Opuntiads of the USA

Mission

Opuntia Species

Assorted Cacti

Opuntia Country

Opuntia Country 2

Opuntia Country 3

World Opuntiads

Notes from the Editors

Culture Notes

Literature

Editorial Board

News

WWW Links

Agave Photos

Literature

Books

1. Anderson, E.F., Montes, S.A., Taylor, N.P. Threatened Cacti of Mexico, Kew Publishing, 1994.
2. Anderson, E.F. The Cactus Family, Timber Press, 2001.
3. Benson, L., Cacti of the United States and Canada, Stanford University Press, 1983. 
4. Weniger, D., Cacti of Texas and Neighboring States - a Field Guide, University of Texas Press, 1984
5. Powell, MA, and Weedin J.F., Cacti of the Trans-Pecos and Adjacent Areas, Texas Tech University Press, 2004

Editors' Note: The work by L. Benson is a special book, large and fun to read; for many cactus lovers it was (and remains) a valued and precious introduction to a whole new world.  Many of the photographs are informative and "just plain fun" if you like Opuntia.  However, our treatment of various plants is different from the approach taken in "Cacti of the United States and Canada." For instance, Benson combined many taxa into O. phaeacantha, whereas this Web site (Opuntiads of the USA) will describe them differently and try to point out how our approach differs. 

Literature Cited

Applequist, W.L, and Wallace, R.S.. 2001 Phylogeny of the portulacaceous cohort based on ndhf gene sequence data. Systematic Botany 26: 406-419.

Rebman, J.P., Pinkava D.J.Opuntia Cacti of the USA---An Overview. 2001. Florida Entomologist 24:474-483.

D. Kaplanl The science of plant morphology: definition, history, and role in modern biology. 2001. Am. J. Bot. 88:1711-1741.

E.J. Edwards, R. Nyffeler, M.J. Donoghue. Basal cactus phylogeny: implications of Pereskia paraphyly for the transition to the cactus life form. 2005. Am. J. Bot. 92:1177-1188

E.J Edwards and M.J. Donoghue. Pereskia and the origin of the cactus life form. 2006. American Naturalist. preprint

E.J. Edwards and M Diaz. Ecological physiology of Pereskia guamacho, a cactus with leaves. 2006. Plant Cell and Envt. 29: 247-256

D.H. Janzen, Chihuaan Desert Nopaleras: Defaunated Big Mammal Vegetation Ann. Rev. Ecol. Systematics. 17:595-636

S. Good-Avila, V. Sousa, B. Gaut and L.E. Eguiarte, Timing and Rate of Speciation in Agave (Agavaceae), 2006. P.N.A.S. 103:9124-9129.