Opuntia mesacantha
Raf. (1830)
Etymology
| 🌵 Author(s) | Constantine Samuel Rafinesque | 🌵 Published in | Ser. Bull. Bot.: 216 (1830) |
Greek mesos ‘middle, in the middle’ + Greek akantha ‘spine’. For the “longer central spine” (“spina centrali […] longiore”) compared to Opuntia humifusa and Opuntia cespitosa, which were both described by Rafinesque as having very small spines. Not “Medium-spined Opuntia” (Crook & Mottram in Bradleya 18: 121. 2000) or for the “medium-sized spines” (Genaust, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen. 3. Auflage. 1996). Genaust explicitly rejects the translation “central-spined” (Boerner, Taschenwörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen. 4. Auflage. 1989), but that does seem to be exactly what Rafinesque meant.
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Oct 10). Opuntia mesacantha. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/opuntia-mesacantha