Prickly pear

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Name Variations

 * Indian fig
 * Indian pear
 * barbary fig
 * tuna
 * cactus pear

About Prickly pear
Wikipedia Article About Prickly pear on Wikipedia

Opuntia is a genus in the cactus family Cactaceae. Both prickly pears and chollas are included in this genus of about 250 species distributed throughout most of the New World. The type species of the genus is the Indian Fig Opuntia Opuntia ficus-indica (most culinary uses of the term "prickly pear" are referring to that plant).

Prickly pears, classified in the subgenus Opuntia, typically grow with flat, rounded segments that are armed with two kinds of spines; large, smooth, fixed spines and small, almost hairlike spines called glochids that easily penetrate skin and detach from the plant. Many types of prickly pear can grow into dense, tangled structures. Prickly pears species are found in abundance in the Southwest and Western United States, and also throughout much of Mexico. Prickly pears are also the only types of cacti normally found in the eastern United States. They are the most cold-tolerant of the cacti, extending north into southern Canada. One species, Opuntia fragilis var. fragilis, extends into northern Canada, and has been found growing along the Beatton River, SW of Cecile Lake at 56° 17’ N latitude and 120° 39’ W longitude, in the province of Alberta.