Flowers in the Southwest Desert

Some of you remember when I purchased my 99 cent store flower.  Here it is, going strong.

  my 99 cent store flower  

I am so pleased with this purchase.  If there are more of these at the 99 cent store next time I am there, I will pry out the old wallet and purchase another.  The color is even more vibrant in person than in this photo.  It thrives in a partially shaded location with watering when dry.  The pot is a six inch diameter at the widest point.  The plant is just over seven inches tall.  The flowers are long lasting and as you may guess from the size of the pot, it does not require much water, although I tend to overindulge it with a nearly daily glass of water. 

Contrast that with some free cactus flowers. 

  cholla flower, 1.5 inch diameter, with wilted  flowers and bud below 

This is a very wicked plant.  You do not want to get too close.  Notice the sharp, needle-like spines.   The spines are modified leaves.  The spines actually shade the plant.  I am using a stick to hold the arm of the cactus down low enough to get a photo of the flower and all it's delicious yellow pollen.  Until corrected I will state that this is a cholla, a spiny cactus with cylindrical stem segments, of the genus Opuntia.  There are over 20 species of Opuntia.  Cholla are native to the Southwest United States and Mexico.  They are found in all the deserts of the Southwest.  Different species have adapted to different elevations and conditions.  They are indigenous to the Southwest Desert.  No additional water required.  

The word cholla may come from obsolete Spanish, old French, or Germanic words.  Because the double "l" in cholla is pronounced like a "y" as in the word tortilla, I will bet on Spanish derivation of the word.  Say "choy'-ya" and "tor-tee'-ya" not "choh'-la" or "tor-til'-la".

The prickly pear cactus is also a species of  Opuntia.  There are said to be about twelve different types of prickly pear in the North American deserts.  Here is a yellow flower typical of one of the many prickly pear in the Southwest Desert.  Notice all the flower buds behind the flower.   

"smooth" prickly pear flower, 3 inch diameter: notice the tiny dots on the "pads" are tiny clusters of very fine spines 
The prickly pear typically has flat "pads" that are like round or elongated pancakes, one connected to the other.  The pads will vary in size from one type of prickly pear to another, from as small as 2 inches, to as large as 13 inches.  Some varieties of prickly pear, such as the Southwest Desert's plentiful Englemann's prickly pear, have long, easily visible clusters of needle-like spines.  The smooth prickly pear does not have easily visible spines.  The little yellow pin-head size dots on the pads are clusters of very fine spines (see photo above).  You do not want to get the fine spines on your skin as they are quite hard to see and remove.  Those of us who live and garden here either become very graceful and avoid contact with cacti (plural for cactus, pronounced kak'-tie), or we learn to remove spines when we can, and live with the spines that we cannot remove.

Prickly pear pads can be cooked and eaten.  I am not that hungry but it's nice to know it is there if I need it.  The fruit of most prickly pear can be eaten or made into jams, jellies, syrup, and candy.  But let's face it, they add sugar or some other sweetener to the prickly pear fruit for most commercially viable products.  Prickly pear juice is said to have healthful properties.  I have nothing against products with healthful properties, it's just that so many of them are just so darned expensive.

In some stores prickly pear fruit is called "tuna."  Think: chicken of the desert.  Don't tell the ahi.  The fruit often has very fine spines, so watch out when handling it.  To protect your fingers from the spines, you can hold the prickly pear fruit with pliers, or any tool you have that functionally resemble pliers.  Are you that hungry or that curious?  If you want food with a lot of procedure for a small reward, you can always opt for artichoke.

I hope you are inspired to learn more about the wonderful world of Opuntia or perhaps just make yourself a tuna sandwich.  Either way, take time to enjoy the flowers.    

A special howdy to the folks in Malaysia who read my blog, and a happy trails to all you readers in the good old USA.

Yours truly, 
Southwest Desert Blogger
C.  (c)2011