Opunita humifusa. Eastern Prickly Pear, Two lobes in a Gallon pot

Opunita humifusa, Eastern Prickly Pear

FS, Zone 4, dry, blooms June-July

Scattered around the eastern United States grows a lovely, sun loving species of cacti known as the Eastern Prickly Pear cactus. In Michigan they’re fairly widespread and common along the Lake Michigan sand dunes. While seemingly out of place in temperate regions, this interesting cactus is extremely hardy. Preferring full sun and sandy, dry conditions, the Eastern Prickly Pear cactus will thrive in the driest and sunniest parts of your garden. Soil containing loam or clay-loam is tolerated if it is well-drained. From June to July, the cactus makes some of the most stunning flowers. Bathed in bright yellow, the 3" wide blooms are immediately descended upon by a myriad of different pollinator species.

Beetles, bees, and butterflies—this plant attracts them all! Be careful not to touch the minute, bristle-like, barbed hairs on the lobes, otherwise they’ll cause skin irritation upon and have to be carefully removed. It’s lobes, which become flaccid in the winter, miraculously fill out and become green again in the spring. Each lobe will produce two more lobes each year. Tom was gifted several cactus lobes ten years ago. He took good care of them and now we have a fairly large colony of Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus growing at Detroit Abloom. It’s faster and easier to start new plants using pads, rather than seeds. Detached pads, if planted halfway into the ground, readily form new roots.

Attracts both long-tongued and short-tongued bees, bumblebees, the Large Carpenter Bee, digger bees, leaf-cutting bees, Halictid bees, and plasterer bees. Long-tongued bees suck nectar or collect pollen, while short-tongued bees collect pollen only. Prickly pear blooms also attract many kinds of butterflies and it’s lobes host the larvae of several moth species.