Fruit of the day.

[cactuswatcher]

What good are flowers if they don't produce seeds? Cactus fruit range from dry and hairy or spiny to big, tempting and juicy. This little guy was a surprise

I posted a picture of the flower on this one a while back - http://cactuswatcher.livejournal.com/129299.html#cutid1 . The flowers were teeny and hard to even notice. The fruit however attract more attention. They took about a month to mature.

Epithelantha micromeris (button cactus)

For comparison here is a barrel cactus with fruit from the bloom late last summer. Each of the fruit of this one is about three times as massive as the entire plant above. These fruit take several months to mature and are ripe during the middle of winter. They stay crisp and edible on the plant for at least a year.

Ferrocactus pennisulae

Comments

[ann1962]

They stay crisp and edible on the plant for at least a year.


Can/do you eat them once they are ripe? They look like tiny skinned pineapples!

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Yes, you can eat them, however these are completely tasteless as is. The native animals like them though. The Indians used to cook them down to intensify the flavor. In Mexico they still make candy from them. Even up close they look like pineapples!

Some prickly pear fruit on the other hand are quite tasty as is.