Opuntia spinulifera (Saucepan cactus, Large round-leaved prickly pear)

Blouturksvy, Groot rondeblaar turksvy [Afrikaans]

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 Central America. Naturalised in southern Africa. A declared Category 1 invasive plant in South Africa.

Ecological interactions in southern Africa

Herbivores

• Cactoblastis cactorum (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Phycitinae). 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 spinulifera. It was released in South Africa in 1933 for the biological control of Opuntia ficus-indica.

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