How to identify and how it grows
The Smooth Prickly Pear is practically devoid of the spines so prevalent in the cactus family. Many specimens reach a height of six feet; the joints or branches are from six to twelve inches long and loosely branched from the base, and are a yellowish green. The spicules are yellow and brown or a mixture of these two colors, while the one or two slender deflexed spines are white or tan. The flowers are large and quite showy, and with their lemon-yellow petals and orange centers present a very beautiful color scheme. The bloom is about three inches long and as broad, blossoming in April and May; the purple fruit ripens in July, and is about the size of a large walnut; its flesh is pink fading into purple.
How to grow
These plants grow indoors or out and will endure temperatures twenty-five or thirty degrees below freezing without injury. Young plants may be transplanted at any season, or mature cuttings may be planted early in spring. They grow well in any ordinary soil, preferably gravelly loam or rocky soil, and should be watered once a month to keep the soil moist during the growing season. The seeds are slow to germinate.
Foothill Prickly Pear (Opuntia Toumeyi)
(Named in honor of James W. Toumey, former professor of botany at the University of Arizona)
How to identify and how it grows
The Foothill Prickly Pear is another of the clump-growing variety of the cactus clan, reaching to a height of about three feet. The stems form readily in large clumps along the foothills and low-lying mesas and swales in sunny exposures, where the plants do best. This species has the usual system of spicules and spines, the former a fourth-inch, the latter about three inches long. The spicules are tawny or yellow and brown, while the needlelike crooked spines are white or a light red-brown. In the gathering shadows these thorns give the plant a pinkish gray cast. The bright showy blossoms are about the length and width of a teacup, are a bright yellow with orange centers, and appear in April and May. The elliptical purple fruit ripens in July.
How to grow
Plants grow indoors and out and are not injured by thirty degrees of frost, but require protection for temperatures below zero. They grow easily from mature cuttings planted at almost any season. Before planting, place cuttings in shade for about two weeks to allow cut to heal. Cover about half of the cutting with soil and plant in rocky or gravelly clay; water lightly during the growing season and in droughty periods.