Calflora: Opuntia fragilis

Opuntia fragilis (Nutt.) Haw.

Pigmy tuna, brittle prickly pear, brittle pricklypear

Opuntia fragilis, a dicot, is a shrub (stem succulent) that is native to California and is also found outside of California, but is confined to western North America.

It is included in the CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants on list 2.1 (rare, threatened, or endangered in CA; common elsewhere). 7th Edition / 8th Edition

Community:	Northern Juniper Woodland

Family:	CACTACEAE
Related:	See a list of other species in the genus Opuntia found in California.

Name Status:

Accepted by TJM2 + PLANTS + JM93

Other Names:
(according to)

PLANTS:	Cactus fragilis
PLANTS:	Opuntia brachyarthra
PLANTS:	Opuntia fragilis ssp. brachyarthra
PLANTS:	Opuntia fragilis var. brachyarthra
PLANTS:	Opuntia fragilis var. denudata
PLANTS:	Opuntia fragilis var. fragilis

Plant
Characteristics
+ Associated
Organisms

Bloom Period

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Observation

Observation Hotline
including observations with photos

Distribution by County:

See a detailed Distribution Grid of this plant in California.

A shaded county indicates that there are ocurrence records of this plant within the county.

Hover the mouse over the map to see county names. Click to view records from that county.

	There are specimen records from this county in an herbarium.
	There are documented records, vouchered or confirmed by an expert.
	There are reported records.
	There are reported records available indirectly (eg. in botanical literature).

Records by County, with approximate record counts in the form: TOTAL / CCH. Click county name to view records.

Inyo: 1 / 1 CCH Siskiyou: 8 / 6 CCH

CCH: records provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.

Information about Opuntia fragilis from other sources:

Photos on Picasa / Flickr / Google Images
website references on Google
USDA PLANTS Profile (OPFR)
Nursery availability and horticultural info (what grows with this plant?) on CNPLX
CNPS Inventory of rare and endangered plants
2012 Jepson Manual Treament from the Jepson Herbarium,
University of California, Berkeley
Original Publication citation. on the International Plants Names Index
Search efloras.org (Flora of North America)
Search the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Database