Drooping prickly pear

A South American prickly pear cactus with thin, glossy, bright-green paddle-shaped stems (pads) bearing scattered areoles with one or a few long white spines. It is widely naturalised on warm Atlantic islands and coastal regions, where it forms sprawling clumps and produces yellow flowers followed by fleshy reddish fruit.

• Its fruits often sprout new fruits directly from old ones, a chain-like habit called proliferation that is rare in other prickly pears.
• Prickly pear pads are stems, not leaves; the tiny leaves drop early and the pads do the photosynthesis.
• Opuntias were spread worldwide partly to farm cochineal insects for red dye.

Care
Give it full sun and gritty, fast-draining soil, and water sparingly since soggy roots quickly cause rot.