| Fairly common in dry, sandy, open areas in the Coastal Plain, this low-growing cactus also rarely occurs in the Mountains and Piedmont of North Carolina. Wake Co., NC 5/23/2009.
| 
| The spines (sometimes lacking) are not nearly as obnoxious as those of the less common Dune Prickly-pear (Opuntia pusilla), which is restricted to the immediate coast. Wake Co., NC 5/23/2009.
| 
| Showy yellow flowers appear in late spring. Wake Co., NC 5/23/2009.
| 
| Wake Co., NC 5/23/2009.
| 
| Wake Co., NC 5/23/2009.
| 
| Wake Co., NC 5/23/2009.
| 
| Wake Co., NC 5/23/2009.
| 
| Wake Co., NC 5/23/2009.
|
| Robeson Co., NC 5/29/08.
| 
| Robeson Co., NC 5/29/08.
| 
| Robeson Co., NC 5/29/08.
|
| The prickly, pear-shaped fruits ripen in fall. Eastern Prickly-pear is given the fanciful moniker "Devil's-tongue" by the USDA PLANTS website. Formerly known as Opuntia compressa. Sandhills Game Land, Scotland Co., NC 9/24/03.
|
| Currituck Co., NC 11/8/08.
| 
| Currituck Co., NC 11/8/08.
| 
| The fruits, which are technically berries, are edible when ripe.
| 
| The flesh is moderately tasty. The seeds are extremely hard and surrounded by amazingly mucilaginous goo (to use the precise botanical term for it).
|
More information:
Bioimages
Connecticut Wildflowers
USDA PLANTS
Recommended Tree, Shrub, and Woody Vine Identification Guides
|
|