What type of plant is a prickly pear?

Question

What type of plant is a prickly pear?

Answer 1

its a cactus

Answer 2

It is a cactus called scientifically as Opuntia = Read further =

Opuntia is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae.

There are about 200 species  distributed throughout most of the Americas.

click the link for photo=

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

classification=

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Order: Caryophyllales

Family: Cactaceae

Subfamily: Opuntioideae

Tribe: Opuntieae

Genus: Opuntia

for more info =click the links below =

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Fig_...

Nopales are a vegetable made from the young stem segments of prickly pear, carefully peeled to remove the spines.

They are particularly common in their native Mexico.

Farmed nopales are most often of the species Opuntia ficus-indica, although the pads of almost all Opuntia species are edible.

more info on the link =

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nopal

From = A Botanist

Answer 3

It is a cactus, or succulent

Answer 4

Commonly called fan leaf cactus.

Answer 5

It's a cactus, the kind with the flat, oval shaped leaves.  Some species of this, prepared correctly, are actually pretty good eating.