About Opuntia cochenillifera (L.) Mill.
Opuntia cochenillifera (L.) Mill. is a cactus species that belongs to the subfamily Opuntioideae. It may have originally been endemic to Mexico, but it has since been widely introduced to other regions. Carl Linnaeus first formally described this species in 1753, under the name Cactus cochenillifer. In 1768, Philip Miller reclassified it, giving it the current accepted name Opuntia cochenillifera. In terms of its ecology, O. cochenillifera differs from most other Opuntia species in that it is pollinated by hummingbirds.
