Scientific taxonomy article
Accepted name and nomenclatural record
Kew POWO accepts Cumulopuntia sphaerica with the author citation (C.F.Först.) E.F.Anderson; IPNI confirms the first-publication record as “Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 71: 324 (1999)”.12 The native distribution is western and southern Peru and is recorded in a montane tropical biome. The official native range is restricted to the montane tropical biome of western and southern Peru; nursery production in Adana, price and commercial stock are not evidence about wild populations.
Classification and production boundary
The live lineage is species → Cumulopuntia → Cactaceae → Caryophyllales → Plantae. This package owns only the existing species node and its direct Cumulopuntia genus relationship; it creates or updates no genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom or domain node. Jointed stem segments, tubercle and areole pattern, spines, flowers, fruit, seeds and documented geographic provenance should be evaluated together; a globose segment alone is not a definitive identification.
Identification cannot be reduced to one product photograph, a globose segment, spine colour or cultivation-induced form. Segment articulation, tubercles, areoles, spines, flowers, fruit, seeds, geographic range and documented provenance should be evaluated together. Stress colour, elongation or growth partly below the medium does not automatically change the scientific name.
Synonymy and accepted infraspecific boundary
The current Kew surface maintains 50 nomenclatural synonym records. The Kew surface maintains 50 synonyms: four homotypic and 46 heterotypic. Historical combinations in Opuntia, Tephrocactus, Sphaeropuntia and Austrocylindropuntia are not separate accepted-species routes. Homotypic names share a nomenclatural type; heterotypic names represent historical opinions based on other types. None creates a separate accepted product, botanical or taxonomy route.
A large synonym set does not mean every similar-looking Andean cactus can be moved into this species; the accepted name, type relationships and sourced range remain linked. This package owns no separate infraspecific node under the accepted species. Synonyms support search, historical literature and nomenclatural retrieval only; accepted names and accepted infraspecific taxa are not written into the synonym table.
Range and global conservation
The native distribution is recorded as western and southern Peru.1 Commercial inventory, nursery origin, price, sales frequency and ease of propagation are not measures of wild-population status. The global conservation field remains LC.3 The live and official global target are both LC, so the field is unchanged. Least Concern does not mean local habitat pressure or illegal collection is impossible.
Editorial ownership boundary
Product name and copy, price, stock, SKU, images, variants, categories, common names, slugs and the product-to-botanical link are not changed by this taxonomy-only source. Live toxicity, difficulty and light enums are carried forward exactly; watering, temperature and soil metrics are omitted from the curated source and preserved from live data. Rejected media rows are neither deleted nor reclassified through taxonomy content. Legacy pricing research and Google-grounding metadata are not reused as scientific authority.
References
- Plants of the World Online. “Cumulopuntia sphaerica (C.F.Först.) E.F.Anderson” Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accessed: 2026-08-07. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:1012487-1 ↩
- International Plant Names Index. “Cumulopuntia sphaerica.” Accessed: 2026-08-07. https://www.ipni.org/n/1012487-1 ↩
- IUCN Red List. “Cumulopuntia sphaerica global conservation assessment.” Accessed: 2026-08-07. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/151803/121444033 ↩
