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Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose

Cactaceae · Mexico Northwest

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
8.9°C
Record low 5.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
221mm
2 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–52DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes January and July to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Opuntia

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. Between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, the Opuntia prickly pear cactus was domesticated in central Mexico. Cacti are native to the Americas, and are well adapted to arid climates; however, they are still vulnerable to alterations in precipitation and temperature driven by climate change. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Opuntia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (168 mm of 225 mm) falls in January and July to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.6 °C against a yearly mean of 23.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and July.

Rain

225 mm in the median year at the habitat, 168 mm of it January and July to September. Wettest month September at 74 mm, driest month May at 0 mm; 4 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 147 mm to 447 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 221 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 225 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 8.9 °C, the absolute minimum 5.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.4 °C to 17.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.1 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +43 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Opuntia comonduensis through the yearWarmest months June, July and August, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 13.4 °C; 225 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°39.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER5.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 26–52RH 49–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 70 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 20–2423 / 20–2525 / 22–2727 / 24–2929 / 26–3232 / 28–3532 / 29–3532 / 30–3531 / 29–3429 / 28–3226 / 24–2823 / 21–25
Night °C13 / 10–1814 / 11–1814 / 11–1816 / 13–2017 / 15–2220 / 18–2523 / 20–2724 / 21–2824 / 21–2821 / 18–2618 / 14–2215 / 11–19
Rain mm20 / 15–268 / 6–103 / 2–51 / 0–10 / 0–11 / 0–219 / 10–5055 / 31–11374 / 43–17119 / 8–429 / 7–1516 / 14–22
DLI28 / 28–2935 / 34–3643 / 42–4348 / 48–4952 / 51–5351 / 50–5247 / 45–4844 / 41–4440 / 37–4036 / 35–3730 / 30–3126 / 26–27
RH %54 / 47–5951 / 45–5750 / 43–5549 / 40–5450 / 40–5450 / 44–5554 / 49–5857 / 51–6060 / 54–6355 / 49–5954 / 48–5855 / 48–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 70 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (119 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1285:1373 (25.725, -111.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 70 distinct grid cells holding 119 of the 130 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1285:1373 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.50_-111.250, lapse-corrected +43 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 307 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the keys of the names Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 5620600 (Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose, 155 records), 5621684 (Opuntia angustata var. comonduensis J.M.Coult., 0 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeMexico Northwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker25.793, -111.256 · in the densest population, 109 records (80% of those in range)
Kew's description“desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 136 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 119 of them in the land cells it reads, of 130 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 79 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 203 km away. 6 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 5620600 (Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose): Kew's file holds it as Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose (accepted); 155 records, from GBIF's download.Records also from GBIF's key 5621684 (Opuntia angustata var. comonduensis J.M.Coult.): Kew's file holds it as Opuntia angustata var. comonduensis J.M.Coult. (synonym under Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 136 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Ebenopsis confinis Ebenopsis confinis Dog Poop Bush Photo: CC BY, Erick Vélez SánchezFouquieria diguetii Fouquieria diguetii Adam's tree Photo: CC0, author not stated Neltuma articulata Fabaceae Jatropha cinerea Jatropha cinerea Ashy jatropha Photo: CC BY, Enrique Martínez NúñezAgave datylio Agave datylio Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroErythrostemon pannosus Erythrostemon pannosus Fabaceae Photo: CC0, Augusto Olmos Mercado

Other Opuntia 93 in the reference

Opuntia aciculata Opuntia aciculata Chenille prickly-pear Photo: CC BY-SA, Juan Cruzado CortésOpuntia × aequatorialis Opuntia × aequatorialis Ecuadorian Pricklypear Photo: CC BY, Jacob SaucierOpuntia × alta Opuntia × alta Texas Plains Pricklypear Photo: CC BY-SA, Turner BrockmanOpuntia anahuacensis Opuntia anahuacensis Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Jamie KingscottOpuntia arechavaletae Opuntia arechavaletae Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizOpuntia arenaria Opuntia arenaria Cactaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, user:sadambioOpuntia atrispina Opuntia atrispina Border Prickly-pear Photo: CC BY-SA, Turner BrockmanOpuntia auberi Opuntia auberi Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, WildLife MxOpuntia aurantiaca Opuntia aurantiaca Jointed pricklypear Photo: CC BY, Corey O'BrienOpuntia aurea Opuntia aurea Golden Prickly-pear Photo: CC BY, Andrew DudleyOpuntia aureispina Opuntia aureispina Golden-spined prickly-pear Photo: CC0, Robert CreechOpuntia austrina Opuntia austrina Devil's-Tongue Photo: CC0, author not stated all 94 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Opuntia angustata var. comonduensis. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFO

The record

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose
Native to
Mexico Northwest
Wild records
136 in range · 79 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose (plant_name_id 2393226), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 155 records of GBIF's key 5620600, Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose (Kew's file holds it as Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose (accepted)): the GBIF download; 0 records of GBIF's key 5621684, Opuntia angustata var. comonduensis J.M.Coult. (Kew's file holds it as Opuntia angustata var. comonduensis J.M.Coult. (synonym under Opuntia comonduensis (J.M.Coult.) Britton & Rose)): GBIF occurrence search API
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.50_-111.250, lapse-corrected +43 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 174938-2, POWO 174938-2
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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