Opuntia vulgaris Mill.
prickly pear
Plants to 4-5 m high, often with thick cylindric trunk. Stem segments to c. 30 cm long, often much less, ± ovate to oblong or obovate, flattened; base narrowed. Areoles villous and with brownish glochids; spines 1-2 per areole, 1-4 cm long. Fls on margins of stem segments, 5-9 cm diam. Sepals and petals 3-4 cm long, yellow, with red tinge or median red stripe on outside of outer petals, ovate. Filaments white or greenish. Stigmas c. 5 mm long. Fr. 5-7.5 × 3-4.5 cm, obovoid, reddish purple, fleshy, spineless; apex with large round depression. Pulp pale green or greenish white.
N.: south side of Hokianga Harbour, and near Mangonui (N. Auckland), Napier (N. Hawke's Bay); S.: Nelson, also collected once at Lowburn (C. Otago).
S. Brazil, Argentina 1855
Cliffs, sandy beaches.
FL Feb-May.
Prickly pear has not spread significantly since it was first recorded as naturalised in N.Z.; it thrives where established in warmer areas but probably occurs only as a casual in the colder climate further south. This sp. is one of the main noxious prickly pears in E. Australia and is considered by some authorities to be correctly called O. monacantha (Willd.) Haw.
