fatehbaz:crypto-botanist:Eastern prickly pear (opuntia humifusa)Even after reading about these being
fatehbaz:crypto-botanist:Eastern prickly pear (opuntia humifusa)Even after reading about these being native to Michigan, I still didn’t believe it. And as I was staring down at huge clumps of these cacti sticking out of piles of oak leaves and tufts of grass…..I still couldn’t believe my eyes! Are there prickly-pear, probably of this same species, also present in the Carolinian forest/woodland ecoregion of far-southern Ontario, along Lake Erie between Toronto and Windsor? (That ecoregion also harbors the narrow northernmost distribution of other sensitive and emblematic temperate prairie and woodland species like fox snakes and massasauga rattlesnakes).A distribution map for Opuntia humifusa [source]:(I’m no botanist and I’m honestly not sure how accurate this distribution map is, or how current the county records are.)-Speaking of far-northern distribution range limits of prickly-pear, I’ve found prickly-pear in both British Columbia’s Okanogan region and southern Alberta; it was exciting.Thanks so much for the input! While I’m not sure about the distribution in the area near Toronto, I would not be surprised at all if they have been found there as the environment is very similar to where I found these ones. It’s always exciting to find unexpected plants in strange locations! -- source link
#prickly pear#opuntia#cactus#plants#canada