Plant in full sun. Plants require low water when established, but watering once or twice a month in summer is a good idea to keep plants healthy. Container plants need water 1-2 times a week in summer, and maybe monthly in winter. This is a very cold hardy prickly pear that can tolerate temperatures down to 0°F.

We recommend watering plants in the summer when there is drought to prevent rots. During droughts plants will have natural root dye-back, and this is normal. But during extended droughts like the two year drought of 2019-2020, plants had excessive root dye-back and when the rains finally came, many plants just rotted. Many people thought that the really wet summer is what rotted the cacti, but it was the response to copious moisture coming into contact with lots of dead roots, and those rots chased up into the plants.

Flowers are very important for native bee species, though numerous other pollinators use the flowers. The seeds of the dried fruits are eaten by birds and many other animals. Prickly pear plants provide important habitat for birds, native rodents like packrats, and numerous other animals. Larval host for the tineid moth Dyotopasta yumaella, the grass moth Dicymolomia opuntialis, the snout moth Laetilia dilatifasciella, and the grass moth Pseudoschinia elautalis.

The fruits of this species are edible and the pads can be made into nopalitos.

Opuntia is from Latin root puncti for prickled. The etymology of the species name and the selection are unclear. There are approximately 176 species currently accepted for the genus. Like most true cactus species, prickly pears are native only to the Americas. Through human action, they have since been introduced to many other areas of the world. Also known as Opuntia ellisiana.