Cactus Apple
Opuntia engelmanniiCactus Apple is a shrub native to the Texas Hill Country that grows 1–2 ft tall and 4 ft wide. It wants full sun or part shade and low water, and handles caliche and clay soil. Blooms yellow in Apr–Jun. Evergreen — it holds its leaves through winter. Good for bees, nectar insects and small mammals.
Caution — people, pets. Glochids — the fine barbed hairs are worse than the spines and very hard to remove from skin.
Will it grow in your yard?
Enter your ZIP. The finder checks Cactus Apple against your microclimate, then ranks it against your sun, your watering and deer pressure.
The facts
4 sources- Type
- Shrub
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade (5–8 hrs of direct sun)
- Water
- Low
- Height
- 1–2 ft
- Spread
- 4 ft
- Bloom
- Apr–Jun · yellow
- Foliage
- Evergreen
- Soil
- Takes caliche and clay · recorded on caliche, clay, dry, gravelly, sand
- Wildlife
- Supports bees, deer, nectar insects and small mammals
Where it grows
Recorded in these EPA Level IV ecoregions in the Austin and Hill Country launch area:
1,461 occurrence records in Central Texas (GBIF).
Can you buy it?
Also grows here — hard to find. Native and recorded growing in Central Texas, but not on the grower stock lists we read. Sourcing varies: some are stocked widely, others you will have to hunt for.