NUEVOS HIBRIDOS DE OPUNTIA LINDHEIMERII X O. FICUS INDICA FORRAJEROS SIN ESPINAS RESISTENTE AL FRIO

Progeny (127) of an interspecific cross between a spineless, red-fruited commercial type O. ficus indica TAMUK 1281 as the female parent and a spiny O. lindheimerii as the male parent were evaluated as 3-5 m tall, 4 year old plants in a rain-fed progeny trial in Argentina for forage potential. While many of the seedlings were apomictic and thus identical to the female parent, at least 45 % of the seedlings were true crosses with 68% of those being spiny. Ten segregants had many of the characteristics of the cold-hardy, spiny male parent (small fruit and bluish cladodes) but no spines and were therefore selected for further evaluation of productivity, cold hardiness and forage quality in replicated trials in the Province of Mendoza, Argentina. Five progeny i.e. 42, 46, 80, 83 and 150 had much greater biomass productivity than the most cold hardy spineless clone to date. i.e. O. ellisiana and all of these progeny had less frost damage than O. ficus-indica. One clone (46) had zero damage that was equal to O. ellisiana and various clones had minimal damage i.e. 83 and 94. It is suggested that these progeny be evaluated for forage production in mountainous and/or northern states in Mexico that have too much freezing weather for O. ficus indica.