Prickly Pear vs. Christmas Cactus: What’s the Distinction?

Prickly pear and Christmas cactus are two in type flowering cacti which might be sometimes grown as houseplants. And, whereas their leaves and type look distinct from each other, the magenta-colored blooms might confuse any individual attempting to recall which one is which.

Here’s what it is good to know regarding the distinction between prickly pear versus Christmas cactus and the way one can set up each.

Prickly Pear vs. Christmas Cactus: Essential Variations

On probably the most elementary diploma, the excellence between prickly pear and Christmas cactus is that they’re utterly completely different vegetation. Every are members of the Cactaceae family, nevertheless prickly pear is a conventional spiny cactus native to every North and South America, whereas Christmas cactus is a smooth-leafed cactus native to the Brazilian rain forest.

These two cacti moreover bloom at utterly completely different events, have vastly utterly completely different appearances and progress habits, and they also thrive beneath utterly completely different conditions.

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Look

Every prickly pear and Christmas cactus are sometimes inexperienced with pink blooms, nevertheless that’s the place the similarities end. Prickly pear has spiny, flat, club-shaped pads that appear just like the sort of cactus you sometimes think about inside the desert.

That’s the kind of cactus you don’t want to get too close to—till you might be prepared to begin out deciding on barbs out of your clothes. When prickly pear blooms, it produces pink or yellow flowers which lastly flip into darkish pink fruit.

Christmas cactus, alternatively, has flat, segmented leaves that cascade spherical it like a waterfall. It produces blooms which might be pink, purple, white, purple or orange. These flowers will go away behind fruit.

Growth Conduct

Whenever you see a full grown prickly pear subsequent to a Christmas cactus, there’s no mistaking which is which. Prickly pears can soar to eight toes tall and huge when grown exterior. Within the meantime, Christmas cacti are far more petite variety of cactus, maxing out at one foot tall and two toes giant.

Often, prickly pear will unfold in clumps, whereas Christmas cactus is a popular hanging plant because of the method through which its leaves spill over the side of a container.

Flowering Time

Prickly pear and Christmas cactus bloom at reverse events of 12 months, which might be a pleasant hack in case you will have every in your home as houseplants and want flowers year-round.

Corresponding to you’d anticipate from its determine, the Christmas cactus often blooms throughout the vacations. You possibly can start to see blooms as early as November, and they also’ll proceed by January.

Within the meantime, the prickly pear blooms late spring by early summer season.

Rising Requirements

Prickly pear is a desert plant that loves sunny, dry conditions. Give it full photo voltaic or six hours of direct daylight day-after-day. Successfully-draining sandy or gravelly soil is best for the prickly pear to thrive, and chances are you’ll want to ban watering to as quickly as every two or three weeks. Make sure the soil dries out totally between watering and in no way let the soil develop to be soaked with water.

On account of Christmas cactus is an area rainforest plant, it need 4 to six hours of indirect or filtered gentle day-after-day. It does successfully with acidic, sandy cactus mix soil or widespread potting soil with perlite. It should even be allowed to dry out between watering.

Learn how to Decide a Prickly Pear

To acknowledge a prickly pear inside the wild (or at least the greenhouse), seek for a cactus that has flat, club-shaped leaves with spines masking the leaves. Counting on the time of 12 months, it might have pink or yellow blooms, magenta fruit, or nothing previous the leaves themselves. Sometimes, you’ll uncover it rising in a clump-like habits.

When grown as a houseplant, will in all probability be a smaller plant nevertheless, inside the desert, it can in all probability attain eight toes extreme.

Learn how to Decide a Christmas Cactus

Christmas cactus is an merely recognizable plant, notably for individuals who see it over the holidays. It has cascading flat inexperienced leaves which might be segmented from excessive of the stem to bottom. It hardly reaches a few foot extreme and two toes giant, and, for individuals who see it between November and January, it will have its signature pink blooms.