Opuntia engelmannii

Shrubs or trees, with short trunk, spreading to sometimes decumbent, 1–3 m. Stem segments not disarticulating, yellow-green to blue-green, flattened, circular to obovate to rhombic, or apex tapering, elongate, 15–40(–120) × 10–40 cm, ± tuberculate, glabrous, often glaucous; areoles 5–8 per diagonal row across mid-stem segments, evenly distributed on stem segment to absent, subcircular to obovate, 4–7 × 4–6 mm; wool tawny, aging blackish. Spines (0–)1–6(–12) per areole, white to yellow, usually red to dark brown at extreme bases, aging gray to ± black, subulate, straight to curved, flattened to angular at least near base, the longest spreading to strongly reflexed, 10–30(–50) mm. Glochids widely spaced, sparse in crescent at adaxial edge, encircling areole or nearly so, and scattered in subapical tuft, yellow to red-brown, aging gray to blackish, of irregular lengths, to 10 mm. Flowers: inner tepals uniformly yellow to buff, sometimes orange to pink to red (rarely whitish), 30–40 mm; filaments, anthers, and style whitish to cream; stigma lobes yellow-green to green. Fruits dark red to purple throughout, sometimes stipitate, ovate-elongate to barrel-shaped, 35–90 × 20–40 mm, juicy (bleeding and staining), glabrous, spineless; areoles 20–32 usually toward apex. Seeds tan to grayish, subcircular to deltoid, flattened, 2.5–6 × 2–5 mm; girdle protruding 0.3–0.5 mm.

3-6 hours of sun per day, with protection from intense mid-day sun

Water moderately, allowing the top 3cm to dry out between watering.

Opuntia Engelmannii

Opuntia engelmannii

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