仙人掌类植物原产南北美洲热带、亚洲热带大陆及附近一些岛屿，部分生长在森林中。

我国于明末引种，南方沿海地区常见栽培，在广东、广西南部和海南沿海地区逸为野生。

仙人掌

相比起来看，仙人掌这东西的确不是很常见，特别是在我国分布的算是很少了。比如说，你可以在大马路边上发现马齿苋，但是绝对看不到仙人掌，可是掉到沙漠里就单说了。

在沙漠里，一看到仙人掌，你可以说算是活过来了，这东西果实和植株都可以用来吃。

采集仙人掌的一个不错的方法是——用石头把仙人掌砸下来，之后再用火一烤，什么刺都会化成一缕青烟不见了。

仙人掌

Prickly pear 仙人掌

Prickly pear doesn’t appear to be a choice edible wild food, but once the needles are dealt with, both the pads and fruit of this prolific western cactus can end up as a filling and nutritious food. The prickly pear is one of the easiest of the cacti to identify, and because the plants tend to be fairly large, just one of them can provide many meals in the backcountry. The most important things to remember are to keep the needles out of your hands when harvesting them (use a rock or stick to knock pads off), and to either burn or scrape the needles off before cooking or eating it. (Tip: burning the needles off is more reliable than scraping).