WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Spreading, dark-green, cylindrical to flattened pads, each to 2-inches long (5.5 cm) by 1 1/8-inches thick (3 cm), form low, spiny mats with showy yellow flowers. Note the fruit matures as dry, tan capsules, and the stem segments easily detach for animal dispersal. The stamen filaments can be red or white.

SPINES: Areoles dot most of the pad surface. Areoles are woolly with tiny, tan, barbed glochids in a crescent along upper edge; the 3–8 spines 1/4–1-inch long (8–24 mm) have gray to tan tips. The top spines in the areole are longer, spreading; the lower 0–3 spines short, downward pointing; uppermost areoles have the longest spines.

FLOWER: May–July. Showy flowers 1 3/4–inches wide (4.5 cm) have numerous petals (tepals), yellow to yellowish-green, often with a reddish base, or occasionally solid magenta; filaments white or red; anthers yellow; style white; stigma lobes green. Fruit a dry, tan, oblong capsule with areoles with or without short spines.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, rocky outcrops, open areas; grasslands, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 6,000–7,800 feet.

RANGE: Widespread west of the Mississippi River.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The prostrate, rounded, easily detached stem segments and tan, dry (not fleshy) fruit distinguish this prickly pear.

NM COUNTIES: NW quarter of NM in mid-elevation, dry habitats: Cibola, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Valencia.