Opuntia cespitosaRaf.

WFO wfo-0001433094 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Opuntia cespitosa, photographed by Tristan Jobin
fig. a Tristan Jobin, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-25 / obs. 201032924
Opuntia cespitosa, photographed by Howard Williams
fig. b Howard Williams, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 189498932
Opuntia cespitosa, photographed by Dan Riley
fig. c Dan Riley, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163966790
Opuntia cespitosa, photographed by Dan Riley
fig. d Dan Riley, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163968053
Opuntia cespitosa, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. e Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162950692
Opuntia cespitosa, photographed by Jay Solanki
fig. f Jay Solanki, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162520492
Opuntia cespitosa, photographed by Chase Mathey
fig. g Chase Mathey, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157164878
Opuntia cespitosa, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. h Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 151660650

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 23 botanical countries

Regions where Opuntia cespitosa is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasConnecticutGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKentuckyMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNew YorkOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin
Native distribution of Opuntia cespitosa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kentucky KTY
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New York NWY
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,017 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -8.3 °C -5.6 °C 3.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.0 °C 28.1 °C 31.6 °C
Annual rainfall 638 mm 1,080 mm 1,383 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 50 mm 201 mm 283 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,017 research-grade observations of Opuntia cespitosa that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 12 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Opuntia compressa var. microsperma L.D.Benson
  • Opuntia humifusa f. jeollaensis E.J.Kim & S.S.Whang
  • Opuntia humifusa subsp. minor (Engelm.) R.Crook & Mottram
  • Opuntia humifusa var. microsperma A.Heller
  • Opuntia humifusa var. parva A.Heller
  • Opuntia mesacantha var. microsperma (Engelm. & J.M.Bigelow) J.M.Coult.
  • Opuntia mesacantha var. parva J.M.Coult.
  • Opuntia rafinesquei f. arkansana (Engelm. ex Rümpler) Schelle
  • Opuntia rafinesquei var. arkansana Engelm. ex Rümpler
  • Opuntia rafinesquei var. microsperma Engelm.
  • Opuntia rafinesquei var. minor Engelm. & J.M.Bigelow
  • Opuntia vulgaris var. rafinesquei A.Gray

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.