I didn't want to be a plant snob. So I told myself I at least appreciated some merits of the homely cactus. The prickly pear, after all, is a role model for water conservation. The flowers are pretty ...

Prickly pear fruit is edible, and tasty at that! However, it's covered in dangerous spines, so you need to know the ...

The desert prickly-pear, known to botanists as Opuntia phaeacantha, is the Southwest's most widespread and abundant species of cactus. Unlike the giant saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) that is restricted ...

News flash: If you’re new to succulents, beware the prickly pear. It is the one cactus that strikes fear into every desert gardener, and now the drought has made these cactuses available far and wide.

In parts of Texas, the prickly pear cactus is everywhere — potted outside coffee shops, dotting the side of the road, poking out of cracks in the sidewalk. It also lines the pathways of the University ...

A night of holiday-party drinking doesn't have to be painful the next morning, thanks to a common desert plant. The fruit of the prickly pear cactus is a lean, mean hangover-fighting machine. Grown in ...

Walnut Creek’s Ruth Bancroft is a national authority on drought-resistant gardening. Twice a month, she and her staff share their knowledge with readers. Q We have a large, old (probably about 40 ...

Phoenix in the summer: Hot and humid with evening storms and a chance of a haboob (major dust storms for those who haven’t heard). One thing is certain of Phoenix summers; it takes a little motivation ...

Some summer foods beg to be eaten: fresh tomatoes, sweet corn on the cob. But one virtually screams, "Leave me alone!" Nopalitos are the pads of the prickly pear cactus. In Mexico and the American ...

Like research into the pathologic mechanisms of hangover, research on treatment and prevention of hangover is extremely limited. A systematic review of hangover treatments identified only 15 ...

Opuntia, the prickly pear cactus, originated in South America, moved into the valleys of the Andes and then north into Mexico and North America. In Southern California, opuntia grows in the coastal ...

News flash: If you’re new to succulents, beware the prickly pear. It is the one cactus that strikes fear into every desert gardener, and now the drought has made these cacti available far and wide.