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Opuntia prickly pear nopales "paddle cactus" tunas: my quest for fruits to control blood pressure

 
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Still having attach issues and in other threads just doing a reply and it literally bounces off and disappears. Not in 'my posts' or anything.

Going to try again.  

These are the 'behind the fence' opuntia which match the two 'Mexican bodega planter sidewalk' ones. It surprised me with a bloom and more surprisingly, with a honeybee.
2017-07-02bee.JPG
[Thumbnail for 2017-07-02bee.JPG]
C D B?
 
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Deb: I'd bet that it's some type of native bee. The colors/patterning look off for a honey bee and the size looks too small. I only mention it, because I noticed a non-honeybee in a cactus flower on Friday when I was picking pads for market.
 
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I have a spineless variety. I had about a dozen blooms but no fruit. I guess I need a pollinator?
 
Deb Rebel
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Ken W Wilson wrote:I have a spineless variety. I had about a dozen blooms but no fruit. I guess I need a pollinator?



Can you attach a picture of it? Most of the nopales that make fruit (Tuna) do so all by themselves. Fruit form where the bloom was... are you sure you have a variety of Opuntia? All the ones I had bloom are making a fruit body....
 
Joseph Lofthouse
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I suppose that there is a botanical definition of what is a fruit. Then there is what a primate would consider to be a fruit. To me, as a primate, only one of my cactus species makes a fruit. The rest seem like seed pods: not something that I would want to try to eat...
 
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