Opuntia ficus-indica

Mission prickly-pear, Mission Prickly-Pear

Family: Cactaceae · Type: tree · Not Native

Mission prickly-pear is a naturalized tree found in southern California Coast, southern Coast Ranges, coastal southern California, southern Channel Islands, western Transverse Ranges, and western Peninsular Ranges in dry coastal habitats at elevations of 6 to 450 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces yellow or orange inner perianth flowers with pale green to pale pink filaments. Growing as a tree-like succulent with branches generally ascending, reaching 4 to 5 meters tall with gray-green elliptic-obovate segments 25 to 43 centimeters long. Its branches are typically spineless, but occasionally have white-tan or brown-gray spines up to 3 centimeters long when present. The fruit is large and juicy, measuring 6 to 9 centimeters long, ranging in color from yellow-orange to purple and containing numerous areoles.

Habitat: dry coastal habitats

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: 6-450 m

Bioregions: s CCo, s SCoRO, SCo, s ChI, w WTR, w PR

California counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Monterey

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.