Talk:Opuntia

Opuntia vs prickly pear
Opuntia is NOT prickly pear. There are Opuntias that are named not pricly pear, The oposite is true pricly pears are Opuntia but not all Opuntia are prickly pear! GerardM 20:40, 31 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Cacti vs family Cactaceae
Opuntia is EITHER a member of the cacti OR a member of the Cactacaea fmily. Family in the sentence without a capital. The cacti is a synonym for the family of the Cactacaea

Australia, Prickly Pears and US textbooks
Opuntia stricta &#8211; imported into Australia in the 1920s for use as a natural agricultural fence and quickly became a widespread weed, rendering 40,000 km² of farming land unproductive. The Cactoblastis moth, a South American moth whose larvae eat prickly pear, was introduced in 1925 and quickly almost wiped out the infestation. This case is often cited as a "textbook" example of successful biological pest control. The same moth, introduced accidentally further north of its native range into southern North America, is causing serious damage to some native species in that area.

Pig's Arse. Prickly pear is rife in Australia moth or no moth. Sure it doesn't quite choke up farm land to such extremes, but it it i still very widespread as a desert, bush, plains, beach, garden and every-dang-elsewhere weed.--ZayZayEM 14:50, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC) bnghmhjgkj,kjljh hjhgkgj ytjtyj — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.70.112.227 (talk) 09:53, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

Several genera
The genus Opuntia has been split into several genera (see Taxonomy of the Cactaceae) - I don't have enough info available to split this page up in accord with that. Anyone want to tackle it? - MPF 01:23, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

The logic of the opening sentence needs improving by someone with more expertise than I have. (If prickly pear is the ONLY member of the genus, how can the genus have MORE THAN 200 SPECIES?? Linkbook (talk) 14:59, 9 October 2010 (UTC)LINKBook

but do you realise that it is also a red oiak


 * Your post was incoherent. Do you mean "oak"? Please try again, with indents and a signature. Meticulo (talk) 12:23, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Prickly Pear cactus
Current living in the eastern US and have never seen Prickly pear here but, I grew up in the US southwest. Prickly pear flouishes in the Mojave and the Sonoran which is really easy to resource. Shouldn't the article reflect that?-- Dakota ~  ε  02:32, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes! I just added some text to reflect this, feel free to edit. Zzorse 03:08, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

I have encountered Opuntia humifusa frequently when hiking in Shenandoah National Park and George Washington National Forest in Virginia. Carlaclaws 22:06, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Cactus as food
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Bold text
HOW DO I WATER AND HOW DO I PLANT AND WHAT DO I PLANT THIS CACTUS IN???? EMAIL ME AT : Browneyes0811@vzw.blackberry.net  Is dirt okay??'''  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.219.163.199 (talk) 18:29, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Opuntia are a genuis that is edable and can be eaten both raw and cooked. Let's add this to the article and maybe even some refrences to the way it is often prepeared: grilled, in salad, fried, etc. 69.171.150.47 19:06, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Go right ahead! Zzorse 00:14, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

My grandmother had actually made a soup out of it. Its was pretty damn good too.

Geographical ditribution
Prickly pears and similar species are also spread all over North Africa. souldn't that be mentioned in the article.

If prickly pears have become naturalized in North Africa, yes. Zzorse 12:26, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Cure-all
Is there any reliable source for all of these claims? They were added in December 2005 by User:4.227.20.10 (this user's only edits two at Wikipedia were to this article). The only mention of some (not all) of these claims in the external links is from the desertusa.com source, which also sells "prickly pear extract" on the website. I can believe the soothing skin and eye drops claims, but I have a hard time believing that the extract or other part of the can plant can "cure" acne, unless the source for the claim is JAMA or some other reputable source. Can anyone provide better sources? Thanks. Ufwuct 16:47, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
 * After six months, I removed the following text because it lacked a reputable source:
 * They are said to control blood sugar, cure acne, and soothe skin, and can also be used as arthritis medicine and eye drops.' Ufwuct 18:44, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Prickly Pear Jelly
Lets get a few reviews of the jelly. Ive personally had the Magenta Version, which is rather tasty with peanutbutter :-). The other two hues are green jelly and yellow jelly

