Eric Brown always points me in the right direction.
While I don’t hear from him often, when an email arrives I know it will be a good one. With an eye for detail and an interest in the unusual, he has observed and shared sightings and photos of brook lamprey, freshwater mussels and leeches over the years.
He most recently reported a perfect pear. There were, in fact, more than a pair of pears. To his surprise, nestled into a dry field in Oak Bluffs, his sharp eyes observed a sharp shape. A curious colony of prickly pear cactus.
Which leads me to an aside — is the plural form cactuses or is it cacti? A prickly predicament? Nope, both are acceptable (though we will see what the Vineyard Gazette style guide suggests).
When we think of cactus, hot, dry deserts most often come to mind. But, in fact, we do have cactuses in New England and there is even some reporting of this species further north.
Eastern prickly pear, Opuntia humifusa, is a native cactus that has been documented in indigenous archaeological sites in Massachusetts and remains a rare resident of the Commonwealth. A species of greatest conservation concern, it is endangered (and protected as such) in Massachusetts, with less than 50 records in five counties. Middlesex, Essex, Barnstable, Nantucket and, of course, Dukes are counties containing populations of this peculiar plant.
Prickly pears are well adapted to heat, sandy and dry soils, and harsh coastal conditions. Form and function forecast survival. Its large pads, also called nopal, are actually stems, not leaves, that are photosynthetic, can hold water and are edible. True leaves (though they be little) can emerge from each areole at the tip of new pads, but usually fall off quickly.
Those areolas are cushion-like structures on the pads that hold its spines, called glochids. These can present a thorny issue if touched and serve as protection from predators whether those are deer, rabbit or humans. Glochids are quite difficult to remove and can be painful, so look but don’t touch cacti without gloves or tools.
Large showy yellow flowers emerge in the summer ahead of the fruits that start green and ripen to pink or red. The flowers and fruits are edible, though as mentioned, must be handled with care to avoid the plant’s glochids and cleaned of them ahead of consumption.
Fruits can be eaten raw, candied, juiced and made into beers or cocktails. The pads can be boiled or grilled as vegetables, though with the rarity of this plant, consumption of wild ones is not recommended. Obtaining prickly pear plants through native plant nurseries and establishing them in the driest areas of your yard or garden is the best way to have a harvest.
And if the flavor of those fruits is unappealing, they can be used as dye, as can an insect found on these cacti. Cochineal are scale insects that live on prickly pear cactuses and are used to derive a coloring for food, fabric and cosmetics akin to the color of its host fruit.
Barbs and bugs may not sound enticing but I promise that this plant provides the most perfect pearing.
Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.
This article appears in October 2 2026.