(Angel's Wings, Bunny Ears Pricklypear)

With its downy pads and tufts of whiskery hair-like bristles, this shrubby pricklypear looks soft to the touch - but beware! Its bristles (known as glochids) become painfully embedded in the skin at the slightest contact. A native of desert areas of north-central Mexico, it typically grows on hills or ridges in sandy or loamy, alkaline soil. It has naturalized in parts of Arizona.

The golden yellow glochids occur in conspicuous, spirally arranged clusters on the flattened, circular or oval...

(Angel's Wings)

With its downy pads and tufts of whiskery hair-like bristles, this contorted form of bunny ears pricklypear looks soft to the touch - but beware! Its bristles (known as glochids) become painfully embedded in the skin at the slightest contact. Opuntia microdasys is native to desert areas of north-central Mexico, where it typically grows on hills or ridges in sandy or loamy, alkaline soil.

The golden yellow glochids occur in conspicuous, spirally arranged clusters on the circular or...

(Angel's Wings, Bunny Ears Pricklypear)

A lack of long conspicuous spines make this smaller prickly pear look soft and safe, but it wields many tiny hairlike bristles called glochids that are ferociously painful to the touch.

Bunny ears pricklypear is native to hills and ridges in the Chihuahua Desert of north-central Mexico. There, it typically grows in sandy or loamy, alkaline soil. This cactus has pads of soft green dotted with puffy clusters of white glochids. Although superficially resembling leaves (and treated as such in the...

(Tulip Pricklypear)

This low-growing, spreading, relatively cold- and moisture-tolerant pricklypear cactus is native from Mexico to the Southwest and south-central United States. It may have been introduced to parts of this range by Native Americans who valued its fruit for both medicine and paint. This may also explain the dramatic diversity within this species, with 15 or more varieties described.

This cactus forms dense clumps of large pads (which are not leaves but rather modified stem segments) dotted with...

(Santa Rita Pricklypear)

Beautiful purple and burgundy tinged blue-green, paddle-shaped stem segments and vivid canary yellow flowers make this among the most colorful pricklypear species. It is native to southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. The spiny pancake sized stem segments are highly variable, growing more purple in direct sun, but may lose color entirely in too much shade. This large pricklypear eventually forms an upright, head-high, tree-like shrub with a short trunk.

In spring the uppermost pads put forth...

(Santa Rita Pricklypear)

Beautiful, purple-and-burgundy tinged, blue-green, paddle-shaped stem segments and vivid canary yellow flowers make ‘Tubac’ among the most colorful of all prickly pears. The parent species is native to southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas as well as Sonora, Mexico. Its spiny pancake-sized stem segments are highly variable, growing more purple in direct sun, but may lose color entirely in too much shade. This large pricklypear eventually forms an upright, head-high, tree-like shrub with a short...

This genus of carrion flowers contains just 20 species of tender, dwarf succulent plants. They are primarily native to the deserts of Africa, more specifically to East and South Africa, which includes widespread desert habitat. It prefers very fast draining raised rocky locations, which rarely retain much moisture but boulders offer protection from direct afternoon exposure.

All carrion flowers share the look and smell of a kill to draw flies, their primary pollinator. Smaller forms such as...

This genus of carrion flowers contains just 20 species of tender, dwarf succulent plants. They are primarily native to the deserts of Africa, more specifically to East and South Africa, which includes widespread desert habitat. It prefers very fast draining raised rocky locations, which rarely retain much moisture but boulders offer protection from direct afternoon exposure.

All carrion flowers share the look and smell of a kill to draw flies, their primary pollinator. Smaller forms such as...

(Borzicactus)

This South American genus contains just six species of columnar cacti. They are mountain cacti native to the high Andes where they thrive in extremes of temperature and drought. They are specific to parts of this range in southern Peru, northern Chile, southern Bolivia, and northern Argentina.

The species are characterized as low shrubs with cylindrical stems covered in dense, white hairs. These provide protection from high UV light at altitude and insulation from cold. Branching is minimal...

(Old-Man-of-the-Andes)

Old Man of the Andes is a striking cylindrical cactus due to its coat of dirty blond coarse hairs that covers its entire length. These hairs help protect and shade its green skin from both intense high altitude sunlight and the occasional cold snap. The species is native to Bolivia, Peru and northern Argentina where it is found on rocky cliffs at high elevations of the Andes and other mountain ranges. In cultivation it is rare to see more than a single stem, but in the wild these cacti will branch...