Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Opuntia ficus-indica
nopal, tuna, chumbera, higuera de pala, palera, prickly pear, spineless cactus, Indian fig
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Magnoliophyta
Class
Magnoliopsida (= Dicotyledoneae)
Order
Caryophyllales
Family
Cactaceae
Genus
Opuntia
Species
ficus-indica
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Cactus ficus-indica L.
Origin: Introduced - established
Year of first record: 1991
Mode of introduction: Intentional
Introduction Pathway: Intentional
Subpathway: Agriculture/Horticulture
Introduced status: Naturalized
Invasive status: No data
Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.
- Jørgensen, P.M. León-Yánez, S. (eds.) (1999) Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Ecuador. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 75. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, 1181 pp.
- Tropicos.org. (2017) Database of Missouri Botanical Garden. Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. 06 Oct 2017 <http://www.tropicos.org
- CONABIO (2009) Catálogo taxonómico de especies de México. Cap. nat. México 1.
- Brako, L. Zarucchi,J.L. (1993) Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Gymnosperms of Peru. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 45: i–xl, 1–1286.
- Madsen, J.E. (1989) 45. Cactaceae. Flora del Ecuador 35: 1–79.
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Missouri Botanical Garden (eds.) (2013) The Plant List, Version 1.1. Published on the Internet; http://www.theplantlist.org/ (accessed 1st January).
- Quintana, M.C. (2010) Wild plants in the dry valleys around Quito-Ecuador. Publicaciones del Herbario QCA, PUCE. Quito-Ecuador, 266 pp.
- Guézou, A. Trueman, M., Buddenhagen, E., Chamorro, S., Guerrero, A.M., Pozo, P., Atkinson, R. (2010) An extensive Alien Plan Inventory from the Inhabited Areas of Galapagos Plos One/ www.plosone.org. Volume 5/ Issue 4/e10276
- Quintana, C. Girardello, M., Barfod, A. & Balslev, H. (2016) Diversity patterns, environmental drivers and changes in vegetation composition in dry inter-Andean valleys. Journal of Plant Ecology: 1–15
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Opuntia ficus-indica", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=1150. Accessed 4 July 2025.