Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Classification, Distribution and Morphological Characterization of Opuntia Species

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Opuntia spp.: Chemistry, Bioactivity and Industrial Applications

Abstract

The genus Opuntia has its place in order Caryophyllales of Angiosperms. This group of evergreen, succulent perennial plants belongs to the family Cactaceae. The Opuntia genus is native to Central America, having approximately 181 known species. These species flourish in dry, warmer, and open areas. They are cultivated throughout the world as not only vegetable, crop, and food products like jams, juices, and beverages but used as fodder and forage in Brazil, Mexico, Northern and southern Africa, and in Western Asia. In the early stage, the cladodes are tender and used as a vegetable source known as Nopales, while its fruit is obovoid to spheroidal known as tunas. It is juicy and fleshy used in candies. They are considered alternative natural medicine in diabetes, colon cancer, obesity, gastric ulcers, and coronary heart diseases. The Opuntia species hybridize easily in the wild, leading to continuous morphological variations results in misclassifications. The present study aims to complete the morphological description (qualitative and quantitative) of Opuntia species characterized by flattened cladodes called pads, covered with areoles with tiny detached spines known as glochids. The flowers are mostly yellow, cup-shaped, and lack true petals. The species showed noteworthy differences among color, length, the diameter of cladodes, spines per areole, flower, and fruit shape and color. The Opuntia genus is one of the most ignored plants’ genera, and this morphological characterization overcomes insufficient and inadequate knowledge for its species-level distinction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Amani, E., Marwa, L., Hichem, B. S., Amel, S.-H., & Ghada, B. (2019). Morphological variability of prickly pear cultivars (Opuntia spp.) established in ex-situ collection in Tunisia. Scientia Horticulturae, 248, 163–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, M. J. (2001). A new method for non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance. Austral Ecology, 26(1), 32–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arakaki, M., Christin, P.-A., Nyffeler, R., Lendel, A., Eggli, U., Ogburn, R. M., Spriggs, E., Moore, M. J., & Edwards, E. J. (2011). Contemporaneous and recent radiations of the world’s major succulent plant lineages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(20), 8379–8384.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Arba, M., Falisse, A., Choukr-Allah, R., & Sindic, M. (2017). Biology, flowering and fruiting of the cactus Opuntia spp.: A review and some observations on three varieties in Morocco. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, 60, e17160568. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1678-4324-2017160568

  • Barbera, G. (1995). History, economic and agro-ecological importance. FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper (FAO).

    Google Scholar 

  • Basile, R. (2001). Export behaviour of Italian manufacturing firms over the nineties: The role of innovation. Research Policy, 30(8), 1185–1201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beccaro, G. L., Bonvegna, L., Donno, D., Mellano, M. G., Cerutti, A. K., Nieddu, G., … Bounous, G. (2015). Opuntia spp. biodiversity conservation and utilization on the Cape Verde Islands. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 62(1), 21–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ben Salem, H., Nefzaoui, A., & Ben Salem, L. (2000). Nitrogen supplementation improves the nutritive value of Opuntia ficus-indica F. inermis-based diets and sheep growth. Paper presented at the IV International Congress on Cactus Pear and Cochineal 581.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalak, L., Younes, J., Rouphael, S., & Hamadeh, B. (2014). Morphological characterization of prickly pears (Opuntia ficus indica (L.) Mill.) cultivated in Lebanon. International Journal of Science and Research, 3(6), 2319–7064.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chauhan, S., Sheth, N., Jivani, N., Rathod, I., & Shah, P. (2010). Biological actions of Opuntia species. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 1(2), 146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De la Barrera, E., & Nobel, P. S. (2004). Nectar: Properties, floral aspects, and speculations on origin. Trends in Plant Science, 9(2), 65–69.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • DeFelice, M. S. (2004). Prickly pear cactus, Opuntia spp.-A spine-tingling tale1. Weed Technology, 18(3), 869–877.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • del Socorro Santos DĂ­az, M., de la Rosa, A.-P. B., HĂ©liès-Toussaint, C., GuĂ©raud, F., & Nègre-Salvayre, A. (2017). Opuntia spp.: Characterization and benefits in chronic diseases. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2017, 8634249.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Donkin, R. A. (1977). Spanish red: An ethnogeographical study of cochineal and the Opuntia cactus. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 67(5), 1–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drezner, T. D. (2020). The importance of microenvironment: Opuntia plant growth, form and the response to sunlight. Journal of Arid Environments, 178, 104144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ennouri, M., Fetoui, H., Bourret, E., Zeghal, N., & Attia, H. (2006). Evaluation of some biological parameters of Opuntia ficus indica. 1. Influence of a seed oil supplemented diet on rats. Bioresource Technology, 97(12), 1382–1386.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Felker, P., & Inglese, P. (2003). Short-term and long-term research needs for Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. Utilization in arid areas. Journal of the Professional Association for Cactus Development, 5, 131–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallegos-Vázquez, C., Scheinvar, L., Núñez-ColĂ­n, C. A., & MondragĂłn-Jacobo, C. (2012). Morphological diversity of xoconostles (Opuntia spp.) or acidic cactus pears: A Mexican contribution to functional foods. Fruits, 67(2), 109–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilman, E. F. (1999). Opuntia spp. Fact sheet FPS-448. University of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, K. (2016). Morphological and ecological characterization of Opuntia Miller on the Coast of South Carolina.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, D. R., Taylor, N. P., & Charles, G. (2006). New cactus lexicon. Dh Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inglese, P. (2010). Cactus pear, Opuntia ficus-indica L.(Mill.) for fruit production: An overview. Improved utilization of cactus pear for food, feed, soil and water conservation and other products in Africa, 82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalmbacher, G. (1975). New York’s neglected cactus. Opuntia thrives despite lack of desert climate. Garden Journal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamble, S. M., Debaje, P. P., Ranveer, R. C., & Sahoo, A. (2017). Nutritional importance of cactus: A review. Trends in Biosciences, 10, 7668–7677.

