Alternate name: Eastern Prickly-pear, Brittle Cactus
Family: Cactaceae, Cactus view all from this family
Description A clump-forming cactus bearing few yellow flowers, often with reddish centers and flat, fleshy, green pads covered with clusters of minute, reddish-brown, barbed bristles.
Flowers: 2-3" (5-7.5 cm) wide; sepals, petals, and stamens numerous.
Leaves: Small, scale-like, dropping off.
Spines: 1-2, or absent.
Fruit: Green to dull purple, edible berry.
Height: To 1' (30 cm); clumps to 3' (90 cm) wide.
Warning Care should be taken in handling this plant, since the minute, tufted, barbed bristles (glochids) at the base of the spines can be more troublesome than the spines typical of most cacti; they are lined with backward-pointing hooks, making them nearly impossible to remove from the skin.
Flower May-August.
Habitat Sandy areas and open rocky sites.
Range Quebec, New York, and Massachusetts south to Florida, west to Texas, and north to South Dakota and Minnesota.
Discussion This showy native plant, the only cactus widespread in the eastern United States, is occasionally transplanted into northern gardens. Fragile Prickly-pear (O. fragilis), also known as Brittle Cactus, found from the Great Plains east to Illinois and Michigan, and Drummond’s Prickly-pear (O. pusilla), occurring in the southeastern United States, have stems that are only slightly flattened.
