Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Opuntia fragilis [Cactus fragilis] [Opuntia brachyarthra]
- Family
- Cactaceae
- CommonName
- brittle prickly-pear
- Presence
- maybe
- Status
- native
- EarliestDate
- 1983
- LatestDate
- 2024
- Ecosystem
- basin
- Geobotanical
- LBasin
- Counties
- Conejos
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Other Localities
- Comments
- There are only two observations from the Watershed of brittle prickly-pear cactus. The earlier is purely verbal. On 24 Sept 1983, R. A. Bye and E. Bye report the species in "lightly to heavily disturbed sandy soil" among grazed and cultivated fields 0.5 miles east of Capulin along Hwy 15, in association with Lupinus argenteus, Lepidium, Gridelia, Chrysothamnus, Bassia, and Populus angustifolius (see SEINet voucher for Lupinus argenteus). The second is a recent iNaturalist observation (#228492902) from 10 km west of Romeo (Conejos Co, 10 July 2024). O. fragilis is mainly a Four Corners and Great Plains cactus, with locations in Colorado both to the east and the west of the Watershed. Allred et al. (2020) report it only from the extreme northwest of New Mexico, in San Juan Co, but BONAP shows it present in Rio Arriba, Torrance, Santa Fe, and Valencia counties. It is recorded no farther south down the Rio Grande drainage. So in the Watershed the species is to be looked for especially in the Lower Basin.
- Annotation