Eastern Prickly Pear- Optunia humifusa

Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus

This cactus is native of eastern North America from Ontario to Florida west to Montana and New Mexico. It is listed as a species of Special Concern in Connecticut, Endangered in Massachusetts, Vulnerable in New York, and Rare in Pennsylvania.

When we came home from the desert, I was shocked to see prickly pear here in Delaware. I had grown up in Maryland and have no recollection of ever seeing it there at all, but here in Delaware I have been finding it everywhere. The sandy, sea level land is a great habitat apparently! It is amazing to see how much larger it can get here where the rain levels are so much greater than in the San Luis Valley of Colorado.

Just as its western cousins, Eastern Prickly Pear is edible. The pads, fruits, and seeds can be eaten fresh or dried for later use. The spines can be removed through singeing or rolling in the sand (as we learned from Mexican ladies out west). Internationally the tunas (fruit) are so popular that the worldwide production is more than twice strawberries, avocados or apricots!

The sap and pads were used in medicine by the eastern tribes of Native Americans. The sap was a wound dressing, and applied it to warts. The pads (nopales) peeled and used in poultice form on wounds, and sores, snake bites and rheumatism. A tea made from the pads was used for lung ailments.

Christmas Cactus – Schlumbergera bridgesii

Christmas Cactus Flower

Christmas cactus is a member of a group sold as holiday cacti that includes the Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) and the Easter cactus (Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri).

Christmas cactus has been kept as a holiday houseplant since the 1800′s. Early breeders crossed Schlumbergera truncata with Schlumbergera russelliana creating the beginnings of the hybrid plants you see today. It is comprised of wide, flat, green stem segments that resemble leaves. It easily propagates by removing one of the segments and placing it directly into the soil. It helps the rooting to speed up by using rooting hormone, but will happen even without the hormone as long as it does not rot due to overwatering.

This plant is one of the plants that remove chemical vapors from the air in our homes and offices. It is often given as a Christmas gift since it often blooms at that time.

May no gift be too small to give,
nor too simple to receive,
which is wrapped in thoughtfulness,
and tied with love.
~ L.O. Baird

Opuntia ficus-indica – Indian fig

Indian Fig

The coat of arms of Mexico depicts a Mexican golden eagle, perched upon an Opuntia cactus, devouring a snake. According to the official history of Mexico, the coat of arms is inspired by an Aztec legend regarding the founding of Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs, then a nomadic tribe, were wandering throughout Mexico in search of a divine sign that would indicate the precise spot upon which they were to build their capital. Their god Huitzilopochtli had commanded them to find an eagle devouring a snake, perched atop a cactus that grew on a rock submerged in a lake. After two hundred years of wandering, they found the promised sign on a small island in the swampy Lake Texcoco. It was there they founded their new capital, Tenochtitlan. The cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica; Nahuatl: tenochtli), full of fruits, is the symbol for the island of Tenochtitlan.

Opuntia ficus-indica, native to Mexico, was taken to Europe at an early date and is now common in many warmer regions of the world. Used traditionally as an ointment, opuntia has also been taken internally and used as a folk medicine.

We first saw this plant when we took a trip to southern Arizona. This cactus stands taller than a 6 foot man!

Barrel Cactus – Echinocactus grusonii

Barrel Cactus

Native to Central Mexico, it is known as Golden Barrel Cactus, Golden Ball or, amusingly, Mother-in-Law’s Cushion. Despite being one of the most popular cacti in cultivation, it is rare and critically endangered in the wild.

The Golden Barrel is one of the most common landscape cactus in the American Southwest. It is popular for its golden spines that keep looking attractive after several years.
The young Echinocactus are often available on the cactus displays in garden centers. They look quite different from the mature specimens. As the other Echinocactus and Ferocactus seedlings, the rib structure is not yet apparent, and they have pronounced tubercles making them look superficially like Mammillarias.

Mountain Cactus – Pediocactus simpsonii

Mountain Cactus

This type of cactus is known as ball cactus (although some authorities call it a hedgehog cactus) that is originally from the desert southwest of North America. It grows on dry mountain valleys, rocky ridges. This cactus is listed on the Federal Endangered Species list.

Pediocactus simpsonii was first named by George Engelmann for army engineer James H. Simpson under the name Echinocactus simpsonii. Simpson led an expedition in Colorado, and Engelmann named the species “in honor of the gallant commander” of the expedition

These flowers are born in the center of the cactus and are usually a brilliant pink, but can sometimes be whitish in color.

