Prickly Pear
Opuntia dillenii
- Habit
- Shrub
- Found in India
- West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Prickly Pear
Identify Prickly Pear by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a shrub habit.
- Confirm flower colour: Yellow.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Cactaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Prickly Pear.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Opuntia dillenii
- Genus
- Opuntia
- Family
- Cactaceae
- Habit
- Shrub
- Habitat
- Dry deciduous forests and scrub jungles, also in the plains
- Native to
- Tropical America
- Distribution
- Introduced in tropics
- Found in India
- West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Typical of the Cactaceae family — a field-mark hint, not measured for this exact species.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Yellowrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Solitary
- Fruit
- Berry
Characters marked “recorded” are for Prickly Pear itself; the rest are typical of the Cactaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Bengali
- ফনীমনসা
About Prickly Pear
A member of the Cactaceae family, Prickly Pear (Opuntia dillenii) is a shrub. In India it has been recorded in West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and 10 other states. It grows in dry deciduous forests and scrub jungles, also in the plains. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Cactaceae
Cactus family
Prickly Pear belongs to the Cactaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Cactaceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides