Opuntia pycnantha
A low, densely spined prickly pear of the Pacific coastal plains of Baja California Sur, recorded mostly below 100 m on the sandy Magdalena Plain. It needs full sun, a hot dry rhythm with late-summer storms, and protection from wet cold; it is a straightforward greenhouse plant if kept dry most of the year.
Where it grows wild
Open desert scrub on sandy and gravelly coastal plains, where cool Pacific fog moderates the heat. This is inferred from the recorded sites and the genus; species-specific habitat notes were not checked.
Recorded from about 4 to 575 m, median 45 m; nearly all records are on the low coastal plain.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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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 4.0 licence, unmodified.