Brown-spined Pricklypear
Opuntia phaeacantha
Family: Cactaceae
This Opuntia species usually gets about 2-3’ tall and wider than tall, often with stems touching the ground and re-rooting. Flowers are yellow with red near the base, or occasionally entirely pink or red. Purplish to red fruits follow the flowers.
This species can be difficult to tell apart from Opuntia englemanii-this species is distinguished by the trailing growth form, usually smaller pads (15-40 cm long in O. engelmannii vs. 10-25 cm in this species), density of glochids, and the flower color (O. engelmannii has yellow to red flowers but not bicolored).
Full to part sun. Low water is required but watering these plants once or twice a month in the summer keeps plants healthy when the rain isn’t forthcoming. Keep plants dry in winter. Container plants, water once or twice a week in summer, and maybe lightly a few times in winter if there is no rain. Hardy 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 fruit is edible and is eaten fresh or dried, made into jams, jellies, juice and wine; pads are also edible and were prepared by roasting, boiling, or pulping and making into cakes; the seeds were ground into flour. The long spines of this species can be quite useful.
Opuntia is from Latin root puncti for prickled. The species epitaph, phaeacantha, is from the Greek root phaeo for dark or dusky and akantha, thorn. 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 on sandy to rocky soils, below 7,000’ in Arizona, southern California, southern Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New mexico, southern Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, South Dakota, and south into northern Mexico.
Often the spines are long, and sometimes downward pointing. Photo by Thomas Van Devender, SEINET
The fruits of Opuntia phaeacantha, photo by Steve Harbula, iNaturalist
The typical flowers, photo by Patrick Alexander, SEINET
Though the usual flowers are yellow with red throats, flower color can sometimes vary. Photo by Philippe Terrier, iNaturalist