 Cacti inhabit diverse regions, from coastal plains to high mountain areas. With one exception, they are native to the Americas, where their range extends from Patagonia to British Columbia and Alberta in western Canada. A number of centers of diversity exist. For cacti adapted to drought, the three main centers are Mexico and the southwestern United States; the southwestern Andes, where they are found in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina; and eastern Brazil, away from the Amazon Basin. Tree-living epiphytic and climbing cacti necessarily have different centers of diversity, as they require moister environments. They are mainly found in the coastal mountains and Atlantic forests of southeastern Brazil; in Bolivia, which is the center of diversity for the subfamily Rhipsalideae; and in forested regions of Central America, where the climbing Hylocereeae are most diverse.
