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Cacti Question....................

Marc1301Marc1301 Member Posts: 31,895 ✭✭✭
edited May 2009 in General Discussion
I took this pic last summer. This was growing in a buffer area of my property that isn't mowed.
WTH is it,........a prickly pear? They were in several locations, but seem to have disappeared.

Cactus.jpg
"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here." - William Shatner
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Comments

  • Queen of SwordsQueen of Swords Member Posts: 14,355
    edited November -1
    Don't know. We don't have anything like that up here in the frozen tundra.
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  • pingjockeypingjockey Member Posts: 1,879 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    We have always called it prickly pear. Has a beautiful waxy yellow
    bloom each year. Growing just fine here in Idaho and in-laws even have a beautiful patch of it in Mankato Minn. Seems to take the cold ok!
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  • iwannausernameiwannausername Member Posts: 7,131
    edited November -1
    Yup, prickly pear...
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  • Marc1301Marc1301 Member Posts: 31,895 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by iwannausername
    Yup, prickly pear...

    That's all I could think of.
    I guess the cold winter we had this year got em, although the other poster said they are doing fine in Idaho?

    Don't know what happened to them, as I never mow those areas,....but they are all gone.[:(]
    "Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here." - William Shatner
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  • fishkiller41fishkiller41 Member Posts: 50,608
    edited November -1
    Marc; Those could have been "throw-outs"(volunteers) from some ones pots. They don't look really rooted. Most cactus patches get started by someone throwing away a potted plant.
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  • n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427 ✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Marc1301
    quote:Originally posted by iwannausername
    Yup, prickly pear...

    That's all I could think of.
    I guess the cold winter we had this year got em, although the other poster said they are doing fine in Idaho?

    Don't know what happened to them, as I never mow those areas,....but they are all gone.[:(]


    Perhaps something ate them...
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  • quickmajikquickmajik Member Posts: 15,576 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    sure is pretty. I wish cacti grew native around here.
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  • pickenuppickenup Member Posts: 22,844 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Concerning prickly pear cacti, the fruit (called tuna) and the edible pads (nopales) are raised commercially and marketed in Mexico. If you don't have access to wild cactus and can't grow it in a backyard patch, you may be able to find it canned, in the Mexican foods section of your supermarket.
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  • AlpineAlpine Member Posts: 15,093 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I don't care for cactus.

    I spent to much time picking spines out of my legs and arms when riding motorcycles in Baja.
    ?The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.?
    Margaret Thatcher

    "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
    Mark Twain
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  • dan kellydan kelly Member Posts: 9,799
    edited November -1
    they nearly destroyed this countrey years ago...then someone brought a bug in that eats them..it literaly saved the country from being over ran with them...farmers walked off their properties they were so bad..your welcome to them[xx(]
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  • zinkzink Member Posts: 6,456 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by pickenup
    Concerning prickly pear cacti, the fruit (called tuna) and the edible pads (nopales) are raised commercially and marketed in Mexico. If you don't have access to wild cactus and can't grow it in a backyard patch, you may be able to find it canned, in the Mexican foods section of your supermarket.


    In my neck of the woods (NM) we called it Cacti Delecti! MMMMMMMMMMM!

    Lance
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  • Marc1301Marc1301 Member Posts: 31,895 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    These were not thrown here from someones pot,......I have seen them in various areas of the county over many years.

    I just never really knew what they were before.
    Did a quick google, and that is what they appeared to be, but I figured the wise folks here could confirm it.

    Something eliminated them, and ECC is most likely correct. I saw about a dozen of them growing in the buffer areas around my property last summer. None are there now.
    We have been having a drought for sometime here. They probably became fecal material.

    How do you eat them?
    "Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here." - William Shatner
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  • 53hawkeye53hawkeye Member Posts: 4,673
    edited November -1
    In times of drought and the grass is sparse and dry some ranchers will use torches to burn the spines off so their cattle can eat them, at least they used to. Turkeys and such will eat the pears (burgandy colored pods that appear after flower is pollinated.)

    Also the "cactus rose" that was placed on the Dukes' casket in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" was a prickly pear.

    You can buy the cleaned pads in the grocery stores around these parts.

    I think Eastern Prickly Pear is the name for the one you pic'd
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  • HandLoadHandLoad Member Posts: 15,998 ✭
    edited November -1
    Blow Torch/Weed Burner burns off the spines. Grill them, slice them and then we marinate them in Balsamic vinegar for a short while. Throw them in a Salad.
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