Pereskia bleo

Leafy cactus

Cactus with leaves

The best rootstock

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Family

CACTACEAE

Origin

South America

Description

Pereskia is a primitive shrubby cactus that clambers to 12ft tall with lush green leaves and produces flowers, with different colours (Red, Scarlet, Coral and Orange)

Blooms repeatedly in summer and fall, it’s a Drought-tolerant plant which offers you a very good support to graft rare cactus!!!

This unusual plant makes an easy to grow house plant. 

Pereskia bleo is considered to be the original cactus, the ancestor.

This is the only one of the cacti family to have leaves!!!!!

After flowering, plants produce interesting, funnel-looking edible fruits which ripen into a bright orange colour.

Habitat

Cultivated

Propagation

Seeds or cutting

Culture and care

This cactus will loose his leaves under 50°F.

Put the cuts into sandy soil. Leaves are under spines.

Enjoy some humidity in the air. They need good drainage, but the soil should stay moist in summer. Keep drier in winter.

This cactus is a leafy cactus that is not a desert-adapted plant like many other leafless cacti we are familiar with – it grows in the shady and moist forests of Central America. This probably explains why specimens grown in hot and sunny spots often become yellow and stunted. Desert cacti have lost all their leaves to avoid excessive loss of water via transpiration.

Uses

- Ornemental use

Very nice tree. Can be planted as a single plant or in edge.

- Alimentary use

Leaves and fruits are edible

Etymology

Pereskia comes from Nicholas Claude Fabry de Pieresc, french astronomy and « bleo » is the name of the plant.