Opuntia Blog

Cacti of the Desert Southwest, book

Amazon.com offers a seemingly endless supply of books. Recently, I purchased a small book called Cacti of the Desert Southwest. I paid just about $4.00 plus postage to purchase the book used from a bookseller. Sometimes the new book price is just too expensive, but other times Amazon.com offers a discount. But, the new book price seldom beats the used book price. I’ve had nothing but success when I’ve ordered used books–no problems and delivery has been within a week or two.

Opuntia in Madagascar, man holding fruit

The Web has much information, about many topics. One paper of interest is “Introduced Opuntia spp. in Southern Madagasgar: Problems and Opportunities.” The document if full of interesting facts, but the description of a famine caused by the collapse of Opuntia in the 1920s and 1930s is astonishing.

Opuntia species were introduced into Madagascar before the 19th Century. The earliest introduced species may have been O. monacantha or O. ficus-indica when French forces used the plants to create a living fence. Within a hundred years villages has adopted the use of cacti and the plants were widespread in southern Madagascar. It is presumed that wild animals and livestock (eating fruits) assisted in the spread of seeds. Eventually, infestations became a problem and some cultivated fields were abandoned because of Opuntia infestations.

Despite problems, the Opuntia were used in livestock production, sometimes helping by providing food in drought seasons. In 1923 the cochineal insect was introduced and Opuntia rapidly died off; this caused a huge problem as Opuntia-dependent livestock suffered from starvation. Loss of livestock resulted in a famine and tens of thousands of people died. Eventually, Opuntia were introduced that were resistant to the cochineal insect and Opuntia recovered as an important factor in the economy of southern Madagascar.

Opuntia monacantha, image from Wikimedia

Opuntia aciculata

 Mesa Garden

This is the best place to go if you want seed, seedlings, or unrooted cuttings. Mesa Garden has an extensive list of Opuntia and other cacti from around the world. In my experience, the materials are first rate. However, do not expect a quick delivery in spring when they are their busiest (or from any nursery). There is no better place if you want an extensive choice of offerings, especially if you are willing to grow from seed. In addition to cacti, they offer a good selection of other succulents such as nolinas, agaves, yuccas, mesembs, etc.

 Intermountain Cactus

This is the one nursery that I have not tried, but it sure has a nice Web site with informative descriptions. You can tell at a glance what zone a cactus might survive in. They have a large selection of various opuntiad cultivars, some ball and barrel cacti, and some agaves (and a few other things). The selection of O. polyacantha plants is extensive and well worth trying; O. polyacantha is such a survivor and such a beautiful plant in or out of flower.

 Coldhardycactus.com

I have tried this nursery in years past and been happy with the results. They have a good selection of cold-hardy opuntiads, as well as various ball and barrel type cacti (including Pediocactus). Also, they provide agaves, yuccas, and a couple of miscellaneous items (eg, Maihueniopsis). Write or call before you order (at least at this time of year–after summer) to make sure they have the item you want. If they don’t have it, likely it will be available in the spring.

Opuntia 'Ellisiana', Rising Star, TX

Opuntia cacanapa cv ‘Ellisiana’ is a spinless form of O. cacanapa. The wonder is that the plant is essentially without glochids as well as spines. You can readily handle the pads without (or mostly without) encountering any irritation. I guess it must taste terrible because the plant seems unknown as grazing material.

I’ve tried to locate Opuntia cacanapa or O. ‘Ellisiana’ growing wild, but have never been successful. I doubt that either is native to the USA. I don’t know the origin of the species but suppose it is northern Mexico.

I’d guess that O. ‘Ellisiana’ could easily take 5 F, and perhaps colder temperatures. I base this guess on the fact I saw large plants in Seymour, TX, an area that occassionally reaches 10 F or colder. O. cacanapa (the spiny version) also surives nicely at the Rio Grande Botanic Garden in Albuquerque, NM.

Opuntia 'Ellisiana', close-up view of cladode

• Opuntia
• Brasilopuntia and Cylindropuntia
• Austrocylindropuntia, Cylindropuntia, and Miqueliopuntia
• Cumulopuntia, Grusonia, Tephrocactus

Tephrocactus articulata, photo by Barrie Glover

There is a great old book called “The Systematic Anatomy of the Dicotyledons” that has a great chapter on the Cactaceae.  I was lucky enough to find the book on Google Books and have extracted the Cactaceae portion.

There are great drawings of cactus epidermis, cactus wood cells, and Opuntia spines. There is a fair discussion of Opuntia in general and the chapter is a nice read.

The Systematic Anatomy of the Cactaceae (ie, Docotyledons), H. Solereder, Vol. I, Clarendon Press (Oxford), 1908. The cactus portion of the extracted pages starts on page 9.

Opuntia macrocentra flower, plant from Alamogordo, NM, photo by Dave Ferguson

This amazing library is only possible because of the Internet. They have nice collection of digitized books online, mostly the books are older or the author has provided permission to reproduce the books.

There are some Opuntia/Opuntiodeae nuggets in the collection. For instance, try the Tephrocactus and other prickly pears by Michael KeiBling (a book mentioned by a contributor to this blog, Ian Menkins). You can read the book online, or you can download the entire book as a printable PDF file. The images are worth the read, and for those of you interested in cold-hardy cacti, there is a long listing of plants from the Big Bend area.

There is even a copy of Del Weniger’s book, Cacti of Texas and neighboring states. This colorful book describes a number of Texas cacti, including O. leptocarpa, which is a plant apparently forgotten by modern botanists.

Del Weniger's book, from the Cactus and Succulent Image Gallery

J PACD is a nicely written magazine that has been producing articles since 1995. The articles cover many topics from the nutritional value of Opuntia to the cactus pear in Ethiopia.  Sometimes the articles cover other cacti or succulents, but the focus of J PACD is on Opuntia. 

A few years ago I ran across an article on the freezing tolerance of various Opuntia spp., and that was the start of my interest in J PACD. I’ve been reading it every since, even catching up on the back issues.

The Internet has changed the cactus hobby, making information available to almost everyone, and knowledge is power. We can use that power to choose what to read, when to read it, and how to think about what we read.

Cold-hardy Opuntia camanchica from 5,000 ft. elevation, in the mountains of New Mexico

I know a bit about working with graphics and text on the computer, but apparently not enough. There are a lot of decisions that have to be made about images on a page, including how the images comport in format with images on adjacent pages.

I don’t really know how to use Microsoft Frontpage, but somehow I found myself creating a Cold-hardy Opuntia calendar for 2010, working away on a nice Sunday when I should have gone out for coffee. Still, it was fun working with the images and deciding which would go into a calendar and which would have to wait for 2011. 

Finally, I got the full calendar completed and realized I needed a front cover, so I added a page (O. cacanapa var. ‘Ellisana’, zone 5-6) and put in a nice full-page image of spineless O. cacanapa var ‘Ellisiana’. Then I realized I didn’t have a color printer, much less a way to distribute the calendar.

Eventually, I decided to convert the whole file into PDF format; that dropped the file size from nearly 10 Mb to 3-4 MB.  And I could email a PDF file to friends because they’d all have PDF readers. I’m not sure yet if I want to print real “paper” calendars or just live with the virtual calendar. I had good luck with PDFonline, a free document to PDF converter. 

You (the reader) can download my first try, but beware there may be updates and images might change. For instance, my friend Beth says I should put in a snowy image for December, and so on.

Click on the image to download the first try at calendars.