Many cactus plants have edible fruit. This is a barrel cactus or Ferocactus wislizeni. It is a common cactus in the Arizona Sonora Desert and was used as food by the Native American populations. Most people of European ancestry probably would not recognize this as a delicious edible fruit. We used to make Prickly Pear jelly and syrup every year. Now we live far from the lower desert and enjoy a variety of other fruits in season. Here is an excerpt of a poem about fruit.
Not all is lost–the fruit remains
That ripened through the summer's ray;
The nurslings of the nest are gone,
Yet hear we still their warbling lay.
The glory of the summer sky
May change to tints of autumn hue;
But faith that sheds its amber light
Will lend our heaven a tender blue.
O altar of eternal youth!
O faith that beckons from afar,
Give to our lives a blossomed fruit–
Give to our morns an evening star!
from Ripened Fruit by Thomas O'Hagen
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