Opuntia rufida

Opuntia rufida, the blind prickly pear or cow blinder, is a prickly pear cactus native to southwestern Texas and northern Mexico, where it grows on rocky slopes in the Big Bend area and the Chihuahuan Desert. It is a multi-branched cactus that may reach about 0.9 to 1.5 meters tall, with thick, felty, roundish to elliptical pads. It has no spines at all, but makes up for this with a profusion of red-brown glochids, the tiny barbed bristles that give the species its name, since rufida refers to their ruddy color. The glochids dislodge easily and can be carried by the wind, which is the origin of the common name, because they can blind grazing animals. In mid-spring it bears brilliant yellow flowers that age to orange and red, followed in summer by bright red to purple oblong fruit. It is closely related to Opuntia microdasys and is sometimes treated as its subspecies. Planted as an ornamental in Queensland, Australia, it is now a prohibited invasive plant there.