opuntia

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   botany: any cactus of the genus Opuntia, whose members typically have flattened jointed pads and include the prickly pears

   A flowering opuntia spread broad green pads across the dry hillside.

Borrowed from the botanical genus name Opuntia. Linnaeus adapted Latin opuntius, 'of Opus,' after a plant associated by ancient writers with the Greek city of Opus, although the American cacti now bearing the name are unrelated to that Old World plant.

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