PlantFiles: Santa Rita Prickly Pear
Opuntia santa-rita

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to the true identity of the 'Santa Rita' clone. And it is important to note that it is just a selected clone of a species (a cultivar), not a species in its own right. I have seen plants with the 'Santa Rita' label attached to purplish specimens of O. gosseliniana, O. macrocentra, O. chlorotica, and O. violaceae. From a botanists viewpoint, all of the above are probably synoymous taxa, just variable. Even some forms of engelmannii, and a plant of suspect rank called Opuntia "azureus", have purplish segments at times, particularly when grown in full sun. Moreover I have seen miniature plants as well as giant tree pears given the name 'Santa Rita', just because they have very purple pads. My first introduction to Santa Rita was in the old Sunset Book publication "Cactus and Succulents - House Plants & Landscaping Ideas in Color", edited by Linda Brandt, Lane Publishing, 1978, which has a fantastic photo of a very large, shining purple bush called 'Santa Rita' on page 10. This is the image I have always carried in my mind as the "true" Santa Rita type. I would be interested to know exactly where this photo was taken, if the original photographer is still alive and can recall the location.

Purple color is stunning in the garden BUT tends to rot out easier than most opuntias in my experiance. We have wet winters here and I've had these just topple over going into spring. Also I have had the experiance of heavy winter damage to the pads, which was unsightly in my wildflower garden that spring. Still, I have several beautiful containerized specimens that have always done well, and have replanted more out in my yard. The flowers are stunning on the purple pads in spring, definately an eyecatcher.

I'm not sure if I managed to kill this or not. It certainly looks awful after the winter, and shows no signs of recovery--my other opuntias look awful, too, but they do show signs of recovery. It certainly wasn't poor drainage that did it in at any rate--I live in a desert and the yuccas on either side of this plant look fine.

Sometimes confused with Opuntia gosseliniana.
O. gosseliniana has plain yellow flowers, O. santa-rita has yellow flowers with a bright red base.
O. santa-rita's new pads start out greenish then turn purpleish with age. O. gosseliniana's new pads start out purpleish then turn greenish with age.
O. gosseliniana gets to about 3.3 feet high, wilst Opuntia santa-rita gets to about 6.6 feet high and has larger pads.
Both species are very popular.

Very attractive but a little slow growing for me. Has great color, but still the same old viscious spines. Small plants seem to be the most colorful