| 🌵 Author(s) | Ralph N. Philbrick | 🌵 Published in | Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 36: 163 (1964) |
Latin ōra ‘coast’ + Latin –cŏla ‘inhabitor’. For the occurrence in the “[c]oastal area from Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A., south to Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, and including the California Channel Islands from San Miguel, Santa Barbara County, to Los Coronados, Baja California” (Philbrick). The epithet was suggested by William J. Dress.
Eggli & Newton (Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names. 2004) (“for the occurrence in mountains”) and Crook and Mottram (Bradleya 18: 138. 2000) (“Mountain-dweller Opuntia”) interpret the epithet as Greek oros ‘mountain’ + Latin –cŏla ‘inhabitor’, but Philbrick does not mention mountains. Compare Panicum oricola Hitchc. & Chase (habitat “[s]and barrens along the coast”; Rhodora 8: 208. 1906), Paspalum oricola Millsp. & Chase (type locality Cozumel Island off the coast of Yucatán), Pleurothallis oricola H.Stenzel (“Named for its coastal habitat from Latin ‘ora‘ for ‘coast'”; Willdenowia 32(1): 101. 2002) and Vittadinia australasica var. oricola N.T.Burb. (common name Coastal New Holland Daisy).
The English name oracle cactus is apparently based on the erroneous assumption that oricola is Latin for ‘oracle’ (‘oracle’ is ōrācŭlum).
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Feb 09). Opuntia oricola. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/opuntia-oricola