Dunbar Spring Neighborhood_Opuntia leptocaulis

Photos from:http://southwestdesertflora.com/WebsiteFolders/All_Species/Cactaceae/Cyl...

Family:Cactaceae

Common Names:

• English: Christmas cactus

• Spanish: tasajillo

• O'odham:  Aj Wipinoi 
   

Scientific Name: Opuntia leptocaulis

Rain Garden Zone: O. leptocaulis does well in the terrace Rain Garden Zone. 

Reproduced with permission from "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond" by Brad Lancaster, HarvestingRainwater.com

Flowering Season: Foresummer

Characteristics: O. leptocaulis is a cactus with a shrub-like form and can grow up to 6 ft in
height (1). The shrub is composed of slender stems, green in color, with modified leaves in form
of spines and glochids (1). Flowers are pale yellow in color and produce bright red fruit (2).

Landscape Cultivation:
The shrub is commonly found growing in grasslands, flats, and slopes and prefer to grow in
sandy loamy and gravelly soils (1).

Ethnobotany:

Wildlife:

Flowers attract pollinators such as hummingbirds and honeybees (2).

Edible:
Fruit can be eaten fresh once glochids are removed (3), and is a common snack food
among the Gila River Pima (4).

References:
1. Southwest Desert Flora
2. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
3. Felger, Richard and Mary Beck Moser. (1985) People of the Desert and Sea: Ethnobotany
of the Seri Indians. The University of Arizona Press.
4. Rea, Amadeo M.. (1997) At the Desert’s Green Edge: An Ethnobotany of the Gila River
Pima. University of Arizona Press

For more information on this plant, see the Campus Arboretum species description page.