Opuntia, commonly called the prickly pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, many known for their flavorful fruit and showy flowers. Cacti are native to the Americas, and are well adapted to arid climates; however, they are still vulnerable to alterations in precipitation and temperature driven by climate change. The plant has been introduced to parts of Australia, southern Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa.

Prickly pear alone is more commonly used to refer exclusively to the fruit, but may also be used for the plant itself; in addition, other names given to the plant and its specific parts include tuna (fruit), sabra, sabbar, nopal (pads, plural nopales) from the Nahuatl word nōpalli, nostle (fruit) from the Nahuatl word nōchtli, and paddle cactus. The genus is named for the Ancient Greek city of Opus. The fruit and leaves are edible. The most common culinary species is the “Barbary fig”

Opuntia is regarded as an aggressive invasive species.

Distribution

Like most true cactus species, prickly pears are native only to the Americas. Through human action, they have since been introduced to many other areas of the world. Prickly pear species are found in abundance in Mexico, especially in the central and western regions, and in the Caribbean islands (West Indies). In the United States, prickly pears are native to many areas of the arid, semi-arid, and drought-prone Western and South Central United States, including the lower elevations of the Rocky Mountains and southern Great Plains

Opuntia species are the most cold-tolerant of the lowland cacti, extending into western and southern Canada.

Prickly pears produce a fruit known as tuna, commonly eaten in Mexico and in the Mediterranean region, which is also used to make aguas frescas.

Prickly pear fruit for sale at a market, Zacatecas, Mexico

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Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

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Theory:

  • AcidLeaves [they/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    16·
    6 days ago

    I’m on the train rn and there’s been a NASA guy loudly talking about work stuff with another guy for the last hour

    Apparently they keep losing their engineers and scientists to the private sector (mostly SpaceX) and they just lose their knowledge and know how of how to do things because there wasn’t adequate knowledge transfer before they left

    Like NASA apparently can no longer manufacture ceramic coating on rockets for re entry or something like that because they lost the one guy responsible for that to SpaceX, among many other things I didn’t understand

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      10·
      6 days ago

      It’s less visible, but I think this is one of the long term effects of austerity that causes irreparable damage everywhere. Institutional knowledge lost for rockets is very visible, it’s less so for processes and systems. Losing knowledgeable caseworkers or IT people in government does a similar thing over time. We’ve probably lost the knowledge of how to manufacture the ceramic coating that holds together our society and don’t even realize it.

  • LanyrdSkynrd [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    17·
    7 days ago

    Some asshole thought he’d be white knight for Walmart and accused me of stealing.

    I was doing a gig app delivery order and for some reason this prick was just standing in the self checkout area. When you do the orders you scan the items as you go and then go to the self checkouts and scan a barcode, bag the stuff and leave. Pretty standard stuff, even regular customers can do that as a scan&go order.

    I hear this dickbag whispering to the woman he’s with while I’m bagging. Then when I start to leave he jumps in my way and goes, “Really?! You’re just gonna steal all that?”. I told him it was already paid for and a delivery order, pushed past him and left.

    Why would anyone care that someone else is stealing?

  • Inui [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    7·
    6 days ago

    Almost had a panic attack because I feel isolated and stuck in chud land but the area I plan to move to has literally no rentals that allow more than 2 pets. I have 3. It’s been a decade since I’ve lied about having pets I wasn’t supposed to and younger me wouldn’t care at all, but I don’t want to risk getting evicted and being stuck in the same situation again. It’s probably gonna come down to hiding a cat as well as possible. My current landlord is very nosy and would have figured it out by now if we had to lie here. Renting is so stressful.

  • rhubarb [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    7·
    6 days ago

    2027 and 2029 are both prime-numbered years, and the next two are 2039 and 2053, both of which are goofy science fiction year numbers that probably won’t actually happen. We don’t understand how lucky we are.

  • Keld [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    6 days ago

    I hate mnemonics so much it’s unreal. I also can’t function without them. My brain is filled with nonsense phrases which function as index cards for information I otherwise can’t access.

    • polpotkin [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      5·
      6 days ago

      My “memory palace” of my college apartment still has things from my senior year finals, and that was over 10 years ago. Certain information can visually trigger old memories if I memorized it using that technique.

  • Cimbazarov [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    16·
    7 days ago

    Had a liberal tell me that I am “purity testing” Bernie Sanders for not calling whats going on in Israel a genocide. I really feel there’s no point talking to these people unless its in person or you have a relationship with them flattened-bernie

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      10·
      7 days ago

      I really feel there’s no point talking to these people unless its in person or you have a relationship with them

      I mean, pretty much, yeah. Think there’s a circle of trust effect, where people close to you are easier to sway even when they differ greatly from your view, and people online tend to be impossible to move from their position. At least if the discussion is at all formal, passive consumption of low effort content does seem pretty effective in shaping opinions online.

  • BanSwitch2Buyers [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    6 days ago

    Non-binary wife has changed their name to Pretzel (cute) but they’ve also started adding saltrubs to their skin routine (salty), which I didn’t realize until now but I think they got saltrub and salt scrub mixed up. But they taste too good for me to broach the subject now.

  • Keld [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    7·
    6 days ago

    Apparently one of my fellow students took a hospital shift on pentecost evening and that gave them a holiday bonus in their hourly pay. So they made like 50 dollars an hour. I am so mad guys I’m fucking seething. I did fuck all that day. I could have paid my entire rent.