Family: Cactaceae

High Risk Traits:

• Naturalized beyond native range (South Africa, southern US, Mexico)
  
• Kaua'i: Potentially naturalizing; Molokai: Potentially naturalizing; Hawai'i: Naturalized
  
• Environmental weed (forms dense, impenetrable thickets; smothers trees; noxious in South Africa)
  
• Produces spines/thorns
  
• Climbing, smothering growth habit (liana up to 10–12 m)
  
• Tolerates wide range of soils
  
• Produces viable seed
  
• Reproduces via vegetative fragmentation (stems/leaves root easily)
  
• Dispersed intentionally by people (hedge, fruit use)
  
• Dispersed by water (pieces wash downstream)
  
• Dispersed by birds (fruit eaten)
  
• Seeds survive gut passage (germination enhanced by monkeys)
  
• Tolerates mutilation (cuttings remain viable for months)

Low Risk Traits:

• No allelopathic, parasitic, or toxic properties
  
• Not a fire hazard
  
• Not shade tolerant
  
• Self-incompatible (self-sterile)
  
• No wind dispersal
  
• No external animal dispersal
  
• Not a prolific seed producer