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Opuntia polyacantha
Also called Panhandle Prickly-pear, Plains Prickly Pear, Starvation Prickly Pear, Nichol's Prickly Pear, Cliff Prickly Pear, Grizzly Bear Prickly Pear, Hairy Prickly Pear
Plains pricklypear is a hardy, low-growing native cactus that forms mats of flat green pads, spread by seed and by pads that root where they touch soil. It is grown outdoors in sunny, dry, well-drained sites, and is very cold-tolerant.
Opuntia polyacantha is a common species of cactus known by the common names plains pricklypear, starvation pricklypear, hairspine cactus, and panhandle pricklypear.
It is native to North America, where it is widespread in Western Canada, the Great Plains, the central and Western United States, and Chihuahua in northern Mexico. In 2018, a disjunct population was discovered in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario, Canada.[1] This cactus grows in a wide variety of habitat types, including sagebrush, Ponderosa pine forest, prairie, savanna, shrublands, shrubsteppe, chaparral, pinyon-juniper woodland, and scrub. Individual plants tend to thrive in sandy soil. A new plant can grow from a displaced stem segment.
Native Americans used it as a medicinal plant, with different parts treating various symptoms.
Chenille pricklypear · Cochineal nopal cactus · Erect pricklypear · Cactus apple · Barbary fig · Opuntia huajuapensis · Devil's-tongue · Opuntia lagunae · Coastal pricklypear · Purple pricklypear · Twistspine pricklypear · Opuntia matudae
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Opuntia polyacantha 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.
