Prickly Pear

Opuntia, commonly called the prickly pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family, Cactaceae, many known for their flavourful fruit and showy flowers. It was domesticated in central Mexico between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago. Cacti are native to the Americas, though prickly pears have been carried to Australia, southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where some species are aggressive invaders. The name prickly pear can mean the fruit or the plant, and other names include tuna for the fruit, nopal for the pads, nostle, sabra and paddle cactus. The most common culinary species is the Barbary fig, Opuntia ficus-indica. The pads and fruit are edible once the spines are removed. In Mexican folk medicine the pulp and juice treat wounds and inflammation, though the page says no high-quality evidence supports this, and the Navajo made a reddish dye from the fruit. Cochineal, a red dye, comes from a scale insect that lives on the cacti.