While many species of Opuntia can be found in the southwest and Texas, only three species are native to Washington: however, these three species include a number of interesting forms. Opuntia species are found throughout North America - in fact, wild plants of some Opuntia species have been documented from every US state except five: Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Most species produce showy flowers which may be pink, yellow, red, orange, and occasionally purple or white depending on the species and where it was collected. It includes the familiar prickly-pear, with their rounded, spiny pads the chollas (sometimes assigned their own genus 'Cylindropuntia') of the Southwest US, and others. Opuntia is one of the world's largest genera of cacti, and is the primary representative of one of three subfamilies within the cactus family. So, what follows is a summary of all the cacti known to be native to Washington: officially, four species belonging to two genera but from a practical standpoint, it's not quite that simple! Even more interestingly, cactus populations seem to appear and fade out in various places, or change in their morphology, over periods of time.

Because of this, their taxonomy is rather confused, and sometimes 'forms' of cacti can be found that don't clearly belong to one of the documented species. While Washington doesn't have nearly the diversity of cacti as, say, the Southwest Washington's cacti are intriguing for another reason: few botanists have studied them very thoroughly, and much about them remains quite mysterious. Perhaps more surprisingly, a few areas of western Washington are dry enough to support native cacti! Even the most seasoned Northwest gardeners probably don't associate cacti with the native plants of western Washington - yet one species, Opuntia fragilis, finds its home here. Much of Washington's desert has been converted to cropland, ranches, orchards and vineyards but some remains untouched, and in such places cacti can be found. There are also the deserts, which occur wherever mountains block enough of the precipitation to support such an ecosystem, including a large area of Eastern Washington. But those of us who live in this wonderful state know that it offers a great diversity of ecosystems and climates, from rolling prairies to temperate rainforests to rocky alpine regions. To most people, Washington is a state more likely to be associated with dark, looming evergreen trees and perpetual clouds and mist than it is with cacti.

Whid cactus