Having grown up in the desert southwest, I love cacti. Unfortunately, central Florida tends to be much too wet for most species, but we do have plenty of prickly pears (Opuntia spp). They grow wild in some of the drier Florida habitats like the sandhills where I live. Each year some of them produce these gorgeous, bright yellow flowers. Not only are the flowers pretty to look at, but they also attract a lot of pollenators (do you see the two small pollenators on this flower?). Each flower takes several days to open and then lasts about a week before it begins to fade. Not every cactus flowers every year, but they are definitely a sight to see every spring if they do flower. The cool part is that when they flower each plant usually produces multiple flowers that bloom at different times, so the flowering period was be fairly long. They are definitely something that I really like having around.