[Cactus ficus-indica L.; Opuntia megacantha Salm- Dyck; O. tuna sensu Hawaiian botanists, non Mill.]
(nat) Panini, papipi Trees 3-5 m tall, with a definite trunk; joints dull green or gray when fresh, broadly obovate, 25-60 cm long, 20-40 cm wide, margins more or less entire. Areoles spineless or with 1-6 white or yellowish spines 1-3 cm long. Flowers 6-7 cm long, 5-7 cm in diameter; outer perianth parts yellow with a green or reddish median stripe, 10-20 mm long, 15-20 mm wide, inner perianth parts yellow to orangish yellow, rotate, 25-30 long, 15-20 mm wide; staminal filaments yellow; style greenish, ca. 15 mm long; stigma lobes 8-10. Berries greenish white to yellow, yellowish brown, or reddish purple, depending on the strain, fleshy, barrel-shaped, 5-10 cm long, 4-9 cm in diameter. [2n = 22, 33, 44, 66, 88.] Na-tive range unknown, although most likely Mexico, cultivated since ancient times for its edible fruit, and now widely escaped and naturalized in warm parts of the world; in Hawai‘i naturalized in dry, disturbed habitats on Kauai, 0‘ahu, Maui, Kaho‘olawe, and Hawaii. Pope (1929) indicates that this species, the most commonly encountered escaped cactus in Hawaii, probably was introduced from Acapulco, Mexico, by Don Francisco Paul de Marin prior to 1809. —Plate 47.