Talk:Opuntia ficus-indica

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Politics in Prickly Pairs?
Hello everyone. It pains me that this subject needs to be addressed here. The tagline for one of the photos is "A Prickly pear from Palestine", whereas the photo information tells us it was taken on Mount Carmel, where I live, in the beautiful city of Haifa (Christians, Muslims, Jews and Baha'is all live here together in peace, as I hope will remain forever). The mountain is absolutely within the State of Israel and is nowhere near the disputed territories of the Six-Day (1967) War. I haven't changed the tagline myself out of respect and a desire to do so in agreement with other users. Please change to "A prickly pair from Israel". Thank you! 77.127.193.208 (talk) 15:53, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Accuracy
I'm questioning the accuracy of the following paragraph:
 * In the early 1900s, in the United States the prickly pear fruit was imported from Sicily and other Mediterranean countries to satisfy the growing population of immigrants arriving from Italy (Sicily) and Greece. The fruit lost its popularity during the mid 1950's and has been increasing in popularity recently in the late 1990s until today, due to the influx of Mexican immigrants.

Why would there be such a demand to import a fruit from Sicily that's native to the United States? This seems very unintuitive and should be properly cited. Lime in the Coconut  19:26, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Article structure
The article is poorly structured and does need work. In an article about a food crop, the botanical aspects would normally be put first, including the history of domestication, followed by uses, including cultivation, production, etc. Kiwifruit or watermelon might be good examples to use as a guide. Peter coxhead (talk) 14:43, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

Article restructure
A suggestion for a restructuring of the article with some additional information added by Lm20109 and SoWelsch:

Opuntia ficus-indica
Opuntia ficus-indica is a species of cactus that has long been a domesticated crop plant important in agricultural economies throughout arid and semiarid parts of the world. It is thought to possibly be native to Mexico. Some of the common English names for the plant and its fruit are Indian fig opuntia, barbary fig, cactus pear, spineless cactus, and prickly pear, although this last name has also been applied to other less common Opuntia species. In Mexican Spanish, the plant is called nopal, while the fruit is called tuna, which are names also used in American English, especially as culinary terms.

General information
Fig opuntia is grown primarily as a fruit crop, but also for the vegetable nopales and other uses. Most culinary references to the "prickly pear" are referring to this species. The name "tuna" is also used for the fruit of this cactus, and for Opuntia in general; according to Alexander von Humboldt, it was a word of Hispaniola native origin taken into the Spanish language around 1500. Cacti are good crops for dry areas because they efficiently convert water into biomass. O. ficus-indica, as the most widespread of the long-domesticated cactuses, is as economically important as maize and blue agave in Mexico today. Because Opuntia species hybridize easily (much like oaks), the wild origin of O. ficus-indica is likely to have been in Mexico due to the fact that its close genetic relatives are found in central Mexico.

Biology
Opuntia ficus-indca is polyploid, hermaphrodite and autogamous. As the Opuntia species grow in semi-arid environments, the main limiting factor in their environment is water. Opuntia spp. have developed a number of adaptations to dry conditions, notably CAM metabolism and succulence.

The perennial shrub Opuntia ficus-indica can grow up to 3-5m height, with thick, succulent and oblong to spatulate stems called cladodes. It has a water repellent and sun reflecting waxy epidermis and thorns for leaves. Cladodes that are 1-2 years old produce flowers, the fruit’s colours ranging from pale green to deep red 

The plants flower in three distinct colors: white, yellow, and red. The flowers first appear in early May through the early summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and the fruit ripen from August through October. The fruits are typically eaten, minus the thick outer skin, after chilling in a refrigerator for a few hours. They have a taste similar to a juicy, extra sweet watermelon. The bright red/purple or white/yellowish flesh contains many tiny hard seeds that are usually swallowed, but should be avoided by those who have problems digesting seeds.

Uses




Human consumption
Jams and jellies are produced from the fruit, which resemble strawberries and figs in color and flavor.

Mexicans have used Opuntia for thousands of years to make an alcoholic drink called colonche.

