WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Sprawling, creeping clumps 1–3 pads high (16-inches) have oval pads about 4x6 inches that wrinkle when stressed. Note the flowers can be solid yellow or with a reddish center, the filaments yellow or reddish, and the fruit is fleshy and nearly round.

FLOWER: May–June. Tepals yellow throughout, or with reddish center; pale peach flowers occur occasionally. Filaments reddish to yellow, stigma lobes greenish. Fruits purple-red, oval to round, fleshy, 1-inch long and wide (25 mm), and with scattered glochids but no spines.

SPINES: Pads have 6–9 areoles across the middle, each with tan wool and a well-developed tuft of hair-like glochid barbs; 1–9 spines on upper 3/4ths of pad, color varies from reddish-brown to white or gray, and with brown tips. 1–3 central spines 1–2 3/4-inches long (25–70 mm), round, flat, or occasionally twisted. 3–6 small spines, slender, bristle-like, pointing downward.

HABITAT: Sandy soils, mesas, chaparral, mountain woodlands; grasslands, plains, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 2,000–8,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: This highly variable species is considered a hybrid between O. macrorhiza and O. polyacantha, and hybridizes with several other species. It is often treated as a variety of O. machroriza.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM grasslands from low- to mid-elevation dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Eddy, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, McKinley, Otero, Quay, San Juan, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos.