The San Diego Zoo is also a world-class botanical garden with over 3,000 different species of plants on its 107 acres in Balboa Park near downtown San Diego.

San Diego only gets an average of eleven inches of rain each year, and while the Zoo has many plants indigenous to wetter areas of the world, the collection of cactus and succulents planted throughout those 107 acres is unmatched.

One of the cactus that regularly draws attention is in Cat Canyon. It's a prickly pear cactus. The prickly pear cactus is probably the most universally recognized New World cactus because it grows naturally throughout much of North America, even into southern Canada, and is easy to grow in the home or in a pot on the patio. Here's a picture of a common prickly pear cactus (Opuntia).

The prickly pear cactus that gets so much attention, though, is this one:

A beautiful purple prickly pear cactus, Opuntia violacea var. santa-rita. The Santa Rita prickly pear is native to Texas, Arizona, and Northern Mexico and grows to about 3 - 5 feet in height and spread. Its round pads have a bluish tint in good times but turn red or purple in times of drought. The flowers are yellow and bloom in April and May.

As with all prickly pear cactus, the little needles do hurt like !#$%^&*, so wear good gloves, long-sleeve shirt, thick socks, and long pants if you have it in your garden or in hiking areas.

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Please join me in these special ActiveRain groups:

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