Prickly Pear

Description:

Prickly pears typically grow with flat, rounded platyclades that are armed with two kinds of spines; large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles called glochids, that easily penetrate skin and detach from the plant. Many types of prickly pears grow into dense, tangled structures it is the small ones that always are hardest to remove!

Habitat:

It grows in dry hills mainly on stony outcrops, often in small colonies usually to the exclusion of other plants. Grow only in the Western Hemisphere

Notes:

Fruits are good to eat but tricky to get around the small spines