(The name macrocentra refers to the long spines)
How to identify and how it grows
The Long Spined Prickly Pear is a plant about three feet tall growing from stems which ascend from the base. These joints are about the size of a man’s hand, circular or egg-shaped, and are of a dull olive-green suffused with purple, sometimes purple throughout. This plant has a system of spicules and spines arranged much in the usual cactus fashion. The spicules are formed in bundles, generally crescent-shaped and red-brown or tawny. The young spines are a deep red-purple, while the older spines are often cross-banded, purple-brown, reddish, or nearly black, three inches long, or longer, fierce and needlelike and sometimes twisted. The flowers, about three inches long and broad, are yellow with bright red or orange-red centers which make them quite attractive. The pink-purple fruit is elliptical and comes in July; the fruit-meat is light greenish.
How to grow
Plants may be grown in zero temperatures without injury, and thrive outdoors or indoors. They grow easily from mature cuttings set out at almost any time, but preferably early in spring; the cut should be allowed to callus over before planting. They should be watered once a month or so during the growing season to keep the soil slightly moist. Gravelly clay soils are preferred, though the plants grow well in sandy clay or loam.
Beaver Tail (Opuntia basilaris)
How to identify and how it grows
The Beaver Tail, or Opuntia basilaris, gets both its common and its specific name from the appearance of the joints growing from the base, which are covered with spicules and resemble a beaver’s tail. This plant is usually about a foot tall and two or three feet across the spread of the rosettelike growth, with the fanlike or beaver-tail joints coming from the bases. These joints are about six by nine inches and of a blue-green suffused with purple and covered with fine white hairs. The older joints become crosswise wrinkled. The red-brown spicules are very abundant, short and easily dislodged. There are no spines on the plant. The purple flowers are very numerous, about three inches in width and length. They appear in April and May, and the fruit, which is covered with many fine hairs, comes in July.
How to grow
Plants are uninjured by temperatures twenty-five degrees below freezing. Transplant at any season; mature cuttings planted early in spring will blossom the same season. Plants may be set in gravelly or sandy soils with good drainage and watered lightly once a month during the growing season or droughty spells.