Eastern Prickly-pear
Opuntia mesacantha
Native status unresolved in Mississippi. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 47%
- Height
- Up to about 1 foot
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil moisture
- Dry to average
No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
- Life cycle
- Perennial
Not yet recorded · Spread · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
County records are not available.
Who uses this plant?
6CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including MS
Genus host records with ranges including MS · Opuntia
- Dicymolomia julianalisJulia's Dicymolomia
- Homoeosoma electellaSunflower Moth
- Laetilia coccidivoraScale-Feeding Snout
- Melitara prodenialisEastern Cactus-Boring Moth, Eastern Blue Cactus Borer
- Eurythmia hospitella
- Menesta tortriciformella
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
5Specialist beesPollen specialists
Pollen specialists · Opuntia
- Diadasia australis
- Diadasia piercei
- Lithurgopsis gibbosa
- Lithurgopsis littoralis
- Macrotera texana
4BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Opuntia
- Cardinalis cardinalisNorthern Cardinal
- Cyrtonyx montezumaeMontezuma Quail
- Leptotila verreauxiWhite-tipped Dove
- Meleagris gallopavoWild Turkey
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
No records yet · Ants · Beetles · Flies · Adult butterflies / moths · Other wasps · Other insects
Plant details
- Family
- Cactaceae
- Flower color
- Yellow
What its natural habitat tells you
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Growing sources and scope
- Flower color · “Yellow” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Height · “Up to about 1 foot” · Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Life cycle · “Perennial” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Light · “Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day)” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- primary_flower_color · “yellow” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Soil · “Occasionally dry” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
Also known as
Eastern Prickly pear
Conservation status
| Mississippi rank | SNR |
|---|---|
| Global rank | G5 |
| MS status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Will it fit your yard?
Check this plant against your county, sun and soil moisture. Conditions are checked in your browser.
Sources
- Vascular Plants of North Carolina (NC Natural Heritage Program)
- Mississippi occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications