starvation prickly pear (Plants of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque)

starvation prickly pear

Opuntia polyacantha

Summary ⁶

Opuntia polyacantha is a cactus that grows in a wide variety of habitat types. It goes by the common names plains prickl ypear, hairspine cactus, panhandle prickly pear, and starvation prickly pear.

Botanical Information ⁷

Starvation prickly pear is a cactus. Its flowers my be yellow or white to pale pink.

Ecological Information ⁶

This prickly pear provides food for many types of animals. It provides over half the winter food for the black-tailed prairie dog in one area. Pronghorn antelope eat it, especially after the spines are burned off in wildfires. Ranchers intentionally burn stands of the plant to make it palatable for livestock when little other food is available.

Ethnobotanical Information ⁶

Native Americans used it as a medicinal plant, with different parts treating various symptoms.

References ⁸

About the Author ⁸

Student author(s)*: Chris from Menaul High School

*The entries in this field guide have been edited by Yerba Mansa Project staff to ensure that they contain quality, fact-checked content and standardized formatting.

Sources and Credits

(c) Andrew Hollander, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/99408102@N00/3594938095
(c) Andrey Zharkikh, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/zharkikh/6866614822/
no rights reserved, uploaded by Robb Hannawacker
(c) Matthew Salkiewicz, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Matthew Salkiewicz
(c) smiller33, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
Adapted by smiller33 from a work by (c) Chris Deleon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
(c) caseynm, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

Range Map

iNat Map

Color	pink, yellow
Uses	medicinal
Type	cactus

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