Monday, June 15, 2009

Close, but no cigar


The prickly pear are getting closer, but still no blossoms yet.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd hate to step on one of those things!

Roxie said...

I have knelt on one while taking a photo of an abandoned building. It felt terrible! Removing all the spines from of my knees took quite some time.

Blooming prickly pears are truly beautiful. However, unlike some people claim, they are inedible. The idea that they taste like green beans is complete nonsense!

Crotalus said...

Prickly Pears aren't the edible Nopales that Mexican people eat. And different prickly pears have different fruits as well. Some are dry when ripe, and others have juicy, edible fruit.

While you're looking at cacti on the plains, look for some small ones hidden in the grass: Escobaria vivipara and E.missouriensis, and ecause they hide, they're a pleasant surprise whenyou find them.

Rio Arriba said...

I believe the fruits of p.p. are edible in the fall. Not the spring.

When Emma runs into one (as she always does!) on one of our long range priaire rambles, she stands stock still and waits 'til I return with gloves and pliers to remove the offenders. Once she drove one so far into her pad that I had to take her to the vet.

Mags just sits in the Rhino and sneers at her. "Ha-ha! You gotta run, but I just rides!"

Crotalus said...

I don't know what happened to my previous post, but a large segment disappeared into the ether. I mentioned another cactus, Echinocereus viridiflorus, and that all three are well hidden in the shortgrass prairie