General: Searchlight Pricklypear (Opuntia curvispina) typically is an upright, single-stemmed, spreading cactus with flat stem segments (pads). The pads are relatively long and broad, and often are curved or folded. The main spines are relatively long, reddish near the base, and yellow towards the tips. The glochids are very long, especially on the edge of the pads. Flowers are yellow, usually with red at the base of the petals. Fruit is a fleshy "cactus apple."

Searchlight Pricklypear is locally common (not found everywhere, but they can be common where it occurs) component of vegetation communities on well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils along washes and on upper bajadas and moderate slopes into the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, this species is most easily seen near Searchlight, NV, along Walking Box Ranch Road in Avi Kwa Ami National Monument.

Family: Cactus (Cactaceae).

Other Names: Opuntia × curvispina in recognition of the hybrid origin.

Plant Form: low-growing, upright shrub.

Height: Usually to about knee high (to 3 feet).

Trunk: One.

Stems: Divided into segments (pads); flat and broad (pancake shaped), oval, to about 1-foot long. One or more pads per plant usually curved.

Stem Surface: Smooth.

Spines: Usually 4 to 6 spines per areole, usually confined to areoles on the on the upper 3/4ths of the pad (sometimes no spines at the base of the pad). Main spines flattened, to about 3-inches long. Main spines spreading, usually reddish near the base and yellow towards the tip, and fairly dense.

Glochids: Present, usually densest and largest along the upper edge of the pads. Glochids on the edges can be 1/2-inch long. Glochids on lateral areoles shorter.

Flowers: Blooms during early summer. Inflorescence: flowers solitary along upper edge of pads (set atop developing fruit). Flowers: yellow with red at the base of the petals; to about 1-1/2-inches diameter; filaments pale; style white, stigma green.

Fruit: "Cactus apple." Fruit juicy, purplish exterior with green interior; 2-inches long. Spines absent.

Seeds: Small, to about 6 mm.

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Distribution: California and Nevada, concentrated west of Searchlight, NV.

Elevation: About 1,000 to 5,000 feet.

Comments: Pricklypear species hybridize, and this species is thought to have originated as a hybrid between Pancake Pricklypear and Brown-spined Pricklypear.