Opuntia atrispina
Border prickly pear
Family Cactaceae
About
Border prickly pear is a prickly-pear cactus with a tiny US range in south Texas. Its flowers open pale yellow and age to rose, so one plant can show several colours at once.
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
Flowers open pale yellow or nearly white, sometimes green in the centre, and darken through salmon to rose. Spines are yellowish at the tips and dark brown at the base.
Distribution & habitat
In the United States known only from a strip about 50 miles long in Texas, from near Uvalde to Del Rio and Langtry.
History & etymology
The epithet means 'black-spined', for the dark lower part of the spines.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- United States
- IUCN status
- Least concern
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- easy
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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