Cacti and succulents have adapted to grow where there is not much fresh water, in places like deserts. Deserts get very little rain, are very hot during the daytime and often frosty at night. I have been fascinated with the cactus ever since my trip to Arizona where I saw them in all their glory in the Sonoran Desert and had them for dinner as cactus fries. I have been missing them ever since my return to Toronto. This weekend I was fortunate to find a restaurant that offers a salad dish with cactus. The dish was quite delicious and I would recommend it to anyone interested in having a nice Mexican dinner at Dos Amigos.
I have compiled some interesting facts about cactus while listening to cactus music.
- A prickly cactus stops birds and animals trying to eat them for their water!
- Cacti are a sort of succulent, but a succulent is not always a cactus.
- Cacti live in arid climates so, in order to adapt to extreme conditions, cactus leaves have shrunk to spines or hairs and the stems make the food for the plant instead of the leaves.
- Cacti stems and ridges expand to store lots of water when it rains, much like a camel uses his hump.
- Some cacti have light-colored spines that reflect as much as three-fourths of the sunlight striking them, thus keeping them cool.
- The vertical ridges on some cacti allow the stems to swell with the uptake of water after a rainfall, much like the pleats of an accordion.
- Many of these plants wait until it rains to flower. Rain also makes their seeds germinate and these seeds can stay dormant for a long time in the soil.
- Some cacti spines are nearly 15cm (6in) long.
- The century plant takes 25 years to grow a flower. Then it dies. Lots of agaves do this!
- Some species of agave plants (succulents not cacti) are also called Needle and Thread plants because the spiny tip and stringy leaf margin can be broken off and used to sew - and are even strong enough to sew through leather.
- The spines of the Barrel cactus were used by people for fishing hooks.
- The hallucinatory drug mescaline occurs in the the peyote cactus.
The giant saguaro (pronounced “sah-wah-ro”) cactus:
- The tallest cactus in the world, growing up to 20m (67ft) high.
- It can weigh up to six tonnes, which is mainly the weight of the stored water.
- Some of these cacti are 250 years old.
- It takes approximately 75 to 100 years for a saguaro cactus to produce an arm.
- Is found only in the Sonoran Desert
- Can’t be found above an elevation of about 3,500 feet since they can’t handle much frost.
- Flowers every year in May and June.
- A saguaro with many holes in it has been visited by the Gila Woodpecker
- The roots are very shallow to grab as much moisture from the ground as possible. To provide anchor to the saguaro, the roots wrap themselves around rocks.
- The Gila woodpecker nests inside the stem of the saguaro cactus where the temperature inside can be up to 30ºC (86ºF) cooler than outside.
A common myth is that the barrel cactus is full of water. In truth, it is filled with a slimy alkaline juice that would cause a net loss of water if drunk, diarrhea, as well as potential hypothermia
Prickly Pear Cactus or edible cactus is also known as nopales. This edible cactus has fleshy oval leaves with a soft but crunchy texture that also becomes a bit sticky when cooked. Prickly pear cactus tastes similar to a slightly tart green bean.
