Opuntia aurea
Golden prickly pear
Family Cactaceae
About
Golden prickly pear is a low, sprawling prickly-pear cactus of southern Utah and possibly northern Arizona, with flowers from pale yellow to strong pink.
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
- Mature size
- Low mats about 1 m across.
“General guidance for the genus” marks advice sourced for the genus as a whole rather than this species.
Field notes
Morphology
Prostrate, forming irregular mats about 1 m across. Pads are up to 10 cm (sometimes 15 cm) long with slightly sunken areoles, and may be spineless or spiny. Fruits are usually spineless; round seeds are about 7–8 mm across.
Distribution & habitat
Southern Utah and possibly northern Arizona, United States.
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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