Opuntia erinacea, the Mojave prickly pear, is a plant that was previously treated as a variety of Opuntia polyacantha,Bruce D. Parfitt, B.D. & A.C. Gibson (200) in 'Flora of North America' vol.4 in the family Cactaceae, that is a distributed throughout the Mojave and into the southern Great Basin deserts in the United States.
Opuntia erinacea is proposed by A.D. Stock to be an allopolyploid that resulted from hybridization between Opuntia diploursina and Opuntia basilaris.;Stock, A. D., Hussey, N., & Beckstrom, M. D. (2014). A New Species of Opuntia (Cactaceae) from Mojave Co, Arizona. Cactus and Succulent Journal, 86(2), 79-83. although ties with other varieties of Opuntia polyacantha are also strongly evident.
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