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Opuntia guatemalensis

Opuntia guatemalensis
Photo: iNaturalist user: thibaudaronson, CC BY-SA 4.0

Opuntia guatemalensis, the Guatemalan prickly pear, is a low, spreading cactus with flat pads and yellow flowers, native to Mexico and Central America. Grow it in full sun with very sparing water and fast-draining soil, as overwatering causes rot.

Family
Cactaceae (Cactus family)
Grows as
Succulent
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply but infrequently, letting the soil dry out fully between waterings and reducing water in winter.
Soil
Very well-drained cactus or sandy mix.
Temperature
18–35 °C; protect below 5 °C
How easy
Easy
Native range
Mexico (Veracruz, Oaxaca) to C. America
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Opuntia guatemalensis, commonly known as the Guatemalan prickly pear, is a species of prickly pear cactus in the family Cactaceae. It was described by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose, who had written multiple journals about the Cactaceae family throughout 1919–1923, in which the genus Opuntia was included.

Where it grows

Opuntia guatemalensis can be found in tropical, dry-temperate forests in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, with generally scattered individuals.

Other Opuntia plants

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 guatemalensis 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.

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