This week, I revisit edible cactus after discovering possibly the most wet tolerant Cactaceae of them all, Maihuenia poeppigii. Native to the Andean highlands, M. peoppigii is adapted to relative cold and high humidity. Read more about this cactus, and my thoughts on why this could be a better target for domestication than the Prickly Pear (Opuntia sp.): Real-life Cold Temperate Cactus - by A. Potentilla
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Is there a way to get reasonably priced seeds? I’m seeing $6-7 per one.
Sounds like an promising choice for some climates. For me, too many thorns, and it wants way too much rain! But you’re right, it may be a great fit for a British gardener who wants productive food and prefers thorns so that wildlife won’t eat them.
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That’s a good question. In the UK you can buy these cactus, they’re popular for bonsai projects and people who like to push cactus zones. Perhaps you can propagate a cutting from a friend?
Yes, for your place you might need a more “typical” edible cactus like glochidless Opuntia!
I acquire Maihuenia poeppigii seeds from Sacred Succulents. Sometimes they have cuttings also.
It survived 14 winters for me. Low temperatures around -20 F. It has not flowered yet, so hard to do a breeding project. Although, a cutting flowered for my brother inside.
I grow it on a bed of sand about a foot deep.
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Is there a glochidless Opuntia? If there’s a thornless and glochidless variety, I’d be super interested in it.
Emily this one is supposed be spineless and glochid free on the pads, but some on the fruits. Could be a hexaploid, for sure a polyploid. Higher ploidy should be easier to select for low glochids when crossed to a hardy diploid.
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Wow, that looks really promising! I’d rather have glochid-free fruits as well, but cutting the fruits in half and scooping out the pulp with a spoon is always an option. And the fruits would be high up enough that kids (or me) won’t accidentally brush against them. And they’re really pretty. Hmmm!
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Thulahn, it looks like Mahienua is not super distant from Cereus. That might be an interesting attempt at a wide cross.
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Cactaceae is broadly divided into the ceroids and opuntiods. There is a lot of intergeneric cross fertility within those two divisions but no known hybrids between the two sides of the family tree.
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I have a little collection of Opuntias (in California), and I have found that the most glochid-less type is Opuntia ellisiana. It does have some glochids, but very few — maybe 2 or 3 glochids per areole. I would really like to grow out some seeds of that and see if I can improve it at all.
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That sounds terrific! I would love to see what you come up with. It’s a crop with tons of potential for improvement through breeding. 
What is the fruit flavor like?
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Thanks for the suggestion! I just emailed them.
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It’s worth noting that O. ellisiana is actually a spineless and mostly glochid-free cultivar of Opuntia cacanapa (var “Ellisiana”). I wrote about it a bit here: A Spiky Saviour - by A. Potentilla - Urban Food Forest
I wonder under what conditions it needs to flower, whether it is self-fertile, and what naturally occurring pollinators it needs.
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It’s been a while since I’ve eaten a fruit from that species, but I seem to remember they were pretty good. Pretty similar to a lot of the wild Opuntia fruits.
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Huh! According to your definition, I’m in a semi-desert: we get 18 inches of rain a year.
Most of it in the winter as snow, mind you.
Perhaps it would be fair to say my climate is desert in summer, and temperate in winter.
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I moved the plants into an unheated greenhouse this summer. Looking forward to seeing if that alters their flowering habit. It gets hotter in the summer with higher humidity.
Hmm. This thread reminds me that I have unplanted seeds (somewhere),
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Yes, I thought of your climate whilst writing this article(!) Lots of people live in semi deserts without knowing.