In the center of Sicily, in the Province of Enna, in a small village named Gagliano Castelferrato, a prickly pear-flavored liqueur is produced called "Ficodi", flavored somewhat like a medicinal/aperitif.

Mexican and other southwestern residents eat the young cactus pads (nopales, plural, nopal, singular), usually picked before the spines harden. They are sliced into strips, skinned or unskinned, and fried with eggs and jalapeños, served as a breakfast treat. They have a texture and flavor like string beans.

They can be boiled, used raw blended with fruit juice, cooked on a frying pan (tastes better than boiled), and they're often used as a side dish to go with chicken or added to tacos along with chopped onion and cilantro.

In Malta, a liqueur called bajtra (the Maltese name for prickly pear) is made from this fruit, which can be found growing wild in most every field. On the island of Saint Helena, the prickly pear also gives its name to locally distilled liqueur, Tungi Spirit.

Fodder
Recently, the cattle industry of the Southwest United States has begun to cultivate O. ficus-indica as a fresh source of feed for cattle. The cactus is grown both as a feed source and a boundary fence. Cattle avoid the sharp spines of the cactus and do not stray from an area enclosed by it. Native prickly pear growth has been used for over a century to feed cattle. The cactus pads are low in dry matter and crude protein, but are useful as a supplement in drought conditions. In addition to the food value, the moisture content virtually eliminates watering the cattle and the human effort in achieving that chore.

Soil Erosion
Opuntia ficus-indica are planted in hedges to provide a cheap but effective erosion control in the Mediterranean basin. Under those hedges and adjacent areas soil physical properties, nitrogen and organic matter are considerably improved. Structural stability of the soil is enhanced, runoff and erosion are reduced, while water storage capacity and permeability is enhanced. Prickly pear plantations also have an positive impact on plant growth of other species. By improving the severe environmental conditions colonization and development of herbaceous species is facilitated. Opuntia ficus-indica is being advantageously used in Tunisia and Algeria to slow and direct sand movement and enhance the restoration of the vegetative cover. There prickly pear helps to avoid destruction of built terraces with its deep and strong rooting system.



Other Uses
Another use of the plant is as an ingredient in adobe (to bind and waterproof).

O. ficus-indica (as well as other species in Opuntia and Nopalea) is cultivated in nopalries to serve as a host plant for cochineal insects, which produce desirable red and purple dyes. This practice dates to the pre-Columbian era.

Mucilage from prickly pear may work as a natural, nontoxic dispersant for oil spills.

Geographical distribution of cultivation
The most commercially valuable use for Opuntia ficus-indica today is for the large, sweet fruits, called tunas. Areas with significant tuna-growing cultivation include Mexico, Malta, Spain, Sicily and the coasts of Southern Italy, Albania, Greece, Libya, Tunisia (where the fruit is called El Hindi), Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel (where the fruit is called sabra), Chile, Brazil, Turkey, as well as in Eritrea and Ethiopia, where the fruit is called beles (በለስ). In Sicily, the prickly pear fruit is known as ficudinnia (the Italian name being fico d'India, meaning "Indian fig"); in Albania, it is known as "fik deti" (meaning sea fig). The cactus grows wild and cultivated to heights of 12–16 ft (4–5 m). In Namibia, O. ficus-indica is a common drought-resistant fodder plant.

Growth requirements
Factors that limit the growth of prickly pear are rainfall, soil, atmospheric humidity and temperature .The minimum rainfall requirement is 200mm per year as long as the soils are sandy and deep. The ideal growth conditions when it comes to rainfall are 200-400mm per year. Opuntia ficus-indica is very sensitive to lack of oxygen in the root zone. Therefore it needs well drained soils. Opuntia ficus- indica is, similar to a lot of CAM species, not very tolerant to dissolved salt in their root zone. Growth drops to zero under the salt concentration tolerated by most salt-tolerant crops. O. ficus-indica grows usually in regions where relative humidity is above 60% and saturation deficite is below 12 HPa. Optunia ficus-indica is absent in regions where there is less than 40% humidity for more than a month. Mean daily temperature required to develop is at least 1.5-2 °C. At -10 to -12 °C prickly pear is killed even if it is exposed to these temperatures only for a few minutes. The maximum temperature limit of prickly pear is above 50 °C as it thrives in regions where 50 °C occur regularly.

