Opuntia plant named ‘Seleno-Red’

Abstract

A new and distinctly salt and boron tolerant cultivar of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica), named ‘Seleno-Red,’ is particularly distinguishable by its ability to tolerate and grow in high concentration of salt, boron and selenium-laden soil. The cultigen was originally discovered by stringent selection of randomly harvested cladodes (modified stems) and potentially from isolation of a single unique cladode or sport that exhibited high levels of salt and boron tolerance necessary for survival, and then propagated into the ‘Seleno-Red’ cultivar. The cladodes were originally randomly harvested from different individual plants and screened from within a naturally segregating wild population or accession. The ‘Seleno-Red’ cultivar has orange-red flowers, mature green cladodes without glochids, and red-purple fruit. When grown in a saline/selenium-laden soil, the spineless ‘Seleno-Red’ cultivar absorbs high concentrations of natural-occurring selenium, volatilizes selenium, and produces edible cladodes and fruit enriched with potential anti-carcinogenic forms of organic selenium.

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