Identification and distribution
POWO gives northwestern Haiti and the northwestern Dominican Republic as the species' natural range. It should not automatically be restricted to Haiti because an older key describes it that way. Regional accounts also use the original name Opuntia falcata. [2-WWW]
Areces-Mallea's 2001 key presents C. falcata as a shrub to about 2 m tall with red, cup-shaped flowers. The pericarpel bears spines, unlike the usually unarmed structure in large trees described as C. microcarpa, here C. picardae. Majure and Clase also emphasise the glaucous green segments of C. falcata, contrasting with the glossy green mature stems of C. picardae. [Areces-Mallea 2001] [Majure and Clase 2018]
Chromosome number
In material from Haiti's Nord-Ouest department, Negrón-Ortiz found 2n = 88 chromosomes. This corresponds to 8x with a base number x = 11. The result was based on material documented as Strittmatter 29, 2000. It is a direct result for the specified sample rather than an estimate solely from nuclear size. [Negrón-Ortiz 2007, tab. 1, p. 1363]
The difference from 2n = 66 found in the C. picardae examined supports comparison of the two taxa, but ploidy alone does not replace morphological identification. The 2006 and 2008 developmental studies of six Consolea did not include C. falcata. The precise timing of its ovule degeneration should therefore not be presented as directly established in those papers. [Negrón-Ortiz 2007] [Strittmatter et al. 2006] [Strittmatter et al. 2008]
Synonyms and names in the literature
Opuntia falcata [2-WWW]