Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary of Scientific and Common names for Prickly Pear
- Map
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Prickly Pear, Brewing and Local Knowledge in the Eastern Cape, 2000-2006
- Chapter 2 The Spread of Prickly Pear, 1750-1900
- Chapter 3 Early Debates about the Control of Prickly Pear
- Chapter 4 Experiments with Cactus in the Cape: A Miracle Fodder? 1900-1930.
- Chapter 5 Eradicating an Invader: Entomologists, Cactoblastis and Cochineal, 1930-1960
- Chapter 6 The Multi-Purpose Plant, 1950-2006
- Chapter 7 Scientists and the Re-Evaluation of Cactus for Fodder and Fruit, 1960-2006
- Chapter 8 Afrikaners and the Cultural Revival of Prickly Pear
- Chapter 9 Conclusion: Back to the Brewers
- Appendix
- Endnotes
- Index
Chapter 3 - Early Debates about the Control of Prickly Pear
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary of Scientific and Common names for Prickly Pear
- Map
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Prickly Pear, Brewing and Local Knowledge in the Eastern Cape, 2000-2006
- Chapter 2 The Spread of Prickly Pear, 1750-1900
- Chapter 3 Early Debates about the Control of Prickly Pear
- Chapter 4 Experiments with Cactus in the Cape: A Miracle Fodder? 1900-1930.
- Chapter 5 Eradicating an Invader: Entomologists, Cactoblastis and Cochineal, 1930-1960
- Chapter 6 The Multi-Purpose Plant, 1950-2006
- Chapter 7 Scientists and the Re-Evaluation of Cactus for Fodder and Fruit, 1960-2006
- Chapter 8 Afrikaners and the Cultural Revival of Prickly Pear
- Chapter 9 Conclusion: Back to the Brewers
- Appendix
- Endnotes
- Index
Summary
Most early references to prickly pear are neutral in their tone, or like Mary Barber's, rejoiced in its familiarity and utility. Yet as early as the 1860s, when much of the rural Cape was being transformed into sheep territory, a few white farmers claimed that they were driven from their land by prickly pear. Soon afterwards key officials and experts became increasingly concerned about opuntia. One of these was Henry Bolus, a committed amateur botanist after whom the Bolus herbarium at the University of Cape Town is named. He lived for some years in Graaff-Reinet where he studied Karoo plants and landscape. In 1874 he wrote:
Introduced at some unknown period from South America, [prickly pear] is now regarded as the greatest pest of the farmer in the first Karroo plateau between the Zuurbergen and Sneeuwbergen …. At this day very many thousands of acres are almost entirely covered with it, and some farms are said to be rendered almost worthless by its encroachments. Cattle, sheep, and goats, indeed, eat it; but the effect of the formidable spines, with which the whole plant is covered … is very destructive, large numbers dying of inflammation of the mouth, caused by the wounds. In the kloof and by river sides it disputes the ground with the acacia and other trees, often killing them, and forming an impenetrable thicket from ten to fifteen feet in height. Many farmers have spent hundreds of pounds in endeavouring to eradicate it. But this is rendered extremely difficult by reason of its wonderfully rapid propagation from any small portion of the flattened succulent stem, which quickly sends our roots and establishes itself, even in the dryest season, and on the most arid soil.’
Bolus was struck by the ‘sociable’ nature of prickly pear which was rare amongst indigenous Cape plants. By sociable, he meant that large numbers of the plant grew together in dense thickets, whereas many indigenous Cape plants tended to be more solitary. This intensified its impact on indigenous vegetation. Peter MacOwan, who botanised with Bolus in the eastern Cape, and later became long-serving Government Botanist in Cape Town, kept a worried eye, during the 1870s and 1880s, on major thickets near the Bruintjieshoogte pass, and also at Cookhouse.
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- Prickly PearThe Social History of a Plant in the Eastern Cape, pp. 57 - 76Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2011