Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations
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 14 botanical countries
| Region | TDWG code | Continent |
|---|---|---|
| Bolivia | BOL | SOUTHERN AMERICA |
| Colombia | CLM | |
| Ecuador | ECU | |
| Guatemala | GUA | |
| Honduras | HON | |
| Paraguay | PAR | |
| Peru | PER | |
| Venezuela | VEN | |
| Mexico Central | MXC | NORTHERN AMERICA |
| Mexico Gulf | MXG | |
| Mexico Northeast | MXE | |
| Mexico Northwest | MXN | |
| Mexico Southeast | MXT | |
| Mexico Southwest | MXS |
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 714 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | 5.6 °C | 9.5 °C | 13.8 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 23.6 °C | 29.1 °C | 34.6 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 462 mm | 659 mm | 1,267 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 4 mm | 23 mm | 71 mm |
It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 714 research-grade observations of Opuntia pubescens 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 20 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.
- Cactus nanus Kunth
- Cactus pubescens (H.L.Wendl. ex Pfeiff.) Lem.
- Cereus nanus (Kunth) DC.
- Corynopuntia dumetorum (A.Berger) F.M.Knuth
- Grusonia dumetorum (A.Berger) E.F.Anderson
- Opuntia depauperata Britton & Rose
- Opuntia dumetorum A.Berger
- Opuntia hoffmannii Bravo
- Opuntia infesta (F.Ritter) Iliff
- Opuntia leptarthra F.A.C.Weber
- Opuntia nana Vis.
- Opuntia pascoensis Britton & Rose
- Opuntia pestifer Britton & Rose
- Opuntia pubescens H.L.Wendl.
- Opuntia tayapayensis Cárdenas
- Opuntia vulgaris f. nana (Vis.) Schelle
- Opuntia vulgaris var. nana (Vis.) K.Schum.
- Platyopuntia dumetorum (A.Berger) F.Ritter
- Platyopuntia infesta F.Ritter
- Platyopuntia nana (Kunth) F.Ritter
Sourcesevery claim on this page
- World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
- iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
- 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.