Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. is a prickly pear cactus that has long been a domesticated crop plant important in agricultural economies throughout arid and semiarid parts of the world. It is a large and bushy or sometimes erect and treelike perennial succulent with a definite woody trunk, 1-6 meters high, usually with a large top.
The origin of Opuntia ficus-indica is not known, probably Mexico, where it has been cultivated back to prehistoric times for about 8,000 years. The plant spread to many parts of the Americas in pre-Columbian times, and since Columbus, have spread all over the warm areas of the world, especially the Mediterranean Sea, about the Red Sea, in southern Africa, and in Australia, either cultivated for their fruits and for forage or as escapes.
According to the epithet of the genre takes its name from an ancient Greek region called Locride Opuntia, or its capital Opunte, near which, according to Theophrastus and Pliny the Elder vegetating plant (Opuntia herba) whose leaves were rooting and whose Fleshy fruits were a bit tasty but the issue (as ficodindia was introduced after the discovery of the Americas) is somewhat controversial.
The specific epithet, ficus-indica, on the one hand, recalls the vagueness of the fruit with the fig tree (Ficus carica L.), on the other the American origin (West Indies) of the plant; It seems in fact, according to others, that the fig tree name was born thanks to Christopher Columbus who believed he had cast anchors in the Indies. The fruit comes to Europe with the Spaniards in the mid-1500s, just after the conquest of the new world.
Opuntia ficus-indica
Opuntia ficus-indica is ca. 40 cm tall and comes in a ø 17 cm pot.
