Opuntia ficus-indica, the Indian fig opuntia, fig opuntia, or prickly pear, is a species of cactus that has long been a domesticated crop plant grown in agricultural economies throughout arid and semiarid parts of the world. O. ficus-indica is the most widespread and most commercially important cactus. It is grown primarily as a fruit crop, and also for the vegetable nopales and other uses. Cacti are good crops for dry areas because they efficiently convert water into biomass. O. ficus-indica, as the most widespread of the long-domesticated cactuses, is as economically important as maize and blue agave in Mexico. Opuntia species hybridize easily, but the wild origin of O. ficus-indica is likely to have been in central Mexico, where its closest genetic relatives are found.
Echinocereus engelmannii, the strawberry hedgehog cactus or Engelmann's hedgehog cactus, is a cactus commonly found in desert areas of the southwestern United States and the adjacent areas of Mexico, including the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Baja California and Sonora.
Opuntia engelmannii is a prickly pear common across the south-central and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It goes by a variety of common names, including desert prickly pear, discus prickly pear, Engelmann's prickly pear in the US, and nopal, abrojo, joconostle, and vela de coyote in Mexico.
Cochemiea dioica, also called the strawberry cactus, California fishhook cactus, strawberry pincushion or fishhook cactus, is a cactus species of the genus Cochemiea. Its common name in Spanish is biznaga llavina. Temperature along with precipitation are consequential factors in distributing plant species.
Opuntia gosseliniana, commonly known as the violet pricklypear, is a species of cactus that is native to Pima County, Arizona in the United States and Baja California, Chihuahua, and Sonora in Mexico.
Opuntia phaeacantha is a species of prickly pear cactus known by the common names brown-spine prickly pear, tulip prickly pear, and desert prickly pear found across the southwestern United States, lower Great Plains, and northern Mexico. The plant forms dense but localized thickets. Several varieties of this particular species occur, and it may hybridize with other prickly pears, making identification sometimes tricky.
Opuntia basilaris, the beavertail cactus or beavertail pricklypear, is a cactus species found in the southwest United States. It occurs mostly in the Mojave, Anza-Borrego, and Colorado Deserts, as well as in the Colorado Plateau and northwest Mexico. It is also found throughout the Grand Canyon and Colorado River region as well as into southern Utah and Nevada, and in the western Arizona regions along the Lower Colorado River Valley.
Opuntia humifusa, commonly known as the devil's-tongue, eastern prickly pear or Indian fig, is a cactus of the genus Opuntia present in parts of the eastern United States and northeastern Mexico.
Opuntia fragilis, known by the common names brittle pricklypear and little prickly pear, is a prickly pear cactus native to much of western North America as well as some midwestern states such as Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. It also occurs in several Canadian provinces. It is known from farther north than any other cactus, occurring at as far as 56°N latitude in British Columbia. There is an isolated and possibly genetically unique population in Eastern Ontario known as the "Kaladar population".
Opuntia, commonly called the prickly pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, many known for their flavorful fruit and showy flowers. Cacti are well-adapted to aridity; however, they are still vulnerable to alterations in precipitation and temperature driven by climate change. Prickly pear alone is more commonly used to refer exclusively to the fruit, but may also be used for the plant itself; in addition, other names given to the plant and its specific parts include tuna (fruit), sabra, sabbar, nopal from the Nahuatl word nōpalli, nostle (fruit) from the Nahuatl word nōchtli, and paddle cactus. The genus is named for the Ancient Greek city of Opus, where, according to Theophrastus, an edible plant grew and could be propagated by rooting its leaves. The most common culinary species is the "Barbary fig".
Opuntia chlorotica is a species of plant in the family Cactaceae. It is a species of prickly pear native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Its common names include pancake prickly pear, flapjack prickly pear and dollarjoint prickly pear.
Cylindropuntia echinocarpa is a species of cactus known by the common names silver cholla, golden cholla, and Wiggins' cholla. It was formerly named Opuntia echinocarpa.
Opuntia oricola is a species of prickly pear cactus known by the common name chaparral prickly pear. It is native to southern California and Baja California, where it grows in coastal sage scrub and chaparral habitats.
Cylindropuntia californica is a species of cholla cactus known by the common name snake cholla. It is primarily found in Baja California, Mexico and the southernmost part of California in the United States. It is characterized by a short, decumbent habit, yellow-green flowers, elongated stems, and short spines. It is mostly found in coastal sage scrub and coastal chaparral habitats, but two varieties in Baja California can be found in foothills and deserts. In California, variety californica is regarded as a rare and threatened plant, with a California Native Plant Society listing of 1B.1, in part due to its limited number of occurrences and threats from development. It formerly was considered to have a larger range due to the inclusion of Cylindropuntia bernardina within it as the variety parkeri.
Opuntia aciculata, also called Chenille pricklypear, old man's whiskers, and cowboy's red whiskers, is a perennial dicot and an attractive ornamental cactus native to Texas. It belongs to the genus Opuntia. It is also widespread in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.
Opuntia polyacantha is a common species of cactus known by the common names plains pricklypear, starvation pricklypear, hairspine cactus, and panhandle pricklypear. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in Western Canada, the Great Plains, the central and Western United States, and Chihuahua in northern Mexico. In 2018, a disjunct population was discovered in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario, Canada.
Opuntia triacantha is a species of cactus known by the common names Spanish lady, Keys Joe-jumper, Big Pine Key prickly-pear, and jumping prickly apple. It is native to the Caribbean, from Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico, to the Lesser Antilles.
Opuntia macrocentra, the long-spined purplish prickly pear or purple pricklypear, is a cactus found in the lower Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. A member of the prickly pear genus, this species of Opuntia is most notable as one of a few cacti that produce a purple pigmentation in the stem. Other common names for this plant include black-spined pricklypear, long-spine prickly pear, purple pricklypear, and redeye prickly pear.
Opuntia rufida is a species of prickly pear cactus native to southwestern Texas and northern Mexico, where it grows on rocky slopes. The species makes up for its total lack of spines with a profusion of red-brown glochids. The common name blind prickly pear or cow blinder comes from the fact that the glochids may be carried away by the wind and blind animals.
Opuntia lagunae, commonly known as the Laguna prickly pear or the shrubby prickly pear, is a species of prickly pear cactus in the family Cactaceae. It was described by Edgar Martin Baxter.
