Who lives and who dies? (Opuntia dillenii) – only a few cacti saved by rains in Tenerife

Opuntia dillenii is a particularly drought-tolerant cactus naturalized in the Canary Islands. It grows in areas that are too dry for other common cacti such as O. ficus-indica. Still, after four years of drought, most of the plants in this wild population near Beaches of the Americas are dead or half dead. The 2020/21 winter rains came too late for some plants/pads. All cacti in the Canary Islands are non-native, some species like O dillenii are invasive and harmful to the environment. Native plants seem to cope better with drought.

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