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Project Noah Nature School
Opuntia humifusa
Cactus. About 12 inches tall and 18 - 24 inches wide. Growing in a pasture in central Florida.
Spotted on Sep 12, 2011
Submitted on Sep 12, 2011
5 Comments
Huh. I had no idea prickly pears grew in FL. Thanks for the info and update! While you're looking around be sure to check for recipes. I've got some prickly pear jelly in my pantry right now. My son has been vegetatively propagating prickly pears in our yard. It's super easy, at least for the NM variety. He just lays one of the pads flat in a pot. Roots shoot out from the bottom and new growth shoots up from the top. A month later he has a prickly pear ready for planting in the yard.
I did some checking and it turns out the Prickly Pear cactus does grow in Florida! :) It's the only widespread cactus in the east. The species is Opuntia humifusa. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.
Thank you for all of that information!! I will start researching it soon. I wish I could have gotten closer and removed some of the grass from around it, but there was a 4 foot tall wire fence between myself and the cactus. :)
P.S. If you think it might be a Prickly Pear there are 15 different varieties: http://www.desertusa.com/magoct97/oct_pa... It looks like some of them stay pretty small, and unlike our NM variety might be feasible for growing indoors.
It's a little hard to see because of the other vegetation, but it looks similar to a prickly pear (Cactaceae Opuntia) Cactus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia If it's an Opuntia, it's pretty far out of its normal range, but may have come from a seed carried by a bird. Opuntia are native to arid regions, so if that's what it is, the high precipitation in FL will likely kill it.