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Opuntia fragilis
Also called Little pricklypear, Brittle Cactus, Brittle Prickly-pear, Fragile Cactus, Jumping Cactus, Fragile Prickly Pear, Little Prickly Pear
Brittle pricklypear is a small, prostrate cactus native to western North America and grows farther north than any other cactus. It needs dry, sandy, well-drained soil and full sun, and its easily detached joints make it best kept in a sunny outdoor spot.
Opuntia fragilis, known by the common names brittle pricklypear and little prickly pear, is a prickly pear cactus native to much of western North America.
It is native to every US state west of North Dakota and Texas as well as some midwestern states such as Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. However, it is often only present in one area of a state, for example only in Siskiyou County, California at the northern edge of the state. It also occurs in every Canadian province from Ontario to the Pacific Coast. It is known to grow farther north than any other cactus, occurring at as far north as the watershed of the Peace River, ~56°N latitude in British Columbia. There is an isolated and possibly genetically unique population in Eastern Ontario known as the "Kaladar population".
Big Pine Key Prickly Pear · Chenille pricklypear · Texas Plains Pricklypear · Devil's-tongue · Opuntia anacantha · Opuntia anahuacensis · Sand Prickly Pear · Border pricklypear · Opuntia auberi · Tiger-pear · Golden pricklypear · Devil's-tongue
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Opuntia fragilis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
