| Plant Category | : | Shrubs |
| Melghat's Flora's Serial No. | : | |
| Synonym | : | Opuntia eichlamii Rose; |
| Plant Common Name | : | red-flower prickly pear |
| Plant Family | : | CACTACEAE |
| Description | : | shrubby or arborescent, forming dense, much branched clumps or plants with a well-defined primary trunk up to 5 m tall. Cladodes are olive green and oblong shaped, 10-40 cm long. Flowers are yellow-orange with red stripes or totally orange-red, the style is expanded at the base forming a nectary, the filaments are reddish-pink, and the stigma lobes are green. Fruit is egg shaped as with most opuntias, and reddish to reddish-pink when ripe; the outer surface of the fruit is typically tuberculate, as a result of the raised areoles; small spines may develop from the areoles of the fruit. Spines are clustered in groups of two to eight, each 2-4 cm long, needle-like and bright white aging darker grey to brown. |
| Plant Location in Melghat | : | |
| Medicinal Use / Activity | : | The fruits are used in several indigenous systems of medicine for the treatment of various ailments, including anaemia, asthma, inflammatory disorders and diabetes. The speedy and progressive recovery of anaemia in the treatment of prickly pear may be due to increased erythropoiesis and/or antioxidant property of betacyanin. |
| Plant's Phytochemicals | : | COMPOUNDS: betacyanin; ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (0): |
| Plant's Current Status | : | |
| Plant's Cross Database Reference | : | 259142 |
| Reference | : | Prabha Y. Bhogaonkar and Pankaj A. Dhole; "Checklist of Flora of Melghat"; Chief Conservator of Forest & Field Director, Melghat Tiger Project, Camp, Amravati (2018 - 2019); Book |
| Reference | : |
| Kingdom | : Plantae - Plants |
|---|---|
| Phylum | : Tracheophyta |
| Subkingdom | : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants |
| Superdivision | : Spermatophyta - Seed plants |
| Division | : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants |
| Class | : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons |
| Subclass | : |
| Order | : Caryophyllales |
| Family | : Cactaceae |
| Genus | : Opuntia |
| Species | : Opuntia elatior |