Tuna Gallery

mexico, bajio, zacatecas, preparing tunas or cactus fruit cropped shot of hands holding

Prickly pear cactus, Opuntia leucotricha. Preparing tunas or cactus fruit, cropped shot of hands holding peeled fruit and knife. Mexico, Bajio, Zacatecas

© Edith Ulrich / Flowerphotos

Cacti, chromolithograph, published in 1900

Cacti: 1) Cereus flagelliformis; 2) Bottle cactus (Hariota salicornioides); 3) Schlumbergera gaertneri (Epiphyllum truncatum); 4) Barbados gooseberry (Pereskia aculeata); 5) Mistletoe cactus (Rhipsalis baccifera, or Rhipsalis sarmentacea); 6) Rhipsalis cassutha; 7) Rainbow pincushion (Mammillaria rhodantha); 8) Leuchtenbergia principis; 9) Ferocactus hamatacanthus (or Echinocactus longihamatus); 10) Echinopsis cinnabarina; 11) Pachycereus marginatus (or Cereus gemmatus); 12) Carnegiea gigantea (or Cereus giganteus); 13) Pelecyphora aselliformis; 14) Opuntia tuna; 15) Cereus grandiflorus; 16) Melon cactus (Melocactus intortus, or Melocactus communis); 17) Old man cactus (Cephalocereus senilis); 18) Echinocactus longihamatus; 20) Ariocarpus retusus; 21) Opuntia cochenillifera, or Nopalea coccinelhifera; 22) Echinocereus procumbens. Chromolithograph, published in 1900

Springtime landscape of flowers, olive trees and giant prickly pear cactus, Marrakech, Morocco

Opuntia is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae. Prickly pears typically grow with flat, rounded cladodes (also called platyclades) armed with two kinds of spines, large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles called glochids, that easily penetrate skin and detach from the plant. The fruit of prickly pears, commonly called cactus fruit, cactus fig, Indian fig, nopales or tuna in Spanish, is edible, although it must be peeled carefully to remove the small spines on the outer skin before consumption. If the outer layer is not properly removed, glochids can be ingested, causing discomfort of the throat, lips, and tongue, as the small spines are easily lodged in the skin

© © Brenda Tharp / DanitaDelimont.com