Say Hello to My Little Friend the Cactus

Today, I will write about a spiky little friend of mine.

My dad and I have a thing with cacti. (Cactuses? Cactupi?). I buy him them whenever we’ve had a fight, or just when I want to tell him ‘I love you’ without actually verbalizing it. I have a few cacti he’s given me as well. My favourite one is named for my old boss back when I worked at a diner. He was a thorny, cantankerous old Greek man. Haha. She joked. But no, really. I collect them. Even now, as I type this from the safety of my sun-bench, I am watching one I’ve named Mariel. I have a habit of naming inanimate objects.



The cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. They are, with one sole exception, native to the America’s. They are an unusual plant in that they thrive in dry, arid regions. (That means desert, though they can also be found in the rainforest, savanna’s, and mountains. weird.) There are over 2,000 species of cacti, with various shapes and forms.

Say hello to the nice Saguaro cactus, everyone.

A perennial plant, they can grow as trees, vines and bushes and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Some of them will be no bigger than your thumb, while others, such as the mighty saguaro, can grow up to be 15 metres. They generally have no leaves, or greatly reduced leaves (many of which are microscopic…neato!), and many have a covering of thorns, which again differs with the variety. The thorns are not only used as a form of self-protection against being devoured or damaged by local or passing fauna, it is a highly effective method of preserving water and thwarting that evil process known as precipitation, in a process known as transpiration through shading the plant.

The life of a cactus is interesting; it has a long dormancy and a short growing season. They have a largely spread out system of shallow roots that respond within two hours after a heavy rain that can trigger an enormous growth spurt in a short time. A full-grown saguaro cactus can absorb up to 3,000 litres of water in ten days. (No wonder the desert is dry…the cacti are stealing all the water. Evil bandit cactuses!) Many cacti will flower after a rain, or after a certain age with the flowers ranging from very small up unto 30 cm in diameter in bright and eye-catching colours. Some cactus flowers stand for several days, others die in just one day. Some cactus flowers open only at the sunset, others only in the daylight. Cacti are pollinated by insects and hummingbirds. Some red cactus flowers spread a stenchy rotten meat scent, attracting insects. They can live anywhere from 25 years, to 300
.

flowering cactus.
But what if there is no rain? Cacti suck up their moisture through their extensive root systems, and in the desert there is plentiful dews that fall at night. But one of the most amazing thing about the cactus is that it can suck up moisture through its skin, through small areoles (NIPPLES!?) that open and close. Desert night fogs allow for a little more moisture to be sucked into the cactus. But because this is a low-water diet, many cactuses have a round, thick shape so that they can better store water.

Mostly they are used as ornamental plants, with others being used as food, foraging, fruit, and other uses. I know of an artist who used to make paper of cactuses. They can also be used as a fence if materials and cost is an issue. Some of the bear fruit, such as the prickly pear and the dragonfruit. (Alright, I did NOT know that came from a cactus. I have to eat some now.) Peyote, long used as a vision-inducing psychoactive agent by the Native American Peoples, is a cactus. Many common cacti that you can buy at any garden centre also contain mescaline. The trunk of some cacti is used to make a type of Argentinian drum called bombo leguero. The wood of some cactus species is used for making walls, roofs and as reinforcement wood. The fruits of Cereus repandus from Peru are called cactus apple or tuna and are prickless. Syrup can be made from cactus fruits.

I don’t know about you, but I find cacti to be amazing. These are plants that have evolved over millions of years in order to survive in a harsh and unforgiving landscape. A lot of times, we don’t think of plants of as evolving, or self-defensive, but then we have the cactus, that reminds us that plants are changing at the same rate as everything else. They are incredibly adaptive, and still manage to be beautiful. It’s just awesome.
What do you think?


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