Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.

Shrubs erect or small trees, 1.5-5 m tall. Trunk (when present) terete. Joints dull green or grayish green, broadly to narrowly obovate, elliptic, or oblong, (20-)25-60 × 7-20 cm, thick. Areoles usually narrowly elliptic, 2-4.5 mm. Spines usually absent, sometimes 1-6 per areole, spreading or deflexed, bristlelike or acicular, 0.3-3.2 cm, basally flattened; glochids yellow, early deciduous. Leaves conic, 3-4 mm, early deciduous. Flowers 5-8 cm in diam. Sepaloids yellow with reddish or green center, broadly ovate or obovate, to 2 cm, margin entire or denticulate, apex truncate or acute, mucronate. Petaloids spreading, yellow to orange, obovate to oblong-obovate, 2.5-3.5 × 1.5-2 cm, margin entire or erose, apex rounded, truncate, mucronate, or emarginate. Filaments yellowish, ca. 6 mm; anthers yellow, 1.2-1.5 mm. Style greenish, ca. 15 mm; stigmas (6-)7-10, cream, 3-4 mm. Fruit yellow, orange, or purplish, 5-10 × 4-9 cm, umbilicus low and concave. Seeds gray or tan, elliptic-orbicular, 4-5 × 3.5-4 mm. Fl. May-Jun.

Trees, 3-6 m; trunk to 30-45 cm diam. Stem segments green, broadly oblong to ovate to narrowly elliptic, (20-)4-60 × 2-3+ cm, low tuberculate; areoles 7-11 per diagonal row across midstem segment, rhombic to subcircular, 2-4(-5) mm diam.; wool brown. Spines 1-6 per areole, absent or very highly reduced, or in marginal to nearly all areoles, erect to spreading, whitish, tan, or brown, setaceous only or setaceous and subulate, straight to slightly curved, basally angular-flattened, 1-10(-40) mm; 0-2 small bristlelike deflexed spines to 5 mm. Glochids along adaxial margin of areole and small, inconspicuous tuft, yellowish, aging brown, less than 2 mm. Flowers: inner tepals yellow to orange throughout, 25-50 mm; filaments and anthers yellow; style bright red; stigma lobes yellow. Fruits yellow to orange to purple, 50-100 × 40-90 mm, fleshy to ± juicy, glabrous, usually spineless; areoles 45-60, evenly distributed on fruit. Seeds pale tan, subcircular, 4-5 mm diam., warped; girdle protruding to 1 mm. 2n = 88.

Habit: Herb

Cactus ficus-indica Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 468. 1753; C. chinensis Roxburgh; Opuntia chinensis (Roxburgh) K. Koch.