The plant is considered a pest species in parts of the Mediterranean Basin due to its ability to spread rapidly beyond the zones where it was originally cultivated.

Harvest and Preparation
As the fruits of Opuntia ficus-indica are delicate, they need to be carefully harvested by hand. The small spines on the fruits are removed by rubbing them on an abrasive surface or sweeping them through grass. Before consumption, they are peeled and sliced

The pads of the plant (mainly used as fodder) also need to be harvested by hand. The pads are cut with a knife, detaching the pad from the plant in the joint. If Opuntia ficus-indica is cultivated specially for forage production, spineless cultivars are preferred. However, also wild types of the plants are used as fodder. In these cases, the spines need to be removed from the pads as to avoid damages to the animals. Mostly, this is achieved by burning the spines off the pads.

Dietary Information
The main benefit of Opuntia ficus-indica for human and animal consumption is its large water content. In arid and semi-arid regions, it is an important water source for animals. The fruit contains ca. 85% water and 10-15% carbohydrate. The seeds contain 3-10% of protein and 6-13% of fatty acids, of these mainly linoleic acids. The prickly pear’s nutritive, diuretic, antispasmodic and emollient properties also make it interesting for medicinal uses.

As the fruit contains vitamin C (containing 25-30 mg per 100g) and was one of the early treatments for scurvy. The red color of the juice is due to betalains, (betanin and indicaxanthin). The plant also contains flavonoids, such as quercetin, isorhamnetin and kaempferol. Other constituents of the pulp of the fruit are carbohydrates (glucose and fructose, starch), proteins and fibers rich in pectin.

The high levels of selenium in Opuntia are comparable to those found in the Brassicaceae

Biogeography
Recent DNA analysis indicated O. ficus-indica was domesticated from Opuntia species native to central Mexico. The Codex Mendoza, and other early sources, show Opuntia cladodes, as well as cochineal dye (which needs cultivated Opuntia), in Aztec tribute rolls. The plant spread to many parts of the Americas in pre-Columbian times, and since Columbus, have spread to many parts of the world, especially the Mediterranean, where they have become naturalized (and in fact were believed to be native by many). This spread was facilitated by the carrying of nopales on ships to prevent scurvy.

Cultural Aspects
In the early 1900s in the United States, the prickly pear fruit was imported from Mexico and Mediterranean countries to satisfy the growing population of immigrants arriving from Italy and Greece. The fruit lost its popularity during the mid-1950s, but has increased in popularity since the late 1990s, due to the influx of Mexican immigrants.

In Hebrew, the plant is referred to as sabra (סברה). This led to the popular use of the term Sabra to refer to an Israel-born Jew, alluding to the fruit and the people alike being tenacious and thorny (rough and masculine) on the outside but sweet and soft (delicate and sensitive) on the inside. Kishkashta, a main character on a 1970-80s Israeli children's show, Ma Pit'om, was a large, talking felt puppet of the Opuntia cactus.

Proposed merge of Draft:Opuntia ficus-indica into Opuntia ficus-indica
The draft is a list of proposed additions to the article. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:11, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * There's some very good material in the draft, but it needs merging in carefully:
 * It has very limited inline referencing, particularly given the very detailed nature of some of the information
 * Some material seems to stray off this species into Opuntia generally
 * Some of the cultivation stuff doesn't follow WP:NOTMANUAL
 * Peter coxhead (talk) 22:23, 29 November 2020 (UTC)


 * I went through and fixed typos, wikilinked, etc, and then left a message asking Robert McClenon to come back and merge it in. He has some stuff that would be good to have in the article. Invasive Spices (talk) 22:43, 10 February 2021 (UTC)