About
Roving prickly pear is a small cactus of the dry forests of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, with yellow flowers and red fruit.
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
- Detached stem segments root to form new plants; also by seed.
- Mature size
- Up to 50 cm tall.
“General guidance for the genus” marks advice sourced for the genus as a whole rather than this species.
Field notes
Morphology
A small shrub up to 50 cm tall with yellow flowers and red fruit.
Distribution & habitat
Dry forests of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Ecology
Spreads when stem segments snag in the fur of large mammals, break off and root where they fall, as well as by seed.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- Puerto Rico
- IUCN status
- Least concern
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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