Index / Search / Opuntia ficus-indica
§1 Plant
Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.
vernacular Barbary fig — species · Cactaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Shrub, Tree
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Cactaceae Juss.
- Genus
- Opuntia
§2a
Native status, by region
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
- PR Puerto Rico Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 20 counties across 9 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- None
- Salinity
- Low
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- High
- Hedging
- High
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -3 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 200 min.
- Precipitation
- 8–15 in/yr
- pH range
- 7–8.5
- Root depth
- 6 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Multiple Stem
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Lifespan
- Moderate
- Mature height
- 10 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 10 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Red
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Mid Summer
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Rapid
- Stratify
- Yes
- Seeds / lb
- 200,000
- Propagation
- seed, cuttings, bare root, container
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- Yes
- Browse palatability
- Low
- Graze palatability
- Low
- Palatable, human
- Yes
- Protein potential
- Low
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 20 counties across 9 states/territories.
Alabama view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Arizona view state ↗ 1 I ▾
California view state ↗ 8 I ▾
Florida view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Georgia view state ↗ 2 I ▾
Hawaii view state ↗ 4 I ▾
New Mexico view state ↗ 1 I ▾
North Carolina view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Texas view state ↗ 1 I ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/OPFI ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/5384064 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T20:46:58Z