gardens

[Geraldine Yellowhair]

what is a cactus?

[paghat]

The sound a cat makes getting rid of a hairball.

-paghat the ratgirl

[David Ross]

1. Any plant in the family Cactaccae, generally native to the western hemisphere. Sunset describes them as succulents, generally leafless, with with herbaceous stems modified into cylinders or pads that store water. Most (but not all) species have spines to protect them against animals that would eat them to obtain the stored moisture.
2. A most remarkable plant. "Cactus" is derived from "kacht es", medieval high German for "it craps".

[Snooze]

[snip]

David you should suspect posts that are made from google groups, especially simple questions or odd questions as being trolls.

Snooze

[S. M. Henning]

Any plant of the order {Cactac[ae]}, as the prickly pear and the night-blooming cereus. See {Cereus}. They usually have leafless stems and branches, often beset with clustered thorns, and are mostly natives of the warmer parts of America.

[Cereus-validus]

All Cactaceae are native to the New World. Only Rhipsalis baccifera has been established in the Old World tropics long enough to have discrete varieties there.

Pereskia is the only non-succulent genus in the Cactaceae. They are woody broad leafed shrubs to trees.

The order Cactales is no longer recognized. Cactaceae are now included in the Caryophyllales.

The family Cactaceae is best distinguished in the order by the floral bracts, sepaloid and petaloid tepals being spirally arranged rather than in separate whorls and intergrading into one another. Also Cactaceae have areoles (axillary buds filled with hairs instead of scales) but they are not unique to the family. Areoles are also found in the Portulacaceae and Didiereaceae.