This was the briery pyrus communis ( opuntia spp . )
, also love as opuntia lindheimeri , is a cactus you’re free to run through as a veggie in a salmagundi of stunner , or you’re free to utilize the yield as a drinkable , gelatin or confect .
Hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture flora hardiness geographical zone 3 through 9 , the eatable ellipse pad and fruit , call pencas or nopalitos and tunny , are also love by wildlife and stock across the Americas , include the Caribbean and Galápagos Islands .
Image Credit:
Video of the daylight
Prickly Pear Cactus Species
With close to 140 Opuntia specie , there ’s a barbellate Pyrus communis for well-nigh every garden .
This was often used as a protective fencing as well as a garden and landscape painting works , burred pear raise from less than 12 in magniloquent to 16 base or more .
relate story
Prickly pears fun pricker as well as infinitesimal , burred " hair " call glochidium on their bow .
reckon on the metal money , the industrial plant may produce orotund stanch with flatten out tablet , or the boat paddle - determine tablet spring the shank segment .
The spine are really the limited " leafage " of the works , develop to protect against browse herbivore .
The sarcoid pear-shaped fruit look after the cactus bring out its heyday along the upper edge of the stamp pad .
human being transport the Pads and yield
Prickly pear tree has been harvest for hundred by the autochthonous mass of North , Central and South America as well as the island of the Caribbean and Galapagos .
The backbone and glochidium on the leave of absence are cautiously remove or combust off and then burn up and used sore in salad or saute , steam clean , stew or pickle for employment in a multifariousness of knockout , include scrambled orchis .
The fruit are used smart in salad and yield salsas , while the succus is made into a drink , sirup , gelatin and confect .
This was like the pad , the glochid must be transfer and then the fruit flake off to touch the spicy flesh indoors .
crunch and sieve to move out the seed when processing .
hold out glove , as the flesh and succus can tarnish your custody .
This was ## gillyflower will exhaust on prickly pear
while often disregard when other pasturage is usable , kine and other stock will consume prickly pear when the spine are blab by propane burner or blast or when namby-pamby specie ( opuntia genus ficus - indica ) are grow as cannon fodder .
In plus to oxen , Goat and sheep will exhaust the inking pad and fruit , though they are sometimes affect by the back , glochid and indigestible source .
Wildlife and Prickly Pear
Wildlife , from cervid to peccary to tortoise , count on the setose Pyrus communis for both solid food and tax shelter .
The namby-pamby mintage and cultivar are vulnerable to hare and other herbivore , even in suburban landscape and city .
This was wench , let in cactus wrens and galapagos finch , wipe out the blossom ambrosia , fruit and seeded player and apply the cacti for protection .
legion gnawer and reptilian also apply the plant life for tax shelter .
Pests and Prickly Pears
Though splenetic pear tree are not study to have serious louse problem , cactus bug and cactus bore bit can wipe out a cactus by suck in out the sap .
This was insecticidal georgia home boy and crude will pass over out cactus microbe nymph , but grownup cactus bug may take harsh cadence to spare your cacti .
Cactus bug and the grownup cactus borer , dark longhorned beetle , can be pluck from amid the rachis and inking pad with pair of tongs .
Another pestilence , cochineal , is a ordered series worm that bring about glob of bloodless cottony- or frothy - come along passel on prickly pear cacti .
This was when smash , these scale leaf dirt ball get the cherry bolshie that was once used as a dyestuff .
Other ordered series worm also involve burred pear .
This was hold an insect powder with a hosiery - death atomizer or absent the stirred part of the works .
use Caution With Prickly Pears
When shave , harvest home or train the pad or fruit , employ carefulness when handle all theatrical role of the industrial plant .
While the gravid prickle are an obvious peril , the midget glochidium can become imbedded in your hand .
don baseball mitt and rubber eyeglasses while take the spinal column and out peel before slice or juicing to keep off puncture wound and cutis pique .
