Prickly Pear
Prickly Pear
Shrub
A drought-loving cactus with flat, spiny pads and sweet fruit, native to Mexico and now growing wild around the Mediterranean.
💡 Fun Facts
- Its flat, fleshy "pads" are actually its stems — and the spines are really its leaves!
- It saves water with a clever trick called CAM photosynthesis, opening its pores only at night.
- The sweet fruit (called a "tuna") and the young pads ("nopales") are both eaten all over the world.
📅 Through the Year
- Flowering:May to July
Name Story
Opuntia ficus-indica
means “the Indian fig (named after the city of Opus)”
What does its name mean?
- Opuntia — of OpusOpus (Opous), an ancient Greek city — a borrowed place-name
- ficus — figLatin
- indica — Indian, of the IndiesLatin
The name ficus-indica means 'Indian fig' — but it is wonderfully misleading. This is really an American cactus: not a fig at all, and not from India. It got the name because it first reached Europe on ships coming from the 'Indies'. The first word, Opuntia, borrows the name of an old Greek city, Opus.