Nopal Chamacuelo

Velvet opuntia

Opuntia tomentosa

"The velvet opuntia, it's soft and fuzzy pads, it's fruit and plants ads a touch of elegance into the landscape"

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Cactaceae
Genus: Opuntia
Species: Opuntia tomentosa

Distribution

The Opuntia Tomentosa is located on the states of Mexico City, Querétaro, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Puebla and Estado de México

Most attractive feature

One of the most attractive feature of the Opuntia Tomentosa is that when the opuntia starts to get older and mature, the spikes start to fall of the plant, and develops a wooden trunk. Another attractive feature are the red and yellow flowers that grow on the pads as well as the tunas.

What makes this plant Unique?

The Opuntia Tomentosa has many interesting facts that makes this plant so unique. One of these facts is that it was one of the first species of plant that was cultivated in Europe coming from Mexico and Guatemala. Another uniqueness is that this type of Opuntia, with the Opuntia Linguiformis, are the ones that appear on the mexican flag.

Adaptation and Evolution

The Tomentosa gets the water by capturing the available moisture of the environment. So to prevent moisture loss the Tomentosa have thick wax skin to reduce the moisture loss. Another important adaptation is that they are close to the ground, therefore less water will be wasted. The family of the Opuntia, cactaceae, have been existing around 30-35 million yeras ago in South America. It is speculated that the ancestros were scrubby trees,

Role as a producer

As we know plant are the primary producers of the food web, this means that animals get there energy from the plants. The producer role of the Velvet Opuntia is transforming the suns sunlight into energy, this is what we called, Photosynthesis. After getting the energy herbivore animals eat the Opuntia pad or the tunas. This serves as energy for many animals

Photosynthesis

The Velvet Opuntia produces it's own energy source from the process called photosynthesis. This process conist that the plant absorbs the sunlight, on the pads or the branches of the Opuntia. Then the plant uses Carbon Dioxide to help break down the sugars and create energy and finally the plant realases oxygen as a result.

Cellular Respiration

As the absence of sunlight, plants used the process called cellular respiration in order to be able to break down the sugar. This process occurs on the mitochondria. Instead of using Carbon Dioxide to break down the sugar, they use Oxygen, so it's the other way around compare to Photosynthesis. As a result the waste products are water and Carbon Dioxide.

Food Web

On the Velvet Opuntia food web the jackrabbit, a type of herbivore rabbit, etas the pads or the tunas produced by the Velvet Opuntia giving the jackrabbit energy. Then the badger eats the jackrabbit in order to obtain the energy. Afterwards a bob cat, which is a a tertiary consumer, eats the badger and gets it's energy. This is the way nature brings balance on the ecosystems.

MLA Sources