I look forward to Christmas.
Temperatures drop or at least they dropped this year. We had a decent winter which is something we’ve
sorely missed over the past decade. For
those of you to the north I think I have a bit of good news. A couple of nights ago I was making a set of
arrows in my little hobby shop and two flights of Canadian geese flew overhead
going north. A sure sign that winter is
coming to a close. In Deep South Texas
winters are short-lived and over the past decade they have been practically
non-existent. Our worldwide chaotic
climate has given us some years when temperatures never went below fifty
degrees and if they did it lasted for only a few hours. But this year we had a good winter and I am thankful
for the respite from the heat. There
will be days this coming July, August and September when temps will soar well
above the 100 mark and I will think back fondly on this winter. A couple of weeks ago I was in North Texas in
twelve-degrees of snow and ice with a wind-chill of zero. It brought back memories of my days in
Michigan long ago when I’d hike out over a frozen Lake Michigan and sit on
hillocks of ice to enjoy the quiet. By
the way, I was told that it’s been a long time since the lake has frozen
over. Apparently, this is the first time
since the 1980s that at least 75 percent of the lake has been covered in ice.
Already things are returning to normal around here and the
cold-fronts are becoming sporadic and not very intense. But all around are vestiges of this past
Christmas and when the sun is setting the Brushland lights up with its own
glitter. Perhaps the woods is as
reluctant as I am to let go of the beautiful Christmas of 2013.
We call the plant pictured above tasajillo (tahs-ah-he-oh) but it is otherwise known as Desert
Christmas Cactus. I prefer the name tasajillo because it’s an older name to
the region. One of my objections to many
plant field manuals is that they fail to include the oldest common names for
the area covered. Thus in South Texas
most field manuals would be, in my opinion, more instructive and accurate if
the authors always sought to name a plant using common names of Native American
or Spanish origin before using names that are more recent. Unfortunately, many of our plant field guides
lack that feature. Nonetheless, and at
least for this article, the name Desert Christmas Cactus is appropriate. In my late afternoon walks I think of this
past Christmas every time I see a clump of tasajillo.
I can’t recall the first time I encountered tasajillo but most people become aware
of the cactus when they bump into it and receive a painful stab from its
spines. Tasajillo spines are particularly nasty in that they are enveloped
by a sheath that slips off and remains implanted under the skin. The sheath is quite difficult to remove so
the best advice I can give is to always be aware of your surroundings when
hiking in the Brushlands or desert regions.
Besides, this is a land with many obstacles and tasajillo is but only one of them.
A large rat known locally as the “nopal rat” (because it
makes nests within clumps of nopal or
prickly pear cactus) places the cylindrical and abundantly spiny stems of the tasajillo cactus at the entrance to its
nest. When I wrote the novella The Trail I included a segment where the
main character, Jacob, sets out to collect nopal rats within an old corral
choked full of prickly pear cactus.
Years ago in the mountains of Mexico I was treated to a meal of nopal
rats by a group of Indians who lived in a remote mountain region. They told me the rat is a delicacy and, in
fact, cooked with chile and beans it was quite good. The rat lives primarily off the succulent nopal pads and is therefore a
vegetarian. No, it doesn’t taste like
chicken. It tastes more like pollo.
Desert Christmas Cactus is known scientifically as Cylindropuntia leptocaulis and besides
the name tasajillo it also goes by
the common name Desert Christmas Cholla.
There are other common names in other regions but where I live those are
the folk names used to identify the plant.
Tasajillo makes an excellent
perimeter fence in areas where privacy or protection is needed. I planted a row of tasajillo at the back of a friend’s yard a few years ago because people
were graffiting his cedar fence. It is
tricky planting tasajillo as you
might imagine. Wear gloves, use tongs,
and perhaps even chaps. But once the tasajillo takes hold you’ll have a wall
of spines growing to about five feet high.
Don’t overwater the cactus and be sure it’s in partial shade. Tasajillo
grows best in sandy loam and the only problem you might have is vines attempting
to use the cactus as a support. Best lay
down a heavy layer of mulch or even plastic overlaid with sand on top of each
plant. You will, of course, get stabbed
in the process but then so will anyone else who ventures close.
Wildlife love tasajillo
and I’ve seen everything from quail and Rio Grande turkey
to javelina eating the cactus. Various
bird species make their nests in tasajillo
including roadrunners and mourning doves.
Beautiful
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