Scientific: Opuntia basilaris
Common: beavertail cactus
Family: Cactaceae
Origin: Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of the southwestern Unites States (Nevada, California, Arizona) and northwest Mexico (Baja California and Sonora) at elevations below 3,000 feet in elevation.

Pronounciation: O-PUN-tee-a ba-si-LAR-is

Hardiness zones:
Sunset 8, 9, 10-24
USDA 7-10

Character: Much branched and prostrate with individual stems upright, beaver paddles, stiff, arid.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, succulent perennial, mounding and spreading to 2-feet tall with generally a 5-feet spread when mature, growth rate is moderately slow.

Foliage/Texture: Stems are jointed into fleshy clades (lay people call them "pads" or "blades") that are curiously thickened and shaped like a beaver's tail to 2-feet long. Usually clades are glaucous blue with a reddish tinge and areoles containing glochids (white to brown) and no spines, clades are occasionally pleated when drought stressed; coarse texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Flowers are a brilliant magenta pink in spring, 3- to 4-inches across, are borne on upper terminal margins of clades; fruits are oblong, 2- to 3-inches long, red to purple, edible.

Seasonal Color: A profusion of flowers during March into April, fruit during summer.

Temperature: Highly tolerant of desert heat.

Light: Full sun

Soil: Tolerant

Watering: None after establishment in the landscape.

Pruning: Prune by removing clade segments of any length to control spread.

Propagation: Easy, cutting and dispersal of clades.

Disease and Pests: Root rot if soils are chronically wet. Unlike other Opuntia taxa, cochineal scale is very rare.

A taxonomic wonder: Here is a fascinating hybrid cross of Opuntia santa rita and Opuntia basilaris with pink flowers. Someone please pluck off a clade of this for my yard!