Opuntia salmiana
Life
> eukaryotes >
Archaeoplastida >
Chloroplastida
>
Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants)
> Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants)
> Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering
plants) > Core Eudicots
> Order: Caryophyllales >
Familty: Cactaceae > Genus:
Opuntia
Native to South America. Naturalised in
southern Africa.
Ecological interactions in southern Africa
Herbivores
-
Cactoblastis cactorum (Lepidoptera:
Pyralidae:
Phycitinae).
Released in South Africa in 1933 for the biological
control of Opuntia
ficus-indica. The orange and black striped larvae of this moth eat the
parenchymous tissue inside the cladodes of a wide variety of
Opuntia species, including Opuntia salmiana, causing
considerable damage to this host plant (Klein 2011).
Publications
-
Klein H. 2011. A
catalogue of the insects, mites and
pathogens that have been used or
rejected, or are under consideration,
for the biological control of invasive
alien plants in South Africa. African
Entomology 19(2): 515-549.
Text by Hamish Robertson |