Brown-spined Pricklypear Complex
Opuntia phaeacantha Engelm.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Little
- tall
- 61 cm
- wide
- 1.2 m
Cactaceae
Also called Brownspine Pricklypear, New Mexico Prickly-pear, Tulip Prickly-pear, Tulip pricklypear, Tulip Pricklypear
Formerly Opuntia angustata, Opuntia blakeana, Opuntia canada, Opuntia chihuahuensis, and 14 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Succulent subshrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- C. & SW. U.S.A. to N. MexicoKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 30 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 91 cm to 1.5 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Little: takes droughtRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- YellowRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -17.8 °C (USDA zone 7a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (4)
- Hungarian
- Kolorádói medvetalpkaktusz fajkomlex
- Chinese
- 仙人镜, 圆刺仙人掌, 土人团扇
- Czech
- opuncie hnědoostná
- Spanish
- Nopal Pardo
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Opuntia phaeacantha (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.