Blood-Red Pricklypear

Description

Opuntia sanguinea grows shrubby with numerous ascending to upright branches and forms dense thickets with heights of 2 to 3 meters. The wide lanceolate to elliptical, non-sloping drive portions are rounded at its tip and narrower at the base. They are 14 to 19 centimeters long and 5.5 to 8 centimeters wide. The areoles are located 2 to 2.5 centimeters apart. Their yellow glochids are 3 to 4.5 millimeters long. The one or two unequal, downward-bent thorns are brownish and 0.8 to 3.5 centimeters long.The bloody flowers reach diameter of 3 to 5 centimeters.