Plains Pricklypear
Opuntia polyacantha Haw.
- light
- —
- water
- —
- tall
- 20 cm
- wide
- 2.5 m
Cactaceae
Also called Starvation Pricklypear, Starvation Cactus, Plains Prickly Pear, Starvation Prickly-pear, Hairspine Pricklypear
Formerly Tunas polyacantha
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. Canada to WC. & C. U.S.A.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Height
- 10 cm to 30 cmRead from Wikipedia, one source
- Spread
- 2.0 m to 3.0 mRead from Wikipedia, one source
- Flowers
- Yellow, red, magentaRead from Wikipedia, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -46 °C (USDA zone 1b)Read from Wikipedia, one source
Not known yet: light, water, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- Nopal peludito, Nopal puerco espín, Nopalitos
- French
- oponce à épines nombreuses
- Czech
- opuncie mnohoostná
- Russian
- Опунция многоколючковая
- Japanese
- シュラドウ（修羅道）, シュヨウマル（朱容丸）, シュラウチワ（修羅団扇）
- root
- OPPO, Hosh niteelí
- Hungarian
- préri medvetalpkaktusz
- Finnish
- pihaopuntia
- Chinese (China)
- 猬团扇
- Slovak
- opuncia mnohotŕňová
- Ukrainian
- Опунція багатоголкова
- Chinese
- 多刺仙人掌, 猬团扇
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
- Wikipedia, 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-SA
- 3D model: Opuntia polyacantha (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.