PlantFiles: Prickly Pear Cactus, Palma-Brava, Opuntia
Opuntia monacantha

I grow the varieties that don't have too many thorns,I eat the fruit-and make preserves and syrup from them-the fruit is good ripe, right from the plant--some care must be used to keep from getting stickers in your hands or throat--always pick with gloves or salad tongs or tools, like pliers,wash and scrub with scrub bud or brush--it will remove the tiny thorns--if making preserves or syrup-boil, then bag and squeese the juice out with rubber gloves to protect your hands from hot fruit and stickers--by wringing out the bag--eating raw fruit, and cactus apple syrup on pancakes are some of my best childhood memories--I used a sharp stick to pick the fruit-sticking it in the top center of the fruit and prying down to remove the fruit-than I peeled the skin and stickers off with my pocket knife-still holding the fruit with the stick--and ate it off the stick--
The young leaves can be eaten like string beans or asparagus--by picking the leaves, scrubing off the thornes ,slicing in 1/4 inch strips and boiling or canning --they are sold in stores as "no poletos" [wrong spelling I am sure] [no little stickers]I realy like them--as a child I ate them raw from the plant, when far from home and hungry---

Last year on the Garden Tour for our county, we saw a large patch of prickly pear (6' x 3') growing quite happily. I was amazed and tickled by the thought of growing cactus in the middle of Michigan. The hostess explained that prickly pear is native to Michigan, though mainly on the west side. She cut off three lobes; told us to lay them in a dark, dry place until the cut callused over; dump out a bag of sand in the garden then lay the cutting on top of the sand. We did all that really without much hope. But the cactus not only made it through a really tough winter, it is busily adding on new lobes this spring. It is growing on the west side of the yard, in an upper garden, with little to no winter protection. Under the bag of sand we have really heavy clay, but it is doing fine.

I assumed my winter-hardy cactus was Prickly Pear, but seeing other photos of Prickly Pear blooms, I'm not sure what mine is. I've submitted a photo. My blooms have a lot of red in the center.
This cactus looks dead in our Ohio winters.......turning soft and laying flat on the ground. But come warmer weather, it starts to perk right up. After two winters with -15*F temps, it is still putting out more flowers and growth every year.

In a modern book I have "The Cactus Family", dated 2001, there is a photo of Opuntia monacantha.
It looks just like these in these links.

Opuntia monacantha:
[HYPERLINK@groups.msn.com]
Maybe... [HYPERLINK@www.cactustropicalgarden.com]
[HYPERLINK@www.desert-tropicals.com]
[HYPERLINK@nature.jardin.free.fr]
[HYPERLINK@perso.wanadoo.fr]

Opuntia monacantha variegata:
[HYPERLINK@public.fotki.com]
[HYPERLINK@public.fotki.com]
[HYPERLINK@studwww.rug.ac.be]
[HYPERLINK@perso.wanadoo.fr]
[HYPERLINK@danielscactus.hypermart.net]
[HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
[HYPERLINK@www.lapshin.org]
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None of the pads of O. monacantha are supposed to be 'circular' and uniform in size and shape.
Flowers are deep yellow of O. monacantha, Not with orange in them.
The book also describes the flowers as deep yellow, which is not enough to base an Opuntia ID solely upon, since a large majority of the 181 species & 10 natural hybrids of Opuntia's flowers are Yellow anyways.
The book does Not say anything about the red-orange streaks in these flowers either.
Synonym Errors:
The Synonym: Opuntia vulgaris
According to the 2001 book it has been "misapplied" to O. monacantha & O. humifusa in the past and is not valid, therefore it shouldnt be here as a synonym.
It should in fact be a synonym of O. ficus-indica (The wild type, not the cultivars or varieties or formas)

The same synonym in the var. variegata page should not be there either.
Synonym:Opuntia vulgaris f. variegata
here: [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]

These cactus grow all over here in south eastern NC. My daughter dug some up out of her back yard two years ago, and she gave a pot to me. I left it in the pot on the porch until this year, we planted it in the yard. It spent two winters in the pot outside with no problem. This is a super hardy cactus, braving even the worst elements, it was even covered with a coat of ice during an ice storm last winter. The blooms are beautiful, a nice warm yellow. I would recommend this cactus to anyone, because it is virtually carefree.