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Cactus ID

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What is the name of this cactus??? The tiny fruits are delish, very sweet and kinda strawberry/watermelon'ish taste...

post-1378-0-00387700-1401819627_thumb.jpg

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is this it?

desert christmas cactus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylindropuntia_leptocaulis

 

James

 

Thank you JLW, that it... that link claims an intox effect from the fruit??? I've never noticed that effect, but then again, I've never eaten more then 3-4 at a time... There also seems to be two types, one with long spines, and one with shorter, finer spines, I got about 20fruits while out hunting 20mm rounds today...

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Definitely looks like a Desert Christmas cactus, although I've never heard of intoxicating effects from its fruit. None of my field guides or cactus-specific books reference that. I also wouldn't trust Wikipedia for the most accurate scientific information (no disrespect to JLW intended).

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The fruits have hair like spines, using an empty plastic water bottle to harvest them(they fall off easy) and shaking the bottle you can knock-off most of the fine hair-like spines... Just ate a handfull... I'll check-in later with a report if any intox feature (doubtfull as to any intox effect also IA Born)...

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Might be what's called Crusafiction Thorn. Spelling isn't correct...............BOB!

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Might be what's called Crusafiction Thorn. Spelling isn't correct...............BOB!

 

Definitely not Crucifixion Thorn. That's more tree-form. This is definitely an Opuntia cactus and, from the pic, its most likely Desert Christmas cactus. With regards to the intoxication from the fruits, a co-worker walked by right as I was typing my original reply so I bounced it off him. He had a good point: its a fruit; if you let it ferment long enough, of course you can get intoxicated! For the life of me, after 20+ years of ecology, I can't see where Desert Christmas cactus would have any more intoxicating effect than any other Opuntia fruit! Knock yourself out, Oneshot (not literally, though; unless you have a GoPro to record it)!

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Might be what's called Crusafiction Thorn. Spelling isn't correct...............BOB!

 

Definitely not Crucifixion Thorn. That's more tree-form. This is definitely an Opuntia cactus and, from the pic, its most likely Desert Christmas cactus. With regards to the intoxication from the fruits, a co-worker walked by right as I was typing my original reply so I bounced it off him. He had a good point: its a fruit; if you let it ferment long enough, of course you can get intoxicated! For the life of me, after 20+ years of ecology, I can't see where Desert Christmas cactus would have any more intoxicating effect than any other Opuntia fruit! Knock yourself out, Oneshot (not literally, though; unless you have a GoPro to record it)!

 

 

Yeah, it's the Christmass cactus... it would take forever to collect enough fruits from this little cactus to make anything with...

I'm going to make wine from the Sahuaro fruits soon, the fruits arent ripe yet, and I have an idea for making a flavored liquor also from sahuaro fruits...

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Might be what's called Crusafiction Thorn. Spelling isn't correct...............BOB!

 

Definitely not Crucifixion Thorn. That's more tree-form. This is definitely an Opuntia cactus and, from the pic, its most likely Desert Christmas cactus. With regards to the intoxication from the fruits, a co-worker walked by right as I was typing my original reply so I bounced it off him. He had a good point: its a fruit; if you let it ferment long enough, of course you can get intoxicated! For the life of me, after 20+ years of ecology, I can't see where Desert Christmas cactus would have any more intoxicating effect than any other Opuntia fruit! Knock yourself out, Oneshot (not literally, though; unless you have a GoPro to record it)!

 

 

 

I'm going to make wine from the Sahuaro fruits soon, the fruits arent ripe yet, and I have an idea for making a flavored liquor also from sahuaro fruits...

 

 

Coincidentally, a bottle of Saguaro fruit wine is my typical consulting fee for plant identification! ;)

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