Opuntia dillenii
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| ( Ker Gawl. ) Haw. |
Opuntia dillenii is a species of plant in the genus Opuntia ( Opuntia ) from the cactus family(Cactaceae). The epithet of the species honors the German botanist Johann Jacob Dillen .
description
Opuntia dillenii grows as a low cushion or as a large, heavily branched shrub with a height of 2 to 3 meters, which sometimes has a trunk. The inverted egg-shaped to elongated shoot sections often have wavy edges. They are blue-green, sometimes gray-green, and grow to be 7 to 40 inches long and 6 to 9 inches wide. The slightly raised areoles bear numerous, conspicuous, yellow glochids . The 1 to 5, up to 5 centimeters long thorns , which can also be missing, are very variable. They are usually erect, somewhat flattened and curved, yellow and sometimes with brown bands or speckles.
The variable, 7 to 8 centimeters long flowers are lemon-yellow to yellow-orange to orange, sometimes also reddish. The pear-shaped to almost spherical, purple-colored fruits have no thorns, are juicy and 5 to 7.5 centimeters long. The fruits are edible.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 12, 22, 26, 36 or 40.
Distribution and systematics
Opuntia dillenii is very common. The range includes the southeastern United States , Mexico , Bahamas , Cuba , Cayman Islands , Jamaica , Dominican Republic , Puerto Rico , Virgin Islands , Lesser Antilles , Netherlands Antilles and Ecuador .
The first description as Cactus dillenii was published in 1818 by John Bellenden Ker-Gawler . Adrian Hardy Haworth placed them in the genus Opuntia just a year later . Opuntia dillenii is closely related to Opuntia stricta and is sometimes considered a synonym .
use
Opuntia dillenii is grown in Asia for a wide variety of purposes. In India , for example, it is used to treat wounds , pustules and even syphilis . Hill tribes in the north of Thailand eat the shoots raw, make poultices from them, drink them as tea for stomach ache and use them for problems with the liver and spleen .
The fruits are used as a dye to dye ropes made of hemp fibers red.
proof
literature
- Opuntia dillenii . In: Edward F. Anderson : The Cactus Family . Timber Press: Portland (Oregon), 2001, p. 492, ISBN 0-88192-498-9 .
- Opuntia dillenii (Ker-Gawler) Haworth In: NL Britton , JN Rose : The Cactaceae. Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus Family . Washington, 1919, Vol. I, pp. 162 f.
- Opuntia dillenii (Ker-Gawler) Haw. In: Curt Backeberg : Die Cactaceae: Handbuch der Kakteenkunde . 2nd Edition, 1982, Vol. I, pp. 558-560, ISBN 3-437-30380-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ Urs Eggli, Leonard E. Newton: Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names . Birkhäuser 2004, ISBN 3-540-00489-0 , p. 66.
- ^ Opuntia dillenii at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ^ Botanical Register; Consisting of Colored Figures of Exotic Plants Cultivated in British Gardens; with their History and Mode of Treatment . Vol. 3, plate 255, London 1818
- ↑ Supplementum Plantarum Succulentarum . 1819
