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Fruiting Cacti
Nick,
cacti are absolutely more than an ornamental species. Some cactus fruits are truly spectacular. Most notably, Cereus types, and opuntia SP. Not to mention Dragonfruit ( Hylocereus) which I consider to be one of the best tasting of all fruits, and have been cultivated quite extensively in recent years.
If you're interested in growing fruiting cacti, you should start out with Opuntias. Red fruited types are very good, and hardy. O.Engelmanii is very good. Or alternatively, you could grow cereus peruvianus ( apple cactus). This is even sold as a fruit 'tree' in Australia. Have a greenhouse? You can grow Dragonfruit--and a good red or purple type will blow your mind with its delicate, Turkish delight flavour.They will fruit at small statures, and in incredible abundance if you treat them right--and the way to do that is to give them lots of minerals, and next to no nitrogen. So essentially, they are about the easiest of things to grow--they thrive on neglect. Another important aspect is to give them very little water. Wet feet will kill them. Slightly moist, low-fertility soil is the order of the day.
First pic is of C. Peruvianus fruits, second is H. Undatus ( purple dragon fruit) and the last is stenocereus queretaroensis, which is probably the creme de la creme of cactus fruits but is impossibly rare. It took me three years of searching to aquire seeds.
Edit: The little hair like spines on prickly pear are called 'Glochids'. If you want to, you can actually burn them off the plant itself with a chef's torch and this will not affect the health of the plant, so long as you do it in a light, sweeping motion.
Double Edit: Yes, the fruits of all catacea in existence are edible. In fact, the prickly pear plant itself (the pads) are even edible. They are staple vegetable in Mexico, where they are referred to as 'Nopales'. In the US, you can even buy tinned Nopales.
Triple Edit: The spiciest plant ( hottest) is a cactus, Euphorbia Resinifera. The hottest chillies in the world have scoville values of a little over 2 million. Pure resiniferatoxin has a scoville rating of 16 Billion. That's not a typo--that's Billion, with B.
What Is the Hottest Chemical on the Scoville Scale?
So not something you'd want to put in your salsa if you ran out of Jalapenos, really..
Nick,
cacti are absolutely more than an ornamental species. Some cactus fruits are truly spectacular. Most notably, Cereus types, and opuntia SP. Not to mention Dragonfruit ( Hylocereus) which I consider to be one of the best tasting of all fruits, and have been cultivated quite extensively in recent years.
If you're interested in growing fruiting cacti, you should start out with Opuntias. Red fruited types are very good, and hardy. O.Engelmanii is very good. Or alternatively, you could grow cereus peruvianus ( apple cactus). This is even sold as a fruit 'tree' in Australia. Have a greenhouse? You can grow Dragonfruit--and a good red or purple type will blow your mind with its delicate, Turkish delight flavour.They will fruit at small statures, and in incredible abundance if you treat them right--and the way to do that is to give them lots of minerals, and next to no nitrogen. So essentially, they are about the easiest of things to grow--they thrive on neglect. Another important aspect is to give them very little water. Wet feet will kill them. Slightly moist, low-fertility soil is the order of the day.
First pic is of C. Peruvianus fruits, second is H. Undatus ( purple dragon fruit) and the last is stenocereus queretaroensis, which is probably the creme de la creme of cactus fruits but is impossibly rare. It took me three years of searching to aquire seeds.
Edit: The little hair like spines on prickly pear are called 'Glochids'. If you want to, you can actually burn them off the plant itself with a chef's torch and this will not affect the health of the plant, so long as you do it in a light, sweeping motion.
Double Edit: Yes, the fruits of all catacea in existence are edible. In fact, the prickly pear plant itself (the pads) are even edible. They are staple vegetable in Mexico, where they are referred to as 'Nopales'. In the US, you can even buy tinned Nopales.
Triple Edit: The spiciest plant ( hottest) is a cactus, Euphorbia Resinifera. The hottest chillies in the world have scoville values of a little over 2 million. Pure resiniferatoxin has a scoville rating of 16 Billion. That's not a typo--that's Billion, with B.
What Is the Hottest Chemical on the Scoville Scale?
So not something you'd want to put in your salsa if you ran out of Jalapenos, really..
( probably inedible to us too!) 
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