Chumbos going bananas!

[Petrea]

There seem to be an abundance of chumbos this year. I guess it has something to do with the wet winter. I came acroos this cactus with ca 62 (hard to count exactly without a print) chumbos on one side of a "leaf" (sorry, couldn´t get to see the other side  ). Can anyone beat this??? 

Saludos
Petrea

[Dave]

Hi Petrea
What exactly are chumbos, and are they edible
Regards
Dave

[Petrea]

They are the prickly pears (sorry for the misssing trans- or explanation!). Edible, but difficult to peel without ending up with tiny thorns all over! Full of vitamins - and fairly big hard seeds!

[Sue]

Hi both,
to add a little more to this, they are Opuntia which is not a native plant to Iberia, but was however imported for its fruits which are sweet to eat and a distilled spirit can be made from the sap...but more so for the creatures that live off it, the cochineal scale insect famed for provding a red colourant used in both food products and as a fabric dye. ''Dactylopius coccus is a scale insect, from which the cochineal dye is derived.''

Opuntia ficus-indica has been introduced to Europe and flourishes in areas with a suitable climate, such as...... in Southern Portugal and Madeira where they are called tabaibo, figo tuno or "Indian figs", and eastern and southern Spain as well as Gibraltar where they are known as chumbo or higo chumbo ("chumbo fig")
The plant is invasive.

[nick]

Prickly pears were brought by the Spanish to Europe, possibly accompanying Christopher Columbus in his first return to Lisbon in 1493. The species was called ficus-indica in confusion with its supposed similarity to the Indian fig.

More here
http://www.iberianature.com/spainblog/a-guide-to-food-in-spain-f-g-h/higo-chumbo-prickly-pear/