Opuntia cymochila - Brewster Co, TX

Opuntia cymochila is a widespread prickly pear across the prairie grasslands of the midwest as far north as Wyoming. This particular clone comes from seed collected at altitude in Brewster County, Texas. It is characterised by bearing fruits that are juicy at maturity rather than dry mature fruits and by its distinctive shrivelled cladodes during drought and in winter. These deep horizontal creases give it a crinkled appearance that has been likened to the skin of a raisin and even when the pads have rehydrated the following year the patterns of the creases are still visible as semi-permanent marks.

Opuntia cymochila is cited as being a synonym of Opuntia tortispina in the authoritive Plants of the World Online but those good folks over at Opuntia Web disagree and list numerous points of difference between the two species. You can decide for yourself but I have gone with the name Opuntia cymochila not just because of the somewhat arbitrary reason that that was the name by which it came to Tropical Britain but becasue Opuntia Web is convincing in its description.

Opuntia cymochila is a spiky devil and the spines are stronger, sharper and more numerous than many prickly pears. It also come with a full complement of glochids that are guaranteed to make your day. Of course, these are hardly the kind of things that would deter an ardent enthusiast like you that wants another handsome low-growing cold-hardy cactus in your outdoor xerophytic garden.