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Cylindropuntia ramosissima
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Family:
CACTACEAE
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Citation: Cylindropuntia ramosissima (Engl) F.M.Knuth, Kaktus-ABC 122. 1935.
Opuntia ramosissima Engl., Amer. J. Sci. Arts II, 14: 339. 1852.
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Malayalam Name(s):
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
Shrubs, intricately branched, 0.5-2 m. Stem segments firmly attached, green, ropelike, cylindric, 2-8 × 0.4-1 cm; tubercles rhombic, convex (flattened upon drying), 0.4-0.8 cm; areoles subcircular abaxially, adaxially becoming usually deltate-linear; glochid-bearing portion protruding distally, wedged between bases of 2 adjacent tubercles, (3-)4-7 × 1-1.5(-2) mm. Spines 0-5 per areole, usually in distal areoles or sometimes absent or nearly so, tan to red-brown to deep purple, aging gray; major abaxial spines 0-1(-2), the longest spine spreading, (1.5-)2.5-6 cm; adaxial spines usually reflexed, short to ca. 1 cm; sheaths baggy. Glochids in subcircular to linear adaxial tuft, yellow to tan to brown, to 2 mm. Flowers: inner tepals bronze-red ± suffused rose, with mid stripes darker, ovate, 6-13 mm, acute-apiculate to attenuate; filaments greenish; anthers yellow; style whitish or blushed with rose-pink or light green; stigma lobes whitish. Fruits maturing tan, ellipsoid to stipitate-ellipsoid, 15-30 × 10-15 mm, dry at maturity, tuberculate, developing increasingly burlike, with many bristlelike spines; areoles (32-)40-66, evenly spaced, woolly. Seeds pale yellow to tan-gray, angular to squarish in outline, warped, 4-4.5 × 3.5-4 mm, sides irregularly concave-convex; girdle smooth.
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Habit:
Shrub
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Flowering & Fruiting:
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District(s):
Palakkad
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Grown as live fence
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Distribution:
Native of Southern USA and Mexico
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Aquatic:
No
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Epiphyte(s):
No
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Saprophyte:
No
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Stem parasite:
No
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Root parasite:
No
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Flower colour(s):
Yellow
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Weed:
No
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Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
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Exotic:
Yes
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Garden:
No
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Edible:
No
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Vegetable:
No
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Endemic to:
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IUCN status:
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Altitude:
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Localities:
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