Photo: Daniel VILLAFRUELA. — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Survives zone 7 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
One of the most commercially important wild prickly pears of the US Southwest and northern Mexico — its purple-red fruit is eaten fresh or made into juice and jelly, and its pads (nopales) are harvested as a vegetable and used as livestock fodder. ⚠ Glochids.
Spread warning. Declared a noxious weed/invader in South Africa (since 1984, originally recorded as O. lindheimeri) and in most Australian states, where it is targeted with cochineal-insect biocontrol.
- Hardiness
- Zone 7–9
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Seed, Fruit
- Ripens
- Late summer–autumn
- Mature size
- Large shrubby cactus 1–3.5 m tall and as much across — too big for a container at full size
- Light
- Full sun (open-ground desert/glade)
- Soil pH
- 6.5–8.0 (neutral–alkaline, sharp drainage)
- Environment
- Desert
- Native range
- Southwestern United States (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California) and northern Mexico, in deserts, grasslands, and scrubland.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Fast — reaches roughly 2.5 m (8 ft) tall and wide at maturity.
- Spacing
- 250 cm (98 in) apart — about 6.3 m² (67 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Light green to bluish-green, egg-shaped, fleshy pads up to about 12 in (30 cm) across.
- 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
- Juicy, sweet purple-red fruit up to about 2 in (5 cm) long.
- Propagation
- Propagated from pad cuttings, which callus for a week or more before being set to root in gritty, well-drained soil.
- 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. Grows in lean, rocky or sandy soils in the wild and needs little supplemental feeding; good drainage matters far more than fertility.
How it spreads. Grows as a sprawling, bushy, often multi-stemmed shrub, forming sizeable clumps that spread outward from the base.
Growing tips. Fast-growing for a cactus and drought-tolerant once established; needs full sun. Widely grown as a stock-proof hedge, but in South Africa and most Australian states it is listed as a noxious weed and controlled with cochineal insect (Dactylopius opuntiae) biocontrol, so plant it with awareness of local regulations outside its native range.
Grow journal
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