Today, the prickley pear that are in bloom get their chance to outshine the Saguaro. The lot captured below were along Norterra Parkway in North Phoenix. As you can see from the photo below, if you were a bird that liked the pear fruit, you would be staring at an all-you-can eat buffet, which is a good thing for the prickly pear, as the fruit being eaten is important to the cultivation of prickly pear in the wild..
Below, you can see a close-up of the brilliant red pear fruit. Some people do eat these, however the spines on the exterior need to be carefully removed. And according to Kelley Koehler, some people even eat the paddles. In my experience (and I have too much experience tangling with cactus) of all of the cactus in the Sonoran Desert, prickly pear are the least hazardous. They aren’t extensively thorned, and the thorns aren’t as barbed and/or poisonous, like other species I’ve wrestled with.
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