Photo: Wendy Cutler from Vancouver, Canada — CC BY 2.0 · source
Survives zone 5 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Golden prickly pear produces spineless, brownish-grey fruit that is edible but rarely harvested commercially — this species is grown mostly as a low, spring-flowering ornamental rather than for its fruit or pads. ⚠ Glochids.
- Hardiness
- Zone 5–9
- Habit
- Groundcover
- Edible part
- Seed, Fruit
- Ripens
- Late summer–autumn
- Mature size
- Low pads 30–50 cm tall, clumping to 1–1.5 m across; excellent in containers
- Light
- Full sun (open-ground desert/glade)
- Soil pH
- 6.5–8.0 (neutral–alkaline, sharp drainage)
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- A narrow endemic of the middle Colorado River drainage — southern Utah (Iron, Garfield, Washington and Kane counties) and extreme north-western Arizona (Mohave and Coconino). It does not reach Nevada, California or Mexico, contrary to the wider range often quoted for it.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow to moderate — a few new pads a season once established
- Spacing
- 90 cm (35 in) apart — about 1.2 per m² (1.1 per 10 sq ft)
- Leaf shape
- Pads (cladodes) are greyish-green and relatively small, to about 6 inches (15 cm) across, mostly spineless apart from a few short (under half an inch) white marginal spines.
- Root system
- Shallow and fibrous, with most of the root mass in the top 15 cm and spreading as far as 2.5 m from the plant within two seasons — a mat built to catch light rain before it evaporates rather than to reach deep water. It needs no soil depth, but it does need sharp drainage: standing wet in winter kills far more plants than cold does.
- Fruit description
- Spineless, brownish-grey fruit following the golden-yellow (occasionally magenta in hybrids with O. erinacea) late-winter to spring flowers.
- Propagation
- Propagated from pad cuttings — let a removed pad callus for a week or two in a dry, shaded spot before setting it in gritty soil to root.
- Pollination
- Self-fertile
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Needs little feeding beyond a lean, fast-draining mineral soil; excess nitrogen or rich compost promotes soft, rot-prone growth rather than helping this desert species.
How it spreads. Forms small, low, trailing clumps rather than tall upright stands.
Growing tips. Hardy to roughly 10°F (-12°C); wants full sun and sharply drained, gritty or rocky soil. Though largely spineless, the pads still carry dense glochids, so handle with gloves or tongs.
Grow journal
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