Kingdom Plantae Family Cactaceae Rank Species | Order Caryophyllales Genus Opuntia | |
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Opuntia pailana is a species of the genus Opuntia in the family of Cactaceae. The name pailana comes from the sierra de la Paila in the state of Coahuila Mexico where it has been discovered.
Description
The first description was published by Wilhelm Weingart in 1929 in the book Monatsschrift der Deutschen Kakteen-Gesellschaft. Band 1, Nummer 9, 1929, S. 167–169.
As most of the species of the genus Opuntia, Opuntia pailana is a shruby plant with cladodes (leaves racket-shaped) up to one meter high.
The cladods are in color blue-green or when getting older green-yellow, 10 to 14 centimeters long and up to 9 centimeters width. The areoles with dark color support grey-yellow glochids, with long white hairs of trichome.
The areols support also thorns 2 to 3 centimeters long with white or light grey color, with some darker strips. Most often, they are three, or six to eight on older plants.