Opuntia in the United States. This was dubbed the "Cactus Curtain", an allusion to Europe's Iron Curtain and the Bamboo Curtain in East Asia. Opuntia Opuntia, commonly called prickly pear, is a genus in the cactus family, "Cactaceae". Prickly pears are also known as "tuna" (fruit), "sabra", "nopal" (paddle, plural "nopales") from the Nahuatl word "nōpalli" for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word "nōchtli" for the fruit; or paddle cactus. The genus is named for the Ancient Greek city of Opus, where, according to Theophrastus, an edible plant grew and could be propagated by rooting its leaves. The most
Opuntia fragilis in). Both the common and scientific names refer to the easily detached stem segments. This is known to be a means of plant dispersal. "Opuntia fragilis" is a small, prostrate plant, rarely more than 4 inches high: joints tumid, fragile, easily detached, oval, elliptical, or subglobose, 1-2 in. long and nearly as thick as broad, bright green: areoles ¼-½ in. apart, with whitish wool and a few white to yellow bristles, which are much longer and more abundant on older joints; spines 1-4, occasionally a few small additional ones, weak, dark brown, the upper one usually longer and stronger than