Hosting Beetles
It seems that there should either be more information in the section about Opuntia as a host for cochineal harvesting, or else it should be removed. As it is right now, it seems to confuse more than inform. Tlesher 18:36, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Chumbera near Barbate, Andalusia
Can anyone identify this Opuntia? It is the common variety predominant in Andalusia. Regards, E    Asterion  u talking to me? 18:57, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

unknown opuntia
My mom has a bed of some kind of Prickly pear that my dad dug up in N. Georgia. But it doesn't look like the Eastern prickly pear pictures. It grows in a linear chaining fashion and only has the clumps of fine hairlike prickles, with no spines at all. It produces yellow flowers and the fruit are large at about an inch long. It spreads along the ground with only the terminal pad standing partially erect. If I remember to take my camera, I will get a picture of it this weekend.James.folsom 15:54, 18 January 2007 (UTC)


 * FNA sez "Spines often absent" (a detail not mentioned by our article, tsk tsk), so it's probably just a spineless form of O. humifusa. Anderson mentions an O. ammophila native to Florida but not in FNA(?), but it has "1-2 spines" and is erect, up to 2 m tall. Stan 17:00, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * FNA calls it O. humifusa var. ammophila, so we're still at one species for eastern US. Stan 17:09, 18 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah I finally found a picture one that didn't have spines. I'll try to get a good picture of it, so that if can be placed on the article if it would help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by James.folsom (talk • contribs) 18:58, 18 January 2007 (UTC).

Tree Cholla picture
Copied from Talk:Cactus While you may be proud of your work, Staplegunter, please do not keep inserting this picture. It is more appropriate for the tree cholla (Opuntia imbricata) article and has been removed by at least 3 separate editors, indicating that there is no consensus to include it. pschemp | talk 04:45, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
 * The plant in this picture is overexposed and difficult to see on a computer screen, so the image is probably not appropriate for another article, either. Also, it's a landscaped specimen of a common plant, so time to get an excellent image is available.  Please feel free to reshoot and upload, if there is a place and space, to the article pointed to by User:pschemp, as it is a common landscaping plant in certain areas of the United States.  Thank you.  KP Botany 04:54, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Staplegunther, Inserting the picture in Opuntia isn't appropriate either. I'm trying to be constructive here, and you are ignoring consensus. Please put the picture in the correct place, or take a better one and get consensus. pschemp | talk 17:49, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Fact tags
I removed the fact tag that was apparently meant for the verification that Opuntia tomentosa's common name is woollyjoint pricklypear. I found a USDA website to back it up here. I also removed a fact tag on Opuntia littoralis after verifying its common names on several apparently reputable websites. However, I do not think that it is appropriate to put these as references in the article. Unless there is a reason to question its accuracy or if it is controversial, I do not think that such things require references. If all 41 species and sub-genera in the list had to have its own reference listed (perhaps more than one if the reputability of the sources is questionable or if there is more than one common name), we would never get anything else done, the article would be full of reference numbers, the article would be hard to edit, especially if the new style of references is used (author, date, publication, editor and such are all listed right in the middle of the article), and the references section would dominate the article. Sure, it would be nice if there were a single reliable source with all of the information, but those sources are rare, in my experience, especially with online sources. (This USDA page with links to pages on six species of Opuntia is probably the best website as far as reputability. However, this page has many more species and seems to be of adequate reputability. Perhaps I will give it as a reference after checking to make sure that it agrees with the information we have. Update: I checked many of the species and they checked out. I put it as a link at the bottom of the list for now. I do not have time at the moment to check all of them.) A lack of references is perhaps the largest problem about most Wikipedia articles, but some people can be excessive about references. Those who have seen a lot of graduate student papers can back me up. ;-) Sorry for the long delay in posting this message. It wrote it at the same time that I made the edits to the article, but I started trying to verify all of the species names, had to stop and did not get back to this browser tab until now. -- Kjkolb 11:59, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Prickly pears reach into southern Canada (Ontario), and central parts of B.C., but not "northern" Canada (which are Yukon, NWT and Nunavut). I changed northern to southern and western .Vitoldus44 (talk) 16:16, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and drink Tagging
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xoconostle
Which sp. is the xoconostle? kwami (talk) 00:19, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Rewording necessary?
The opening sentence reads: Currently, only prickly pears (also known as nopal or nopales, from the Nahuatl word nōpalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nōchtli for the fruit; see below) are included in this genus of about 200[1] species distributed throughout most of the Americas. I've read this sentence several times and I'm not sure what it means. Can someone reword it please? Is it saying that the Prickly Pear is the only species of Opuntia in the Americas, but there are about 200 species worldwide? Thanks. -- Andrew Parodi (talk) 08:14, 22 September 2008 (UTC) The rewording as of today is a slight improvement, but not much. The "see below" by context is with it being called "paddle cactus", though is meant to refer to its use as a food. For what it's worth, I've only heard one person call it anything like "paddle", and that was me as a child because I didn't know any other name. If I cared, I'd remove it or ask for references. But, this is wikipedia. I don't care. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.228.6.2 (talk) 00:37, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

