Opuntia chlorotica
Pancake prickly pear
Family CactaceaeAlso called Flapjack prickly pear, Dollarjoint prickly pear
About
Pancake prickly pear is an upright, bluish-green prickly pear of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
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
- 2 m or more tall.
“General guidance for the genus” marks advice sourced for the genus as a whole rather than this species.
Field notes
Morphology
A bluish-green cactus that grows bushy to erect, reaching 2 m or more.
Distribution & habitat
Southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
History & etymology
Pollen cores from Arizona's Waterman Mountains show it grew in northern Arizona during the late Wisconsin glaciation.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- United States, Mexico
- IUCN status
- Least concern
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- easy
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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