Opuntia Species, Prickly Pear Cactus, Beavertail Cactus, Beavertail Pricklypear

Do these only grow new pads in the spring?

Have a desert garden in the hottest part of the yard. Layed a mixture of 50-50 sand and pea-gravel to a depth of 1 1/2 ft., as rainfall i...Read Mores usually too much in the winter months here. Have Opuntia basilaris and some Echinocereus planted in there among desert shrubs and wildflowers. Had 55 inches of rainfall last season, nothing rotted! And contrary to the pros, which call for draught conditions in wintertime, mine were drenched, still blossomed very well in spring. Our winters get down to 20 here.

Per Jan Emming owner of the Destination:Forever Ranch and Gardens, a 40 acre desert botanical garden and sustainable living homestead in ...Read Morethe Arizona desert with a nursery:

I passed by this beavertail prickly pear cactus (Opuntia basilaris) in full glorious bloom while shooting images of sand dune wildflowers nearby at Havasu National Wildlife Refuge on the Colorado River. The photo opportunity jumped right out at me from a hundred yards away. In fact, the plant is finishing off its final set of flowers since most of the buds have already opened and then closed, so I was lucky to catch a decent bunch still open. Cacti like this are notorious for putting on an extremely showy but very short-lived display lasting only a week or two at most, with individual flowers usually lasting one single day or possibly two at most. But when you are living in such an arid, rocky site in such a hot climate (the marshes in the background notwithstanding) and with summer rapidly approaching, there's no ecological benefit to dragging out your show. The ecological strategy is to be brilliant, attract lots of bugs, get pollinated, close up shop, and set seeds ASAP before the inexorably long, hot summer arrives again. There's a reason for why cacti are so noticeable and also so ephemeral, and this is it.

Comments on 2nd set of 4 photos posted:
This year we also had an Opuntia basilaris bonanza. Commonly called beavertail prickly pear, the shockingly pink flowers have been illuminating the desert flats and hillsides this spring, starting weeks ago at lower elevations and moving into the middle and higher ones now that it is mid-April. I took these photos about 10 days ago on my drive between Yucca and Las Vegas to give a lecture on my garden project to the Cactus and Succulent Society of Southern Nevada. In some places along US Hwy 93 between Kingman and the Hoover Dam the desert was spotted with pink clumps of beavertail spaced evenly less than 50 feet apart, making for a very colorful scene. It's too bad that these pretty cactus flowers are so short-lived, with most flowering clumps lasting a span of only 10 to 14 days before fading. But what a show when they are present, just like fireworks!

Almost all beavertail flowers are borne along the top and side edges of the pads, and rarely out of the middle. The effect is nice, a bit like a bracelet of flower buds. Due to the propensity of beavertails to open so many of their flowers simultaneously, the electric pink floral scene is quite remarkable when about 20% to 25% of the buds all go off at the same time. But since they only stay open for a maximum of two days, they quickly fade and the show ends as abruptly as it started. You literally need to see a mass opening like this on the day it occurs, or else you'll have missed it.

This plant comes with trade offs. The big plus is, it need no water even in the Mojave desert, and has stunning magenta flowers. The big...Read More negative is it is covered in glochids (tiny spines resembling fiberglass). These glochids will cover a glove and render it unuseable, stick to a hose or anything that comes in contact with it and find their way into your skin. They are highly irritating, and difficult to remove with either a pair of tweezers, razor blade or duct tape. Only suitable to plant in an area you will observe from afar.