Opuntia pestifera
Britton & Rose (1919)
Etymology
| 🌵 Author(s) | Joseph Nelson RoseNathaniel Lord Britton |
Latin pestifer ‘destructive, baleful, noxious, pernicious, pestilential’. “It is so small that, growing half-hidden in the grass, it is easily overlooked but very annoying when one comes upon it unawares. Humboldt speaks of its being troublesome to men and dogs.”
The original spelling pestifer (masculine) is correctable to pestifera (feminine) under article 60 of the International Code of Nomenclature.
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Jul 15). Opuntia pestifera. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/opuntia-pestifera