Botanical Garden nr. I : SUCCULENTS - Edible fruits and flowers

 

Welcome to our first Botanical Garden!

 

In horticultural use, the term succulents (water-storing, drought resistant plants) regularly excludes cacti. In botanical terminology, cacti are succulents, but not the reverse, as many succulent plants are not cacti.

In fact, many succulents are able to thrive in dry conditions, and some are able to last up to two years without water depending on their surroundings and adaptations.

 

Click on a specific flower or fruit for more information.

 

Botanical Gardens nr. II, III, IV and V are still under construction.

Ripe Barrel Cactus Fruit

 

Warning: picking the fruit can be painful!

 

As you can see here, wilted flowers of the barrel cactus ( Echinocactus and Ferocactus ) change into small pineapple-shaped fruit. The fruit has turned yellow and is ripe.

It can be consumed, although the taste is rather bitter. The fruit can also be dried. Then you ground the tiny black seeds into a flour or add whole into crackers, breads, hot cereal, granola, soups and smoothies.

 

Flowers of the barrel cactus appear at the top of the plant only after many years. The cactus can live more than 100 years; some species reach over 1 meter (3.3 ft) and in some regions even higher.

They are endemic to the deserts of Southwestern North America southward to north central Mexico. Some of the largest specimens are found in the Sonoran Desert.

Native Americans collected the fresh fruit as emergency food during extreme drought conditions and in Mexico the flesh of the barrel cactus is candied and eaten as a treat.

Saguaro Fruit

 

The saguaro cactus ( Carnegiea gigantea ) is one of the defining plants of the Sonoran Desert. They are large (between 12-18 m./ 40-60 ft.), tree-like columnar cacti that develop branches (or arms) as they age, although in the FoodMuseum they never grow arms.

Saguaros are covered with protective spines. White flowers appear in the late spring. They emit a strong smell, sort of like overripe melons.

 

During the night the flowers are pollinated by bats. During the daytime the flowers are pollinated by bees and birds. Saguaro flowers bloom for less than 24 hours. They open at night and remain open through the next day. They only have that very short time to attract an animal to be pollinated.

As you can see here pollinated flowers transform into red fruit in summer. When the fruit ripens it split open showing juicy red pulp. Each fruit can contain up to 2000 small black seeds.

 

The ripe fruit is edible and an excellent source of food and moisture for many desert animals. Humans also eat the fruit of the saguaro.

 

Saguaro can become 150-200 years old.

After the saguaro dies its woody ribs can be used to build roofs, fences, and parts of furniture. The holes that birds nested in or "saguaro boots" can be found among the dead saguaros. Native Americans used these as water containers long before the canteen was available. Tohono O'odham Indians have been harvesting the fruit for as long as they have lived in the desert.

 

The saguaro is not currently listed as threatened or endangered. Arizona has strict regulations about the harvesting, collection or destruction of this species.

Prickly Pear

 

Prickly pear (Opuntia Cactaceae ) have edible fruits. The cacti are native to the Western Hemisphere. Several are cultivated, especially the Indian fig ( O. ficus-indica ), which is an important food for many peoples in tropical and subtropical countries.

 

The Indian fig is bushy to treelike, growing to a height of 5.5 m. (18 ft). It bears large yellow flowers, 7.5 to 10 cm (3 to 4 inches) across, followed by white, yellow, or reddish purple fruits. It is widely grown in warmer areas for the fruit and edible paddles and as a forage crop. The hard seeds are used to produce an oil. Because of their high water content, the stems, especially of spineless varieties, are used as emergency stock feed during drought.

 

Some species have become invasive in regions outside their native ranges. When prickly pears were first introduced to Australia and southern Africa by early explorers, they prospered, and, having left behind their natural parasites and competitors, they eventually became pests. In the FoodMuseum they have been brought under control by introducing moths of the genus Cactoblastis.

Cholla Cactus Flower Buds

 

Cholla cactus flower buds (locally also called ciolim when green or yellow, or kokaw or hanam when reddish) are a desert food handpicked from species in the Opuntia genus. They are a food tradition known to few outside the people of the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, and are particularly used by the Tohono O’odham people.

 

Cholla cacti are able to withstand months or even years of drought, while producing about 2.5 kg of food per mature plant each spring. Buckthorn and staghorn cholla are the most frequently harvested varieties, though there are many. These cacti are similar in appearance, and bloom in spring, both with flowers in a range of colors in hues from greenish-brown to purple and reds to yellows and oranges. Preferences for harvesting the buds of different species vary between communities. Some prefer the staghorn cholla, for the ease of removing the cactus’ spines, which is more difficult with the larger spines of the buckthorn cholla. The rarer pencil cholla is thinner and produces large buds in the sparse patches where it grows, and the silver cholla is often used in western Arizona.

 

The buds are traditionally picked before the flowers open during the month of su’am masad (yellow month), which falls around April. Cholla buds were often spit-roasted by the thousands for food during the period of what the Tohono O’odam called ko’oak macat (the painful moon), the early spring period when food supplies were scarce.

Buds are still roasted or boiled today, and have a taste similar to asparagus tips with a slight lemony note that varies among varieties. The cholla buds can be used in a wide variety of recipes, in salads, quiches, and local dishes like pastel de elote and nopales. The fresh buds can also be dried for later soaking and cooking, gaining a texture and flavor reminiscent of artichoke hearts.

 

The harvesting and cooking of cholla buds historically brought together extended communities for support, ceremonies, prayers and celebrations. They have been in use by the native communities for hundreds, if not thousands of years, as evidenced by excavations of clay roasting pits.

 

There are many stories and songs in Tohono O’odham culture relating to cholla buds. One song recommends waking up early in the morning, to collect the buds before Coyote gets them. Many believe that they must collect as many buds as possible, to show thanks to the god I’itoi who created them and has provided them to the people.

Cholla buds have also traditionally been used medicinally by the Tohono O’odham. They are known to help in the treatment of osteoporosis and were considered a necessary food for nursing mothers. In fact, cooked cholla buds contain 3200 mg of calcium in 100 g of buds. High quantities of complex sugars and carbohydrates help slow the release of sugars into the bloodstream during digestion, making the cholla buds an important method reducing insulin dependence in treating type 2 diabetes.

 

Because of the difficulty of harvest and preparation, cholla buds are very expensive. Family harvesting of cholla buds declined from the 1930s to 1990s in the United States, but recent decades has seen a resurgence of this Native American tradition, along with interest from some non-Natives, particularly with recent research into their importance in preventing or treating diabetes.

 

Cholla bud is a very under-appreciated and little known food, due to the erosion of traditional knowledge and the increase of modern Western diets and lifestyles in the region. Harvest, preparation, storage and cooking techniques may be lost by future generations. Development of land in the area also includes clearing the cholla cacti, and non-Native populations are slow to accept the culinary uses of cholla buds.

 

The traditional products, local breeds, and know-how collected by the Ark of Taste belong to the communities that have preserved them over time. They have been shared and described here thanks to the efforts of the network that that Slow Food has developed around the world, with the objective of preserving them and raising awareness.

(source: Slow Food/ Ark of Taste)