Opuntia aciculata
Chenille prickly pear
Family CactaceaeAlso called Old man's whiskers, Cowboy's red whiskers
About
Chenille prickly pear is an ornamental prickly-pear cactus of Texas and northern Mexico, named for the dense fringe of glochids around its pads.
Care at a glance
- Pet safety
- Listed as non-toxic to dogs, cats and horses, but spines and glochids cause injury. General guidance for the genus
- People
- Barbed glochids lodge in skin and irritate; wear gloves when handling. General guidance for the genus
- Light
- Full sun (6+ hours of direct sun); high light indoors. General guidance for the genus
- Water
- Very drought tolerant; avoid soggy soil, which causes root rot. General guidance for the genus
- Soil
- Well-drained sandy or loamy soil; cactus mix in pots. General guidance for the genus
- Propagation
- A single detached pad roots readily to form a new plant. General guidance for the genus
“General guidance for the genus” marks advice sourced for the genus as a whole rather than this species.
Field notes
Morphology
Pads carry dense clusters of slender glochids 3–12 mm long, golden yellow to dark red. Spines are usually absent or one to three, reflexed and up to 3 cm. Flowers 8–10 cm across are golden yellow, orange or red; cultivated plants usually have red-orange blooms, sometimes green-centred.
Distribution & habitat
Chihuahuan Desert of Texas and northern Mexico, including Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.
Ecology
Like other cacti, its leaves are reduced to spines, cutting water loss in hot climates and deterring grazing animals.
Cultivation notes
Grown as an ornamental. Its fruits are edible and the pads (nopales) can be cooked; with spines burned off, pads make cattle feed.
History & etymology
The epithet aciculata means 'covered with small pins', from the Latin acicula.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- United States, Mexico
- IUCN status
- Data deficient
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- easy
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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