Opuntia polyacantha var. erinacea
(Engelm. & J.M.Bigelow) B.D.Parfitt Mojave Prickly-pearSpreading to ascending, clump-forming shrub to c. 0.8 m high; trunk absent or poorly developed. Terminal cladodes compressed, elliptic to obovate, 8–15 cm long, 4–8 cm wide, dull, light grey-green; areoles up to c. 60 per cladode face, c. 0.4–0.7 cm apart, filled with short yellowish or tan glochids; spines 4–7(–9) present in all areoles, mostly deflexed, slightly twisted, flexible, 3–7(–10) cm long, c. 0.5 mm wide near base, almost filiform but essentially subulate, at least some spines basally elliptic in cross-section, slightly barbed, white or pale grey. Flowers 4.5–7.5 cm diam.; sepaloids greenish with reddish or yellow margins; petaloids spreading, yellow, apices rounded to subacute; filaments pale yellow, anthers pale yellow; style pale red, stigma green; hypanthium spiny. Fruit obovoid-cylindroid, 2.5–4 cm long, 1.2–2.5 cm diam., shallowly depressed at apex, tuberculate, yellow, dry, deciduous when ripe. Flowers late spring–summer.
MuM, VVP. Also naturalised in SA. Native to western and southern United States of America. In Victoria, known from two small populations, at Bacchus Marsh, where growing in degraded roadside, and at Mildura, opposite the C.S.I.R.O. Merbein South office, where growing in Maireana dominated shrubland.
Spinning