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Cactaceae family

Woollyjoint Pricklypear Opuntia tomentosa

Also known as: Velvety tree pear

Woollyjoint Pricklypear is an introduced perennial tree, found in the lower 48 states.

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Woollyjoint Pricklypear is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Vine Maple
Native
Vine Maple
Acer circinatum
●●●●●
Rocky Mountain Maple
Native
Rocky Mountain Maple
Acer glabrum
●●●●●
Rocky Mountain Maple (var. diffusum)
Native
Rocky Mountain Maple (var. diffusum)
Acer glabrum var. diffusum
●●●●●
Douglas Maple (var. douglasii)
Native
Douglas Maple (var. douglasii)
Acer glabrum var. douglasii
●●●●●
Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 11 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Tree layer (canopy / understory) — Sits in the tree of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~5 caterpillar species

Opuntia supports ~5 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Opuntia in North America, including:

Alberada holochlora · snout moth Automeris cecrops · Cecrops Eyed Silkmoth Cactobrosis fernaldialis · Blue Cactus Borer Cahela ponderosella · Cahela Moth Dicymolomia julianalis · Julia's Dicymolomia Dyotopasta yumaella · fungus moth
+ 8 more species →
Erelieva quantulella · snout moth Etiella zinckenella · snout moth Eurythmia hospitella · snout moth Euscirrhopterus cosyra · Staghorn Cholla Moth Euxoa auxiliaris · Army Cutworm Moth Homoeosoma electella · Sunflower Moth Homoeosoma electellum · snout moth Laetilia coccidivora · Scale-Feeding Snout Moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host · 2 bee visitors

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Opuntia is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →

2 native & managed bee species are documented visiting Woollyjoint Pricklypear :

Apis mellifera · Honey Bee Bombus sonorus · Sonoran Bumble Bee
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024. Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →
Wildlife & visitors 1 bird

Open records of who else uses Woollyjoint Pricklypear — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 1 bird species (fruit, seed, browse):

Spinus psaltria · Lesser Goldfinch
Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (14) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[09] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)
[10] Other common names — Wikidata (CC0)
[12] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI
[13] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[14] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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