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Species library › Opuntia › Opuntia erinacea
Succulents Partly documented

Opuntia erinacea

The Mojave prickly pear, a low clumping Opuntia covered in long, flexible white to grey spines, from the Mojave and southern Great Basin deserts. It is cold-hardy when dry and wants full sun, sharp drainage and a cold, dry winter.

Opuntia erinacea
Photo: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry
Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

Open desert scrub, rocky slopes and sandy washes in the Mojave and southern Great Basin, often with Joshua tree, sagebrush or pinyon-juniper at higher elevations.

No usable elevations in the records; across its range it is known roughly from 600 m to over 2,500 m (general knowledge, not measured).

CaliforniaNevadaUtahColoradoArizonaNew MexicoMexico Northwest

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Opuntia erinacea? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.