Paleo Foraging

Cylindropuntia leptocaulis (DC.) F.M.Knuth

= C. brittonii, C. mortolensis, Grusonia leptocaulis, Opuntia brittoni, O. frutescens, O. gracilis, O. leptocaulis, O. mortolensis, O. ramulifera, O. stipata, O. vaginata, O. virgata

Christmas cactus, turkey cactus, coyote cactus, pencil cactus, tasajillo, tasajulla, garrambulo

Apache: xucntsai – “crazy cactus” (Castetter and Opler 1936:59)

Seri: iipxö (Felger and Moser 1985:271)

Location in Texas: all TX except E & far N; not uncommon in Travis Co.

Food

Fruits – eaten by the Seri (Felger and Moser 1985:271). They were spread on the ground and carefully brushed with branches of creosote or other soft brush to remove the spines, then were eaten fresh (Felger and Moser 1985:271). C. leptocaulis seeds were found to be common in 5,000-year-old coprolites from Paleo-Indians of southwest Texas (Williams-Dean 1978:163,178).

Medicine

Fruits – said to be used as a narcotic by the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache, being crushed and mixed with tiswin, their fermented corn drink (Castetter and Opler 1936:55). Eating a single fruit reportedly made one “drunk and dizzy” (Castetter and Opler 1936:55).

Notes – I have eaten a handful at a time several times and one or more countless times with no apparent psychoactive effect. Perhaps Castetter and Opler (1936:55) misunderstood the Apache, who were actually referencing the tiswin as causing the effect, with the fruit merely as a flavoring.

Experimentation

The fruits are delicious, and are quite similar to prickly pears, although their seeds can be eaten whole without any trouble, as opposed to the larger hard seeds in prickly pear, which need to be separated. Their spines are easily removed by brushing or singeing them off.