Opuntia robusta
J.C.Wendl. ex Pfeiff. Wheel CactusErect shrub 1–2(–4) m high, trunk often well-developed. Terminal cladodes compressed, thickish (1.5–2.5 cm through), more or less orbicular, 16–42 cm long and wide, dull, strongly glaucous; areoles 25–45 per cladode face, c. 2.5–5.5 cm apart, filled with brown wool and yellow to brown glochids (these occasionally bristle-like, to 15 mm long); spines spreading, 1–12 per areole, rarely absent, to 5 cm long, 0.8–1.3 mm wide near base, yellow, ageing white. Flowers 5–9 cm diam.; petaloids spreading, yellow, the outer often reddish; stamens yellow; style and stigmas whitish; hypanthium barrel-shaped, tuberculate. Fruit barrel-shaped, 5–8.5 cm long, 4–6 cm diam., deeply depressed at apex when young, purple, juicy. Flowers late spring–summer.
LoM, MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, MSB, MuF, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, NIS, EGL, HNF. Also naturalised in WA, SA, NSW. Indigenous to central Mexico. Occasional on roadsides and in dry woodland communities, chiefly in north-western and north-central areas (e.g. Merbein, Charlton, Echuca). Well-established in the Maldon-Castlemaine area.
Stajsic, V.; Carr, G. W. (1996). Cactaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 119–129. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
