prickles

A cactus? In New Jersey?!

This is a prickly pear cactus. Wikipedia says: "Prickly pears are also the only types of cactus natively found to grow in the eastern United States. Opuntia [the prickly pear genus] are the most cold-tolerant of the lowland cacti, extending into western and southern Canada."

They're not common around here--I only ever see them in Sandy Hook, which is a sandy windy salt-marshy kind of area. And half of the cacti that I see there look like half-rotten roadkill (yes, I'm sure they're not ACTUALLY roadkill), so I can't say that they exactly thrive in this area.