Dark-spined pricklypear

Description:

Opuntia phaeacantha (varieties are not currently recognized), known also as Tulip pricklypear and Brown-spined pricklypear. Few plants of this species at this location. Herbivory observed on some pricklypear plants. Some other nearby plants showing evidence of hybridization, probably with O. nicholii. The lower portion of the cladodes (pads) typically are spineless. The areoles are also spaced apart quite widely compared to dry-fruited species. In age, the glochids become quite robust and the pads tend to become somewhat more spineless and spines more white-gray. Spines clusters at the upper ends of the pad typically have more than one central spine, often three or four. The spines on the sides of the cladodes tend to be deflexed. Flowers usually profusely alone the upper edge of prior year growth and some of those can emerge from just below the edge of the pad and that character can sometimes be useful in helping to identify this species (which seems to be often overlooked in general wildflower and similar books despite it being fairly widespread in southern Utah, and in some places, locally common). Flower color highly variable, fruit and seed characteristics however can be diagnostic.April 10, 2016, Garfield County, Head of the Rocks overlook area, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monment (GSENM), 6,160 ft. elev. (approx. 1880 m).