20210427 09203100 1.0 TRUE Prickly pear: velvety tree pear <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;font-size:12pt"><P><SPAN><SPAN>Native to central America, velvety tree pear forms a central woody trunk and grows to 5m. The dull green oblong pads are velvety to touch due to a dense covering of fine hairs. Young plants have 2-4 spines in the areoles to 2.5cm long but become spineless as the plant matures. A spiny variety exists, it has more than 50 spines in each areole on the trunk. Drought-tolerant, velvety tree pear is found throughout central and southern Queensland. It rapidly invades pastures and overwhelms native vegetation, and the spines can cause injury to people and animals.</SPAN></SPAN></P></DIV> © State of Queensland (Department of Agriculture and Fisheries), 2023 weeds pests Map layer extracted from Biosecurity Queensland pest distribution survey displaying distribution of individual invasive weed species.