Species
+

Opuntia robusta H.L.Wendl.

Cactaceae

Climate known 5 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 robusta, the wheel cactus, nopal tapon, or camuesa, is a species of cactus in the family Cactaceae. It is native and endemic to central and northern Mexico to within 100 miles (160 km) of the Arizona and New Mexico borders where it grow from 5,000 to 10,000 feet on rocky slopes, open shrub lands, woodlands and mixed with other cactus and succulents.

Text from Wikipedia, “Opuntia robusta”, 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.

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
H.L.Wendl.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +2
Wild records
1129 in range· 458 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
May, mean day; nights 12 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
567mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 119 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–47DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Opuntia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 567 mm a year, wettest July at 119 mm, driest March at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Opuntia albicans Salm-Dyck; Opuntia albicans var. laevior Salm-Dyck; Opuntia camuessa F.A.C.Weber; Opuntia flavicans Lem.; Opuntia gorda Griffiths and 8 more.

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, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September 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 (407 mm of 567 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

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 567 mm a year, wettest July at 119 mm, driest March at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

567 mm a year at the habitat, 407 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 119 mm, driest March at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 433 mm to 973 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: 29 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 47 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

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 -0.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -0.7 °C, the absolute minimum -6.9 °C, about 5 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 1.6 °C to 7.7 °C), warmest day 26.2 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.7 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 48 to 63% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 19 °C in Jan to 26 °C in May; mean night from 5 °C in Jan to 13 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 567 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 729 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -6.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-6.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 29–47RH 48–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 729 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 15–2221 / 17–2423 / 19–2625 / 21–2826 / 22–2925 / 21–2823 / 20–2623 / 20–2622 / 19–2521 / 19–2421 / 18–2319 / 16–22
Night °C5 / 2–86 / 2–98 / 3–1010 / 6–1312 / 8–1513 / 10–1613 / 10–1513 / 10–1512 / 10–1510 / 7–138 / 5–106 / 3–8
Rain mm18 / 11–4512 / 9–249 / 4–2020 / 6–3340 / 15–6386 / 60–144119 / 82–230105 / 63–20697 / 69–15341 / 31–6811 / 9–299 / 5–34
DLI30 / 27–3337 / 33–3843 / 40–4547 / 43–4947 / 43–5042 / 39–4639 / 37–4339 / 37–4234 / 32–3734 / 31–3632 / 28–3329 / 25–31
RH %52 / 48–5751 / 46–5548 / 42–5449 / 42–5552 / 44–5859 / 51–6462 / 57–6762 / 58–6763 / 58–6859 / 53–6555 / 48–6053 / 48–57

Each figure is the median across the 729 grid cells holding the 1093 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 1361:1572 (21.925, -101.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.6 °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 729 distinct grid cells holding the 1093 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1361:1572 (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 22.00_-101.250, lapse-corrected +8 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2159 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest· introduced: Baleares, Corse, France, Spain, Greece, Italy, Sicilia, Algeria, Tunisia, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“succulent shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker20.563, -99.758 · in the densest population, 553 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1129 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 458 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 119 km away. 590 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 36 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1129 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Opuntia robustaOpuntia robustaOpuntia robustaOpuntia robusta

Photographs: Marc Riera, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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 robusta, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The Cacti Microbiome: Interplay between Habitat-Filtering and Host-Specificity
Citlali Fonseca-García, Devin Coleman‐Derr, Etzel Garrido, Axel Visel (2016) · Frontiers in Microbiology
Comparative Analyses of Total Phenols, Antioxidant Activity, and Flavonol Glycoside Profile of Cladode Flours from Different Varieties of Opuntia spp.
Liliana Santos‐Zea, Janet A. Gutiérrez‐Uribe, Sergio O. Serna‐Saldívar (2011) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Regular ingestion of opuntia robusta lowers oxidation injury
Alexandra C. Budinsky, Roswitha Wolfram, A. Oguogho, Yannis Efthimiou (2001) · Prostaglandins Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids
Effect of prickly pear (Opuntia robusta) on glucose- and lipid-metabolism in non-diabetics with hyperlipidemia--a pilot study.
Roswitha Wolfram, Harald Kritz, Yannis Efthimiou, Jorgos Stomatopoulos (2002) · PubMed
Functional Signatures of the Epiphytic Prokaryotic Microbiome of Agaves and Cacti
Víctor M. Flores‐Núñez, Citlali Fonseca-García, Damaris Desgarennes, Emiley A. Eloe‐Fadrosh (2020) · Frontiers in Microbiology
Hepatoprotective Effect of Opuntia robusta and Opuntia streptacantha Fruits against Acetaminophen-Induced Acute Liver Damage
Herson Antonio González-Ponce, María Consolación Martínez-Saldaña, Ana Rosa Rincón‐Sánchez, María Teresa Sumaya-Martínez (2016) · Nutrients
Quality Assessment of Seed Oil from Selected Cactus Pear Cultivars ( Opuntia ficus - indica and Opuntia robusta )
M. de Wit, A. Hugo, Nokuthula Shongwe (2016) · Journal of Food Processing and Preservation
Effect of extraction conditions on the antioxidant and antiglycation capacity of carbohydrates from Opuntia robusta cladodes
Mohamed Aymen Chaouch, Jawhar Hafsa, Christophe Rihouey, Didier Le Cerf (2016) · International Journal of Food Science & Technology
Betacyanins, major components in Opuntia red-purple fruits, protect against acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure
Herson Antonio González-Ponce, Ma. Consolación Martínez-Saldaña, Pieter G. Tepper, Wim J. Quax (2020) · Food Research International

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.

Other Opuntia 14 in the reference

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 12 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 42 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.