Flowering Prickly Pear Cactus

  

I’m betting that most people are like me and assume cactus only grow in the desert. However I know differently now and this is how Wikipedia explains it, “Like all true cactus species, prickly pears are native only to the Western hemisphere; however, they have been introduced to other parts of the globe. Prickly pear species are found in abundance in Mexico, especially in the central and western regions. They are also found in the Western United States, in arid regions in the Northwest, throughout the mid and lower elevations of the Rocky Mountains such as in Colorado, where species such as Opuntia phaeacantha, Opuntia polyacantha and others become dominant, and especially in the desert Southwest. Prickly pears are also the only types of cactus found to grow natively far east of the Great Plains states; O. humifusa is widespread throughout southern New England and Long Island, where it can be found in Northport, as well as throughout the northern Great Lakes states and southern Ontario, Canada. O. humifusa is also a prominent feature of the flora at Illinois Beach State Park, in Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, north of Chicago, and of Indiana Dunes State Park southeast of Chicago.”

This prickly pear is in Northern Indiana and gets larger and larger every season. It is hard weeding the cactus as the larger spikes hurt but the little hairy fibers stick even in the gloves and hurt even worse. I do love the beautiful flowers of the prickly pear cactus.

This post linked to Macro Flower Saturday