Opuntia pinkavae
Pinkava's pricklypear
Family CactaceaeAlso called Bulrush Canyon prickly-pear
About
Pinkava's prickly pear is a small cactus known only from northern Arizona and southern Utah, with magenta flowers.
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; grows in sunny, open sites in the wild.
- Water
- Very drought tolerant; avoid soggy soil, which causes root rot. General guidance for the genus
- Soil
- Sandy or limestone-based, well-drained soil.
- Propagation
- A single detached pad roots readily to form a new plant. General guidance for the genus
- Mature size
- Rarely over 25 cm tall.
“General guidance for the genus” marks advice sourced for the genus as a whole rather than this species.
Field notes
Morphology
Rarely over 25 cm tall, with flattened green stems up to 15 cm long. Flowers are magenta with yellow to magenta anthers and white styles. Fruits are tan, up to 3 cm long and dry when ripe.
Distribution & habitat
Northern Arizona and southern Utah, in sunny grassland and at the edges of pinyon–juniper woodland on sandy or limestone soils.
History & etymology
Named for Donald Pinkava, professor emeritus at Arizona State University. Specimens were long distributed as 'Opuntia kaibabensis', a name never validly published.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- United States
- IUCN status
- Least concern
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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