    Google Scholar 

  • Las Casas, G., Zingale, N., Distefano, G., Caruso, M., Nicolosi, E., Gentile, A., & La Malfa, S. (2017). Genetic diversity in Opuntia spp. cultivated for forage production. Journal of the Professional Association for Cactus Development, 19, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. A., & Nobel, P. S. (1977). Thermal energy exchange model and water loss of a barrel cactus, Ferocactus acanthodes. Plant Physiology, 60(4), 609–616.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Madera-Santana, T. J., Vargas-RodrĂ­guez, L., Núñez-ColĂ­n, C. A., González-GarcĂ­a, G., Peña-Caballero, V., Núñez-GastĂ©lum, J. A., Gallegos-Vazquez, C., & RodrĂ­guez-Núñez, J. R. (2018). Mucilage from cladodes of Opuntia spinulifera Salm-Dyck: Chemical, morphological, structural and thermal characterization. CyTA-Journal of Food, 16(1), 650–657.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Majure, L. C. (2007). The ecology and morphological variation of Opuntia (Cactaceae) species in the mid-south, United States. Mississippi State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Majure, L. C., & Ervin, G. N. (2008). The opuntias of Mississippi. Haseltonia, 2008(14), 111–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mann, J. (1969). Cactus-feeding insects and mites. Bulletin of the United States National Museum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauseth, J. D. (2006). Structure-function relationships in highly modified shoots of Cactaceae. Annals of Botany, 98(5), 901–926.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Melgar, B., Pereira, E., Oliveira, M. B. P., Garcia-Castello, E. M., Rodriguez-Lopez, A. D., Sokovic, M., Barros, L., & Ferreira, I. C. (2017). Extensive profiling of three varieties of Opuntia spp. fruit for innovative food ingredients. Food Research International, 101, 259–265.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Melzer, A., Carrick, F., Menkhorst, P., Lunney, D., & John, B. S. (2000). Overview, critical assessment, and conservation implications of koala distribution and abundance. Conservation Biology, 14(3), 619–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MoĂźhammer, M. R., Stintzing, F. C., & Carle, R. (2006). Cactus pear fruits (Opuntia spp.): A review of processing technologies and current uses. Journal of the Professional Association for Cactus Development, 8, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nobel, P., GarcĂ­a-Moya, E., & Quero, E. (1992). High annual productivity of certain agaves and cacti under cultivation. Plant, Cell & Environment, 15(3), 329–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nobel, P. S. (1978). Surface temperatures of cacti-influences of environmental and morphological factors. Ecology, 59(5), 986–995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Omweri, A. H., Rimberia, F. K., Mwangi, S. G., & Sila, D. N. (2016). Morphological characterization and distribution of cactus species (Cactaceae) in arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya. International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research, 9(1), 182–191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orozco-Segovia, A., Márquez-Guzmán, J., Sánchez-Coronado, M., Gamboa de Buen, A., Baskin, J., & Baskin, C. (2007). Seed anatomy and water uptake in relation to seed dormancy in Opuntia tomentosa (Cactaceae, Opuntioideae). Annals of Botany, 99(4), 581–592.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Panda, S. K., Behera, S. K., Qaku, X. W., Sekar, S., Ndinteh, D. T., Nanjundaswamy, H., Ray, R. C., & Kayitesi, E. (2017). Quality enhancement of prickly pears (Opuntia sp.) juice through probiotic fermentation using Lactobacillus fermentum-ATCC 9338. LWT, 75, 453–459.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Parera, C., & Caloggero, S. (2004). Assessment of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) varieties and their possible planting systems. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, 2(3), 401–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perez, R., Seals, R., & Michalsky, J. (1993). All-weather model for sky luminance distribution-preliminary configuration and validation. Solar Energy, 50(3), 235–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pimienta-Barrios, E., Gonzalez Del Castillo-Aranda, M. E., Muñoz-Urias, A., & Nobel, P. S. (2003). Effects of benomyl and drought on the mycorrhizal development and daily net CO2 uptake of a wild platyopuntia in a rocky semi-arid environment. Annals of Botany, 92(2), 239–245.