Skin is thick, tough, drought-resistant. Fruit is pear-shaped, bristly, varies from red to purple, orange, yellow and green. Flowers are large, 6cm wide, range from yellow, orange, red, pink and purple to white form seen during spring. Seeds are 5mm long, have hard seed coats that allow them to survive heat and lack of water. Most internal tissues are used for water storage.
Outer parts are used to reduce water loss and damage by animals. Some species develop underground bulbs that enable them to resist fire and mechanical damage. Habitat Prefers subhumid to semi-arid areas in warm temperate and subtropical regions. Varies depending on species and can range from streams, banks, and roadsides to woodlands.
Life cycle Reproduces sexually and asexually. Asexual reproduction cloning occurs when pads joints, segments or fruits on ground take root and produce shoots. Pads can survive long periods of drought before weather conditions allow them to set roots. Flowers late spring to summer. Impacts Environmental Vigorous in hot, dry conditions, causing other plants to lose vigour or die.
Economic Competes and invades pastures. Impedes stock movement and mustering. Social Can harm animals and prevent them from eating. Instead a number of varieties of the prickly pear were introduced to Australian gardens in the mids. Settlers took plants to their properties across Queensland and New South Wales to be used as hedges and fodder during droughts.
The plants thrived in the dry interior climate west of the Great Dividing Range. The species which spread most prolifically were the common pest pear Opuntia inermis and the spiny pest pear Opuntia stricta. This legislation made the owners and occupiers of the land on which the plant was found responsible for its destruction.
The Act also created the first government-appointed inspectors to oversee the law. The Act was supplanted by subsequent Acts in and , but none of the Acts were able to halt the advance of the prickly pear. The reward was doubled in , but nobody was able to claim it because none of the methods put forward proved successful. Prickly pear before the cactoblastis beetle attack, Chinchilla district, Queensland, about s.
National Archives of Australia A L Techniques for destroying the plants included burning the surface plants, digging them up, crushing them with horse-drawn rollers, and poisoning them.
But these hugely labour-intensive interventions were doing almost nothing to combat the spread of the cactus. Prickly pear was becoming so dense that farming was impossible in many areas, and leasehold land was being abandoned. In the Queensland Government instituted a Travelling Commission, a team of biologists who visited countries in North and South America, where prickly pear was indigenous. The commission determined that the plant there was being attacked by numerous insects and fungus diseases that appeared to be confined to the cactus family.
As a result, it recommended the introduction of a suite of natural insect and plant disease enemies to combat the prickly pear problem. However, plans for the testing and release of these biological agents were put on hold after the First World War broke out in August Almost immediately, the CPPB sent a group of entomologists to America, under the leadership of Allan P Dodd, to acquire the previously identified biological agents.
They simultaneously established a breeding centre for Cactoblastis cactorum moths in Queensland. Female moths lay their eggs on the prickly pear plants. Working as a team, the hatched larvae then eat through the tough outer layer of the cactus pads to get at the edible interior. The prickly pear is considered a pest in Australia, but for the local Maltese community, this spiky, uninviting cactus is the true taste of summer.
The heat-loving fruit's peak season is late summer. Each of the different colours has a slightly different flavour. Some suggest they taste similar to a melon, but for Camilleri, no other fruit compares to its unique flavour. First, the fruit must be cut from the tree wearing very thick gloves, to prevent the spines getting stuck in your hands.
Next, you soak the prickly pears in the sink or a bucket of water for a couple of hours to soften the spikes, and some people even take to it with a scrubbing brush at this stage. Cut the top and bottom off the fruit, and then peel off the skin to reveal the juicy, seed-studded flesh inside. Many, Camilleri included, then store it in the fridge for a few hours for an ice-cold summer treat. Prickly pear is actually the umbrella term used for a range of different species within the Opuntia family of cactus.
The fruit is also referred to as cactus fruit, pest pear, tiger pear or nopal, among other names. The highly invasive plant was first introduced to Australia in an attempt to establish a cochineal dye industry the cochineal insect lives on the prickly pear , and later for agricultural purposes, as fencing and drought-resistant fodder, but it quickly spread to cover some 25 million hectares in Queensland and northern New South Wales by - by then a very big problem and a noxious weed.
Their spines are not sheathed. Cylindropuntia species have cylindrical or rope-like branches that are segmented. Their spines are sheathed. Opuntia species are probably the most easily recognised of the opuntioid cacti, with their large round or oval flattened segments, usually known as pads. They are often referred to collectively as prickly pears or prickly pear cacti. The major economic impacts of the opuntioid cacti are on the pastoral and grazing industries.
The weeds can reduced production and increase economical losses of the grazing industry. Cactus infestations can interfere with mustering and access to watering points; spines can damage hides and contaminate fleeces making shearing extremely difficult. Other costs relate to veterinary and medical costs for the treatment of injuries due to cactus spines injuring livestock and humans. Opuntiod cacti are environmental weeds responsible of habitat change and loss of biodiversity by competing with and replacing native vegetation.
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