Range of Opuntia fragilis var. fragilis
I"M boggled that these are found as far north as the Beatton River, given that area's subArctic climate...but maybe not all that surprised. Because, some kind of prickly pear, I suppose it must be Opuntia fragilis var. fragilis, is very common in southern British Columbia, in the Thompson Plateau, Thompson Country, Okanagan and Fraser Canyon areas.  I found this article after linking Prickly pear cactus on Thompson Plateau and just wanted verification for what it looks like - the type I'm familiar wiht, form around Lillooet in the Canyon, is a kind of ground-creeping variety, with very small "pears" in "fans" sprawling on the ground...often beneath grass and sage where you can't see it...damn stuff can pierce leather boots....very, very common.  Does this sound like the right species, or might there be another in this region? No pictures handy, if needed I'll ask someone to get some (I'm not in those parts lately). Presumably it's the same time as in the Okanagan, although I'm pretty sure that transplanted saguaro and monstrosus have been used in private landscaping there....Skookum1 (talk) 16:54, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Opuntia image identification
The picture identified as Opuntia pinkavae appears to be O. fragilis. The picture below, currently identified as O. polyacantha, is more likely the picture intended to represent O. pinkavae.

Tfrates (talk) 18:36, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Medical claims
I removed the claim for treatment of "diarrhoea, and stomach ache", since these claims are dubious have been unreferenced for a year. -- Beland (talk) 02:32, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

image at the end.
Is the last bit about Jews and the random picture from an Israeli comic museum supposed to be there...? 68.44.229.194 (talk) 22:15, 2 June 2023 (UTC)
 * The information about the origin of the word "sabra" does seem relevant to me, although I don't see the direct relevance of the cartoon image. Peter coxhead (talk) 08:58, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
 * The image is related to something related and so should be removed from this article. Invasive Spices (talk) 19:40, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Pliny's Opuntia
"Circa Opuntem Opuntia ' est herba, etiam homini dulcis ; mirumque e folio ejus radicem fieri , ac sic eam nasci." Google Translate gives: "About Opuntum Opuntia is a herb, sweet even to man; and it is surprising that a root should be made from its leaf, and thus it should be born." Nomen ambiguum (talk) 04:08, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * The identity of the plant known to the ancients by the name opuntia isn't clear, other than that it was a spiny plant found near Opuntus, according to the books on the origin of plant names I have on my shelves. There's a discussion of Miller's choice of Opuntia as his new genus name at . (The "Indian fig" used as the English name was possibly Ficus benghalensis. Certainly Theophrastus (who Pliny copied in parts) knew about this plant and included it in his Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορία (Historia plantarum).) In general, it's difficult to match many ancient plant names with modern species names; John Raven's Plants and plant lore in ancient Greece is good on this. Peter coxhead (talk) 10:41, 11 April 2024 (UTC)