Opuntia monacantha
Drooping prickly pear
Family CactaceaeAlso called Cochineal prickly pear, Common pricklypear
About
Drooping prickly pear is a branching, almost tree-like cactus from southern South America, now naturalised in Australia and South Africa.
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
- Up to 5 m tall.
“General guidance for the genus” marks advice sourced for the genus as a whole rather than this species.
Field notes
Morphology
A spiny shrub up to 5 m tall with a broad, much-branched crown. Shiny green, thin, oval to elongated pads carry widely spaced areoles with brownish glochids and usually a single brown spine 3–4 cm long. Dark yellow flowers reach 8 cm across; the pear-shaped red fruits are spineless and up to 7 cm long.
Distribution & habitat
Native to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and on sandy shores; naturalised in Australia and South Africa up to 1,000 m.
History & etymology
First formally described by Adrian Haworth in 1812. In Australia the name Opuntia vulgaris, a synonym of O. ficus-indica, has been misapplied to it.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay
- IUCN status
- Least concern
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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