Beavertail Cactus – Opuntia basilaris

Beavertail Cactus

This cactus is a type of Prickly Pear, which is Endangered in the USA, and it will often start blooming when it has only two pads. In the wild, its principal range is limited to the Mojave-Colorado desert. Like most cacti of the genus Opuntia, they have sharp spines as well as tiny barbed bristles called glochids that can be difficult to remove from the skin.

Being a prickly pear type, it can be used just as other prickly pears are…. such as the plains prickly pear cactus.

Christmas Cactus: Schlumbergera bridgesii

Christmas Cactus Flower

These cacti are originally forest cacti from the Organ Mountains north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The plant is made up of 1-inch long, dark green elliptical leaves that look linked together. They are very easy to propagate by taking a single leaf section and planting it 1/4 of its length in soil.

Christmas cactus has been kept as a holiday houseplant since the 1800′s. Early breeders crossed Schlumbergera truncata with Schlumbergera russelliana creating the beginnings of the hybrid plants you see today.

These plants are non-toxic to children and pets. They make a great choice for hanging baskets!

Saguaro Cactus – Carnegiea gigantea

Sagoro Cactus

It is a large tree sized cactus; it is native to the Sonoran Desert in the US state of Arizona and Mexico. It is the state flower of Arizona. They live for a very long time; taking up to 75 years to form an arm

Harming a saguaro in any manner is illegal by state law in Arizona, and when houses or highways are built, special permits must be obtained to move or destroy any saguaro affected.

The ribs of the saguaro were used for construction and other purposes by Native Americans. The 3-inch, oval, green fruit ripens just before the fall rainy season, splitting open to reveal the bright-red, pulpy flesh, which all desert creatures seem to relish. This fruit was an especially important food source to Native Americans of the region who used the flesh, seeds and juice.

There is a National Park established just to protect the Saguaro Cactus (it was beginning to disappear from the landscape) located in Arizona (Saguaro National Park)

Claret Cup – Echinocereus triglochidiatus

Claret Cup Cactus

Its many names – Claret Cup, Strawberry Cactus, or King’s Crown Cactus – indicate a large and diverse family of plants of which eight different varieties have been recognized. It is a beautiful plant with long-lasting, waxy, scarlet flowers, which make it a favorite among gardeners. Echinocerens is from the Greek echinos, meaning “a hedgehog,” and cereus meaning “a wax taper.” These names refer to the plant’s spiny resemblance to a hedgehog (or so the early Europeans thought) and the plant’s shape, respectively. Triglochidialus means “three barbed bristles” and refers to the straight spines arranged in clusters of three.

Cacti can store water in the pulp of the plant’s fleshy stems; it is an old tale that one can get water from a cactus. After a rain, cacti can swell like an accordion with the extra moisture. Some Native American groups collected the claret cup’s stems, burned off the spines and mashed the stems. Sugar was then added to the mix and baked to form sweet cakes.

When my husband first saw this cactus…. he came home as swiftly as he could to get me. I had not seen this variety of cactus before…but the color of the flowers is my favorite color, sooooo…he had to get me. We went straight back up Mt. Blanca to the spot he found it, after I ooooo’d and ahhhh’d, took pictures, and stood up, I turned to look back at the valley I had only seen from ground level. It was gorgeous!

Prickly Pear – Opuntia phaeacantha polycantha

Prickly Pear Cactus with 4 flowers

When we lived in Colorado this was the most abundant cactus around us. It grew everywhere. It lead to my husband telling new comers that ‘if it is green or brown, growing on the ground it has prickles!’ We had to clear enough cactus for our home, for a driveway and a place to park the car. We marked off areas that were not to be disturbed, because we wanted the tunas (fruit) to make jam from!

 

Thought to have originated in central Mexico the Prickly pear cactus is now widespread being found in Southern Nevada, Utah, Colorado, southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, western Kansas, Oklahoma, and the western two-thirds of Texas. Also in the  Great Basin, Mojave, and Chihuahuan Deserts. It is found scattered through woodlands of Pinyon Pine and juniper.

Prickly pear cactus is used in Mexican traditional medicine as a treatment for diabetes, and initial research supports this use. Just 50 years ago it was an almost forgotten remnant of Mexico’s Aztec past, grown by poor indigenous families in their backyards as an insurance against food shortages. Prickly pear fruits would have provided a good source of protein, vitamin C, potassium, and calcium. Today jam is still made from the fruit and relished!

Ripe prickly pear fruits are still one of the most important wild plant dye sources for traditional Navajo rug weavers. A variety of rose and pink dyes can be made from the ripe cactus fruit