Opuntia ficus-indica
Commonly called the Mexican Indian fig for its fist-sized red to purple fruits, this cactus plant is now common in Southern California in a variety of settings associated with its Mexican roots. Symbolizing the ancient Aztec vision of the founding of México on an island in Lake Texcoco, this tree-cactus is one of the key foundational elements featured on the flag of modern day México. Originally brought to California by the Franciscans to support life at the missions, today the various related species can be found growing at sites such as the region's historic ranchos or planted as backyard fruit trees enjoyed by immigrant families of Mexican ancestry. Also in our modern era, its fruits and paddle-shaped leaves can be bought from local supermarket shelves. As a transplant Opuntia ficus-indica has hybridized with local native Opuntia species creating new cactus varieties upon the landscape.
National coat of arms of México depicting the vision of the founding of the the Aztec nation on an island in Lake Texcoco where an eagle stood on a cactus tree - or on, in the Aztec/Nahuatl language, "nopalli" (the scientific "Opuntia ficus-indica").
The Nopalli
According to an ancient prophesy, the place where the Aztecs were to found their nation in the valley of México would be marked by an eagle atop a nopalli cactus. It also provided the people with food in the form of its mature fruits and young tender oblong pads. Additionally, the pads called "joints" or “cladodes” in botanical terminology, provided a living food surface for whitish swarms of cochineal insects whose crushed bodies were used by the Aztecs to create a deep red dye for use on textile and as a general pigment.
Opuntia ficus-indica plants can be seen across Southern California at various historic sites, such as the California missions and domestic gardens.
Food to Dye For
The nopalli cactus commonly called a 'prickly pear' or nopal cactus, refers in general to a large group of flat, jointed cacti within the genus of Opuntia that are especially valued by humans for their sweet tasting nopales/pears. The actual nopal fruits may take on a coloration varying from purple to red, orange, yellow, white and green. The flat joints are also eaten--especially as a young shoot that has not developed the woody, prickly spines that render their mere handling painful. But these joints, spines or not, are also loved by cochineal insects that cling to the cactus surface in sticky whitish masses. As these insects eat the cacti nutriments their bodies fill with a red fluid that serves as a colorful dye also called "cochineal."
Eight emergent tunas on the nopal pad (left) after the flowers at the end of each bud had been pollinated. White scale cochineal insects feeding on pads (center). Tender emergent pads (top left and top right of insect covered pad).
Young tender nopal pad or cladode. Stiff painful spines have not developed but are enveloped by a small prong-like leaf at the pad’s spirally distributed network of aeroles.
Grove of nopal cactus, 1901. Note woman and child for scale. Photo Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library.
A Domesticated Plant
The Opuntia ficus-indica was highly valued by the ancient mesoamericans for its food and dye products. The mesoamercan Indians who successfully crossed generations of grasses to eventually create multiple varieties of cob-bearing maize, no doubt also crossbred the nopalli to achieve plants that bore numerous large fruits and that supported cochineal production and harvest.
In California the Opuntia ficus-indica plant escaped the bounds of the missions where it was introduced and formed new hybrids with various local California Opuntia species.
In the mountains of Perú a boy gathers, removes spines and eats tunas. Tunas for the market!
The Food Chain
As the nopal cactus symbolized the founding of the emerging Aztec polity so its branching pads formed the basis of several foods that feed into an interconnected ecosystem of humans and animals. The tender young pads of nopal are easily prepared leading to a tasteful and nutritious food, even as a treatment for diabetes. According to the website WebMD, “Single doses of prickly pear cactus can decrease blood sugar levels by 17% to 48% in some people. It is not known if extended daily use can consistently lower blood sugar levels.” (https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-880/prickly-pear-cactus). These pads called cladodes by botanists also are also the food for the whitish scale insect from which the deep red cochineal dye is made. The fruits of the nopal commonly called “tunas” (nochtli in Nahuatl) are especially delicious coming in a range of colors: greenish, yellowish, whitish, orange, purplish and reddish. Although we humans can grow nopales to harvest the pads, fruits and cochineal insects, others of our world may arrive before us. Birds love the fruits and deer will eat them—and if still hungry will devour the pads as well but wisely leaving enough there for the future.
Same nopal plant as shown above six months later (May 21 to November 10, 2018). The tunas developed into semi-ripe fruits only to be eaten by deer. Later, due to the local California drought, the deer continued to feed on the juicy ends of many of the pads. Note that the scale insects have also vanished.
… and chewed by ground squirrels. Experiencing a dry summer in August of 2020 the same nopal plant provided a source of moisture and sustenance to ground squirrels. In the shade of the spreading plant, at its base stem, the squirrels had also made a burrow. Now battered by cochineal insects, browsing deer and gnawing squirrels, the Opuntia ficus-indica plant lives on.