Opuntia leucotricha

Nopal duraznillo

Family: Cactaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Nopal duraznillo is a naturalized shrub found in San Diego County in coastal-sage scrub at an elevation of 150 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces yellow inner perianth flowers with white filaments and distinctively colored pink or red styles. Growing as a multi-branched shrub up to 5 meters tall, it has ascending to spreading branches with gray-green to yellow-green segments that are velvety-pubescent. Its segments are 15 to 30 centimeters long, obovate to elliptic, and covered with numerous white, hair-like spines that become more abundant on older segments and trunk. The fleshy fruit is 4 to 6 centimeters long, ranging in color from yellow to purple and bearing 35 to 72 areoles with occasional spines.

Habitat: Coastal-sage scrub

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: 150 m

Bioregions: SCo (San Diego Co.)

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