Saturday, June 20, 2009

Desert Prickly Pear Cactus Flower

This is my last photo from the Phoenician and Jokake Inn series. It is of a Prickly Pear Cactus flower blooming on the grounds of Jokake Inn. 

This cactus is a desert prickly pear and has deep green skin, fewer spines, and clear yellow flowers.

Its technical name is Opuntia engelmannii or Opuntia phaeacantha. 

Prickly pear cacti have flattened pads connected by brittle joints. 

I previously showed you the Beavertail Prickly Pear cactus or Opuntia basilaris. It has gorgeous pink flowers that look like tissue paper flowers. Click here Beavertail Cactus and Flowers

Tomorrow I will show you the purple prickly pear cactus.  

9 comments:

Kate said...

Flowers on various cacti garner so much attention, especially from those of us who do not get to see them regularly. Endlessly fascinating.

brattcat said...

How big is this blossom? How big is the cactus?

Sharon said...

I love the waxy look the prickly pear blooms.

glenda said...

Jam from the prickly pear is soooo good.

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

Brattcat,
Julie will not be able to answer you soon, as she is away in a slot canyon in a remote part of northern Arizona. (We might be seeing some photos from that trip in the future sometime.)

I don't recall how big this particular cactus was, but one of the photos that Julie posted in the past from our yard was a cactus flower that was about 3-4 inches tall blooming from the top of a cactus that was only about 6 inches tall.

We have a cactus that bloomed with a 2-3 inch flower about two weeks ago even though the cactus only sticks out of the ground about 2 inches.

Cezar and Léia said...

Hello Julie! Fabulous series about cactus flower, many thanks.We enjoyed it a lot!
Have a great Sunday and be always happy!
Léia
and purrs and love Luna(from Brazil)

Sixpence and A Blue Moon said...

Cactus have the most amazing blooms! Beautiful bloom!

Thanks for sharing the beauty you see.

xoxo

Don and Krise said...

Thank you for sharing some beauty that we don't get to experience up here in the Pacific Northwest.

Jilly said...

A beautiful flower. I have this in my garden and when the fruit is ready I pick it (with great care!) and take it down to my neighbour who loves to eat them. I can never face the prickles myself.

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