Rita Prickly Pear and it is a variety of Opuntia gosseliniana. This photo was taken in Phoenix, Arizona but they are mostly found in areas of New Mexico. The Opuntia genus describes many species of prickly pear that generally grow with flat, round cladodes and in large clonal colonies. They generally produce asexually but some also have flowers that do contain pollen for pollinators to spread. Several species are grown in Mexico for the fruit that they yield but in many other places like South Africa and Australia they are considered to be invasive. Interestingly, Opuntia is known to hybridize with between species which makes it hard to classify. They can also tend towards polyploidy meaning that instead of 2 paired sets of chromosomes they may have 6 (hexaploid) or even 8 (octaploid).