| 🌵 Author(s) | Philip Miller |
Latin ēlātĭor ‘taller’. For the size of the plants compared to other species known at the time. Based on the pre-Linnaean name Tuna elatior spinis validis nigricantibus Dill. (Miller: “Taller Indian Fig with strong black spines”).
The species is known in the Dutch Carribean in English as jumbie prickle, broad prickly pear and tuna, and in Papiamento as tuna (Curaçao), shangran (Curaçao), tuna spañó, chau (Aruba) and tuna di baca (Aruba) (Jumbie Prickle Opuntia elatior, Dutch Caribbean Species Register, accessed July 19, 2022). On the Araya peninsula and Margarita Island, Venezuela, it is or was known as tacua (Wagenaar Hummelinck in Mededelingen van het Botanisch Museum en Herbarium van de Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht 45(1): 29-55. 1938). Opuntia elatior, Opuntia polyantha (now considered a synonym of Opuntia elatior) and Opuntia monacantha were cultivated in the Netherlands East Indies (present-day Indonesia) in the 19th century, where they were known in Sundanese as tjeulie-badak-tjoetjoek [ceuli badak cucuk] ‘spiny rhinoceros ear’ (Filet, Plantkundig woordenboek voor Nederlandsch-Indië. 1876).
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Jul 19). Opuntia elatior. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/opuntia-elatior