Plant in full sun. Low water is required but watering once or twice a month in summer keeps plants healthy, especially when rains are scarce. In containers, water 1-2 times a week in summer, and maybe not at all in winter, though if there is no rain, you can lightly sprinkle some water on the soil. Hardy to -20 to -30°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.

Fruit was traditionally eaten raw or dried and used as thickening agent for soups. Inner stems were boiled and fried. Inner stems were used as wound dressings or made into a drink to treat diarrhea. Cacti juice has also been shown to reduced blood sugar.

Opuntia is from Latin root puncti for prickled. The specific epithet, macrorhiza, means large rhizome—this species has a significant tap root. 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.

Found in sandy, loamy, or rocky soils in plains, chaparral, grasslands, pi-on juniper woodlands, and ponderosa pine forests from 2,000-8,000’ as far north as Minnesota, south through the Great Plains of the middle of the United States, and throughout the southwest, into the borderlands of northern Mexico, especially down into the Sierra Madre.