The Cactus That Was a Menace in my Garden - Austrocylindropuntia Subulata
Hello Hive Friends!
My story this time is about a cactus named Eve´s Needle or Austrocylindropuntia Subulata.
It all started while I was walking along the beach and noticed this beautiful variety of cactus, covered in blooms and often used as a garden hedge. The flowers came in so many vibrant colors—red, orange, pink, and yellow—that they immediately caught my attention. I thought about getting a sample from the garden center so I could grow one myself.
Then, just a couple of days later, I happened to see the town gardeners tending to the plants along the coast. To my surprise, they were cutting back this very same cactus! I asked if I could have a few small cuttings, and they kindly gave me a couple. It felt like the perfect opportunity had simply presented itself, so I brought the cuttings home and decided to give them a try.
If I had known from the beginning that they would become invasive, I probably wouldn’t have planted them. Over the years, they became incredibly robust, and I eventually started to consider them a menace because of how quickly they spread beyond our fence and took over the surrounding plot.
Austrocylindropuntia Subulata Source
is a species of cactus native to the Peruvian Andes. The Latin specific epithet subulata means "awl-like", referring to the shape of the rudimentary leaves.[3] It is also known by its common names as Eve's pin and Eve's needle.Austrocylindropuntia subulata can reach heights up to 4 metres (13 ft), with numerous branches. The elongated, slightly brittle branches are up to 50 centimetres (20 in) long. The stems are marked by rhomboid to ovate bumps in a few spiral rows. At the tip of each bump is the areole, from which grow one to four straight, grayish-white spines up to 8 centimetres (3 in) long. The awl-like rudimentary leaves are up to 12 centimetres (5 in) long.
A. subulata probably comes from the Peruvian Andes, where it is common at altitudes above 3,000 metres (9,800 feet). Today it has been naturalised in Argentina and Bolivia. It has been introduced in the Mediterranean basin to form impassable hedges, but it has become invasive in coastal provinces and some in the Iberian interior.
The beauty of the flower of Austrocylindropuntia subulata Photo source
I planted it outside the fence, and it grew so rapidly. The variety I got has pink flowers like the photo above.
The Agave Trimming
At that time, I trimmed the agave I had received from my German lady friend. They were just offshoots then; after about four years, they began producing new side shoots. Agaves need to be trimmed and maintained each season, with the young offshoots, or “pups,” removed to prevent them from spreading too quickly. Otherwise, the garden would soon become overrun with new growth, making it look wild and difficult to manage.
All of the agave leaves were extremely stiff, hard, and difficult to cut. I had to use an electric cutter and wear protective gloves, while taking extra care during the cutting process because the edges of the leaves are extremely sharp, almost like blades.
These were the leaves from eight fully grown agave plants. After cutting them, I gathered all the pieces and carefully placed them in the trailer.
Now, going back to the cactus, if you examine the cuttings closely, you will see that the spikes are extremely dangerous. They are very long, sharp, and strong enough to puncture and flatten vehicle tires.
Because of the amount and difficulty of the work involved in removing and disposing of them safely, I needed additional help. I hired a farmer and arranged for a truck with a trailer to transport all the cuttings to the landfill for proper disposal.
The trailer was full by the time we finished clearing the area. Seeing it filled gave me a real sense of accomplishment, knowing that we had made significant progress in cleaning up the space.
Once the work was completed, I was relieved of the task and able to step away with a sense of satisfaction.
Thanks for visiting and have a lovely day!
Mers
Hi @ewkaw, thanks to you and to the @qurator team for the support! 😊
What an incredible amount of cactus, and those needles look so dangerous. The conditions must be perfect for them to spread so fast. Did you completely remove them or is there more there?
Hello! Yes, we completely removed them. This is a robust cactus variety, once you throw just a stem on the ground without care, it will spread like wildfire.
This is good to hear because that looks like dangerous work having to clean it up. We have several invasive plants here in British Columbia, like the ivy, which unfortunately takes over trees. Fortunately, it doesn't have sharp needles like the cactus.
We had a cactus gifted to us. It was the size of half thumb. It flowered every Christmas for almost 20 years. It never grew bigger than a small flower point and died last year. It was cute.
Hi! Sorry to hear about your cactus. Sometimes, they are the easiest to have at home. When covid 19 came, we were not able to travel to Spain for 18 months. Our garden there was mostly planted with cacti and succulents that were never watered during our absence. But when we came back, the garden flourished and even became wild. Mother Nature has a way of taking care of them.
I looked at that thing and thought "oh no" thinking of my aloe vera plants and how they escaped from their pots XD
I am putting a bunch of them back into pots and transplanting some into a different part of the garden and will obviously have to keep a close eye on them x_x
J has a couple of cacti in hilariously small pots for their size (which are somehow doing okay o_O) but they're otherwise things I admire from a long way away (I am very clumsy and would end up looking like a porcupine if I got anywhere within range of them).
Those flowers are really pretty though and it does look like it would be an amazing low-med security boundary fence x_x
Hi! Yes, this variety has pretty flowers that come in various colors. The one house I saw in Spain, fronting the beach, has plenty of them surrounding it. I guess they planted them for security reasons. But I really got the idea to plant them in my plot because of their beautiful flowers, not knowing they would grow so rapidly in such a short time. I like Aloe Vera; I have them with flowers in red, orange, and yellow,
and they also grow side shoots and multiply nicely.
Oh those are pretty! My aloes have reddy orange flowers that are smaller than that. I forgot to get a photo of them when I went outside while it was still light oops.
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Your plants are very fertile, I only saw the agave plant on the internet, is it true that the plant can be processed into beer?
Hi, I have heard about agave to make beer thru the process of fermentation...but Agave is mainly used as main ingredient to produce Tequila... if you see the cut Agave in my blog , the round body is harvested for tequila making.
oh thank you
You 'invited' a invasive plant - got rid of it, but will it come back? Excellent post. Sharing.
for sure they will come back since some of the roots may not have all taken.
You've been curated by @amazingdrinks! Delegations welcome!
Thank you 😊
That pink flower is really nice
Thank you so much for appreciating.