An odd and interesting little Prickly Pear, with its many spicules appearing each like a small fuzzy tail, and called by the natives Beaver Tail.
FLAPJACK PRICKLY PEAR (Opuntia chlorotica)
PORCUPINE PRICKLY PEAR (Opuntia hystricina)
TEDDY BEAR CACTUS (Opuntia Bigelovii)
In southeastern California we run across that odd and interesting little Prickly Pear with its many spicules appearing like a small fuzzy tail, and hence called by the natives Beaver Tail. Because of its habit of growth and its spineless joints of light blue or blue-gray and bright rose-colored flowers, the basilaris is different from all other Prickly Pear cacti. Beaver Tail blooms profusely, and when in blossom the clumps of plants on the mesas are bright rose and purple, the flowers almost completely hiding the shrubs and forming a brilliant splash of hue and tint, a solid, unbroken patch of color on the gray or brown stretches of mesa and foothill.
Basilaris prefers the most arid and sterile sandy or gravelly soil at altitudes of a thousand feet and less, on the bajadas of Nevada, Utah, western Arizona, and here in Southern California. This cactus does not grow very tall, seldom more than a foot, and the spread of the rosettelike growth is about three feet across. The large beautiful blooms, three inches long and nearly as broad, appear in clusters on the margin of a joint, opening in the forenoon and closing as the sunlight fades. There are no spines, and the closely set areolas, crowded with spicules which are easily dislodged, form the chief protection of the shrub; spicules are very small and light and when dried fall off, and carried by the wind are easily caught in one’s clothing or body; they are effective protectors and neither rodents nor grazing animals eat plants where they appear and even man fears them more than cactus thorns because of the difficulty of extracting them and on account of the pain and sores which they cause.