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, A. M., & Weedin, J. F. (2004). Cacti of the Trans-Pecos & adjacent areas. Texas Tech University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramakrishna, A., & Ravishankar, G. (2011). Influence of abiotic stress signals on secondary metabolites in plants. Plant Signal Behaviour, 6, 1720–1731.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rebman, J. P., & Pinkava, D. J. (2001). Opuntia cacti of North America: An overview. Florida Entomologist, 84, 474–483.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reis, C. M., Gouveia, C., Vitorino, M. C., Gazarini, L., Ribeiro, M., & Peres, M. (2017). Bioactive compounds and morphology in Opuntia spp. fruits from Portuguese ecotypes. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 23(6), 929–938.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, C. E., & Felker, P. (1987). The prickly-pears (Opuntia spp., Cactaceae): A source of human and animal food in semiarid regions. Economic Botany, 41(3), 433–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schenk, H. J., & Jackson, R. B. (2002). Rooting depths, lateral root spreads and below-ground/above-ground allometries of plants in water-limited ecosystems. Journal of Ecology, 90(3), 480–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shetty, A. A., Rana, M., & Preetham, S. (2012). Cactus: A medicinal food. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 49(5), 530–536.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stambouli-Essassi, S., Harrabi, R., Bouzid, S., & Harzallah-Skhiri, F. (2015). Evaluation of the efficiency of Opuntia ficus-indica cladode cuttings for vegetative multiplication. Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca, 43(2), 521–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stintzing, F. C., & Carle, R. (2005). Cactus stems (Opuntia spp.): A review on their chemistry, technology, and uses. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 49(2), 175–194.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Szymanski, S., & Zimbalist, A. S. (2006). National pastime: How Americans play baseball and the rest of the world plays soccer. Brookings Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tegegne, F. (2001). Nutritional value of Opuntia ficus-indica as a ruminant feed in Ethiopia. FAO Plant Production and Protection Papers, pp. 91–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, R. S., & Fairbrothers, D. E. (1987). The New England distribution of Opuntia humifusa (Raf.) Raf. Rhodora, 89, 327–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu, F., Groen, T. A., Wang, T., Skidmore, A. K., Huang, J., & Ma, K. (2017). Climatic niche breadth can explain variation in geographical range size of alpine and subalpine plants. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 31(1), 190–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, The Women University, Multan, Pakistan

    Sidra Nisar Ahmed

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Sidra Nisar Ahmed, Mushtaq Ahmad, Mohammad Zafar, Sofia Rashid & Shazia Sultana

  3. Department of Biosciences, Comsats University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Sofia Rashid

Authors
  1. Sidra Nisar Ahmed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mushtaq Ahmad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mohammad Zafar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sofia Rashid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Shazia Sultana
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Biochemistry Department, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

    Mohamed Fawzy Ramadan

  2. Food Technology Department, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

    Tamer E. Moussa Ayoub

  3. Institute of Food Technology and Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Sascha Rohn

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ahmed, S.N., Ahmad, M., Zafar, M., Rashid, S., Sultana, S. (2021). Classification, Distribution and Morphological Characterization of Opuntia Species. In: Ramadan, M.F., Ayoub, T.E.M., Rohn, S. (eds) Opuntia spp.: Chemistry, Bioactivity and Industrial Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78444-7_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation