Arborescent Pricklypear

Opuntia leucotricha

Found in disturbed hammocks. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Florida edition What its natural habitat tells you

—

Not native

Not native to Florida. How scores work Is it native here?

Profile 6%

No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…

At a glance

Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Light · Soil · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom

This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.

Recorded in 1 Florida county.

Natural habitats

Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

Coastal Plain hammocks

Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.

All habitats

Ecological relationships

Who uses this plant?

What these records mean

12CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including FL

Genus host records with ranges including FL · Opuntia

Dicymolomia julianalisJulia's Dicymolomia
Euxoa auxiliarisArmy Cut-Worm, Army Cutworm
Homoeosoma electellaSunflower Moth
Laetilia coccidivoraScale-Feeding Snout
Marmara opuntiellaX
Melitara prodenialisEastern Cactus-Boring Moth, Eastern Blue Cactus Borer
Erelieva quantulella
Eurythmia hospitella
Loxomorpha cambogialis
Loxomorpha flavidissimalis

Show all 12

Menesta tortriciformella
Ozamia lucidalis

Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)

—BeesSoutheastern regional records

5Specialist beesPollen specialists

Pollen specialists · Opuntia

Diadasia australis
Diadasia piercei
Lithurgopsis gibbosa
Lithurgopsis littoralis
Macrotera texana

Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0

4BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim

Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Opuntia

Cardinalis cardinalisNorthern Cardinal
Cyrtonyx montezumaeMontezuma Quail
Leptotila verreauxiWhite-tipped Dove
Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey

Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)

Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening

Growing and identification

Plant details

Family: Cactaceae

Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.

Conservation status

Florida rank	SNA
Global rank	Not available
FL status	Not verified
Federal status	Not verified

Conservation source

Native alternatives

Find natives for your garden