Opuntia engelmannii Salm-Dyck ex Engelm.
Cactus-apple, Cow Tongue Prickly Pear, Cow's Tongue Cactus, Desert Prickly Pear
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Opuntia engelmannii is a prickly pear common across the south-central and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It goes by a variety of common names, including desert prickly pear, discus prickly pear, Engelmann's prickly pear in the US, and nopal, abrojo, joconostle, and vela de coyote in Mexico.
Text from Wikipedia, “Opuntia engelmannii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
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 ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Opuntia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Opuntia engelmannii Salm-Dyck; Opuntia engelmannii var. flexispina (Griffiths) B.D.Parfitt & Pinkava.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Opuntia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October and December in the northern hemisphere (May to October and December at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (321 mm of 451 mm) falls in May to October and December, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.7 °C against a yearly mean of 19.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and June.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 451 mm a year, wettest July at 62 mm, driest April at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
451 mm a year at the habitat, 321 mm of it May to October and December. Wettest month July at 62 mm, driest April at 22 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 284 mm to 893 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 49 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).
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.
Warmth and air Cold floor -1.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.6 °C, the absolute minimum -7.3 °C, about 9 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -0.5 °C to 9.2 °C), warmest day 33.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 47 to 54% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 17 / 12–21 | 19 / 14–23 | 22 / 17–26 | 26 / 22–30 | 29 / 26–33 | 32 / 27–37 | 33 / 25–37 | 33 / 25–36 | 30 / 24–34 | 26 / 21–29 | 21 / 16–24 | 17 / 11–22 |
| Night °C | 5 / -1–9 | 6 / 1–11 | 9 / 3–13 | 12 / 7–16 | 16 / 11–20 | 20 / 14–23 | 22 / 15–25 | 21 / 14–25 | 19 / 13–22 | 14 / 9–18 | 9 / 4–13 | 5 / -0–10 |
| Rain mm | 30 / 15–56 | 29 / 11–58 | 27 / 7–69 | 22 / 9–63 | 31 / 5–100 | 46 / 3–113 | 62 / 30–104 | 58 / 40–95 | 59 / 25–107 | 34 / 21–106 | 22 / 10–70 | 31 / 10–59 |
| DLI | 23 / 19–29 | 29 / 23–35 | 38 / 29–42 | 46 / 35–48 | 49 / 37–53 | 47 / 41–54 | 44 / 41–48 | 42 / 40–44 | 37 / 33–40 | 32 / 26–34 | 25 / 20–30 | 21 / 17–27 |
| RH % | 52 / 47–58 | 51 / 46–58 | 49 / 42–58 | 47 / 38–57 | 48 / 35–60 | 52 / 34–60 | 52 / 42–62 | 53 / 45–61 | 54 / 43–63 | 53 / 43–60 | 50 / 44–58 | 52 / 47–58 |
Each figure is the median across the 1014 grid cells holding the 1627 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1151:1378 (32.425, -111.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1014 distinct grid cells holding the 1627 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1151:1378 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-111.250, lapse-corrected +44 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 782 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: CK2AZ, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (8).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Opuntia engelmannii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Verbesina encelioides American dogweed
Phemeranthus aurantiacus orange fameflower
Mammillaria heyderi Coral Cactus
Cylindropuntia leptocaulis Christmas Cactus
Opuntia orbiculata Western Pricklypear
Ibervillea tenuisecta deer-applesOther Opuntia 14 in the reference
Opuntia basilaris Bakersfield beaver-tail cactus
Opuntia cochenillifera cochineal cactus
Opuntia ficus-indica Barbary fig
Opuntia gosseliniana Violet Prickly-pear
Opuntia humifusa Creeping prickly-pear
Opuntia leucotricha Aaron's-beard prickly-pear
Opuntia microdasys Angel's-wings
Opuntia monacantha Common Pricklypear Opuntia orbiculata Western Pricklypear
Opuntia polyacantha Cold-hardy Prickly Pear Cactus
Opuntia robusta Cactaceae
Opuntia stricta Araluen pear, Common pest pear, Prickly pear, Erect Pricklypear all 15 ›History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 17 wild photographs already from the GBIF downloadinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 79 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.