Cylindropuntia tesajo

Cylindropuntia tesajo (Engelm.) F.M.Knuth (1936)

🌵 Author(s)	Frederik Marcus Knuth
🌵 Basionym	Opuntia tesajo (1896)
🌵 Basionym author(s)	George Engelmann
🌵 Basionym published in	Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 3(7): 448 (1896)

Etymology

Spanish tasajo ‘jerky, dried meat’, the vernacular name of the species. Weber (in Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. (Paris) 4(1): 165. 1898): “The Mexicans generally refer to Opuntia leptocaulis [= Cylindropuntia leptocaulis] and O. Kleiniæ DC [= Cylindropuntia kleiniae] or related species (Op. Tasajo Engelm.) by the name Tasajillo. — The word Tasajillo, diminutive of the Spanish Tasajo, means strip of dry meat (carne secca).”

According to Helia Bravo Hollis (Cact. México 1: 169. 1978), in Northern Mexico, Cylindropuntia species with thin stems are referred to as tasajo, tasajillo or chirrioncillo, while species with more or less thick stems are called choya (see Cylindropuntia cholla).