Description: Large, erect to sprawling cactus with flattened stems called pads or joints 
Height: To 12 ft or more 
Flowers: Large, 4 inches in diameter, usually yellow, also red, salmon, or orange, from areoles; March-June 
Fruit: Large, berry purple when ripe, from areoles 
Foliage: Minute, deciduous, tenure brief, from areoles 
Spines: Large, pale-yellow spines and tiny, yellow or brown ones from areoles 
Bark: Light-brown on trunks 
Growth Rate: Fast 

Requirements: 
Sun: Prefers full sunshine, grows slowly in shade 
Soil: Many, from sand to saline clay 
Drainage: Well Water: Low, drought tolerant 
Maintenance: None 
Propagation: Seed, cut pad and plant 

Native Habitat: Coastal sand dunes, clay lomas, grasslands and savannahs, woodlands, thornforests, chaparrals, nopalerias, deserts 

Wildlife Use: 
Fruit - birds, mammals, Texas Tortoises, Coyotes 
Pads - Southern Plains Wood Rats, Javalinas, cattle, White-tailed Deer, Texas tortoise 
Nest sites - Southern Plains Wood Rats, Cactus Wrens, Common Ground-Doves, White-tipped Doves, Verdin 
Water - from pads 
Nectar - hummingbirds, butterflies, bees 

Comments: Any dropped piece of pad grows into a new plant; one of most valuable native plants for wildlife; still one of most used for human food; national emblem of Mexico