I have no idea how long this has been here, how it got here or even if this is more common than I realize, but I spotted this growing the other day in this traffic island at the intersection of Comm Ave and Homer Street, right near Newton City Hall.
A cactus grows in Newton
by Greg Reibman | Apr 23, 2013 | City Hall | 17 comments
I was curious enough to look it up — seems to be an endangered species in Massachusetts so I hope no one disturbs it. Prickly Pear: http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/species_info/nhfacts/opuhum.pdf
Thanks Hoss. If I knew that I would have written “A prickly pear grows in Newton.”
but we have had a prickly pair or more here on this blog.
Who knew we had indigenous cactus in Massachusetts?!
Does this make anyone want to try to grow them in your yard?
sure, @Kim. They’re edible
I’ve noticed prickly pears for years growing near the parking spaces at the West Suburban YMCA. I assumed they were planted.
They are edible …. but those thorns can be a little rough on your esophagus on the way down.
@Jerry Silly, these aren’t for kids. You don’t eat corn with the husks and cob either!
I wouldn’t eat the ones on the traffic island near City Hall. They may contain whatever was dredged out of the City Hall pond.
Regarding growing them in your yard, this is extracted from the document Hoss linked to. “All listed species are protected from killing, collecting, possessing, or sale, and from activities that would destroy habitat and thus directly or indirectly cause mortality or disrupt critical behaviors.” You can’t transplant them.
The inhabitants of T.S. Elliot’s “Wasteland” danced around them to the following words”
“Here we go round the prickly pear, prickly pear, prickly pear.
Here we go round the prickly pear at five o’clock in the morning.”
Do any English professors or students remember what the prickly pears symbolized for Elliot?
Prickly pear = Nonconforming lots?
Like Marya, I also noticed those along the Y’s chain link fence over the turnpike, of all places, and assumed they were planted and wondered how they survived winters. They had yellow flowers last summer like in Hoss’s link. Could they have grown from seeds blown in or excreted by birds? Or can they be purchased and also an endangered species?
Julia Malakie — The link says they prefer sandy locations, so there’s a small possibility the seeds (and/or plant parts) were in sand used for road sanding (explaining why they were on the traffic island and alone the roadside). This calls for a field trip to the DPW yard to find more… Ald Yates can come and finish the rhyme
They do seem to be available for sale.
Not meaning to split pears Jerry, but that says Opuntia ficus and the article says only Opuntia humifusa are known in MA