Pereskia Aculeata

''Pereskia aculeata'' is a scrambling shrub in the family Cactaceae. Common names include Barbados gooseberry, blade-apple cactus, leaf cactus, rose cactus, and lemonvine. It is native to tropical America. The leaves and fruits are edible, containing high quantities of protein, iron and other nutrients, and it is a popular vegetable in parts of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais under the name of .

Description

Like other members of the genus ''Pereskia'', these plants are unusual cacti with spiny non-succulent stems and large leaves.

It is a scrambling vine growing to tall in trees, with stems thick. Younger stems have hooked thorns and older stems have clusters of woody spines. The leaves are long and broad, simple, entire, and deciduous in the dry season. The strongly scented flowers are white, cream or pinkish, diameter, and numerous, produced in panicles. The fruit is a rounded berry, translucent white to pink, yellow, orange or red, and in diameter. The leaves are edible, containing 20 to 30% of protein in the dry leaf matter. The fruit are also edible, containing numerous small seeds. It somewhat resembles the gooseberry in appearance and is of excellent flavor.

Distribution

Native

Panama, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Paraguay.

Introduced

Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Virgin Islands (U.S.), United States, Mexico, South Africa and Australia.

Ecological significance

A flea-beetle ('' Phenrica guerini'') and a leaf-mining moth ('' Epipagis cambogialis''), feed on the leaves.

Although ''Pereskia aculeata'' is edible and of high nutrition quality, being an alternative to conventional food, this plant is a declared weed in South Africa where it does extensive damage to forest areas by smothering indigenous trees. Infestations occur in some KwaZulu-Natal forests and are embedded in the canopy and difficult to remove. The plant has a tendency to form large, impenetrable clumps and the spines on the stems make control of large infestations difficult. The plants can regrow from leaves or pieces of stem. One specimen that had infested a tree had its stems cut at the base, but after four years the 'dry' stems of the ''Pereskia'' that fell from the tree still set root and regrew.Purves et al. (1995)

Control

These plants are extremely difficult to kill and eradicate. It can be controlled by triclopyr or biological control with the leaf-feeding flea-beetle, '' Phenrica guerini'', which has caused significant damage to ''Pereskia'' plants at Port Alfred, Eastern Cape, South Africa, but although the beetle was also released widely in KwaZulu-Natal, it has not become established there. AGRIS i
ZA2001000773
CABI ISCbr>19992302942

Gallery

File: Pereskia_aculeata_cut_stem_Ilanda.JPG , An old cut stem showing regrowth despite not being in contact with the ground
File:Ein Gedi Botanical Gardens037.jpg , Growing in Ein Gedi Botanical Gardens
File:Pereskia aculeata old stem Ilanda.JPG , Mature stem at Ilanda Wilds
File:Pereskia aculeata fruit.jpg , Centennial Park Conservatory, Toronto

References

* ''Grocer's Encyclopedia: The Encyclopedia of Food and Beverage'', by Artemas Ward, New York, 1911.
* http://www.hear.org/Pier/wra/pacific/pereskia_aculeata_htmlwra.htm
* Pooley, E. (1998). ''A Field Guide to Wild Flowers; KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Region''. .

{{Taxonbar, from=Q134422

Pereskioideae
Cacti of North America
Cacti of South America
Flora of Central America
Flora of the Caribbean
Least concern plants
Taxa named by Philip Miller