CACTI
 
  
Welcome to the exhibit about all things edible from plants like saguaro and agave, as well as the palm, including dates, hearts of palm and palm oil. Ancient plants, all, many of these provided food to the earliest hunter gatherers of desert regions. The date palm itself, a dry sub-tropical plant, has been cultivated since at least 3000 BC.


Agave
Coconut Palm
Date Palm
Oil Palm
Prickly Pear
Sago Palm
Saguaro
Sugar Palm
Yucca
 
 

The date harvest in Elche, Spain. The Moors brought date palms to the Iberian Peninsula during the 8th century. This grove on the western central coast of Spain is the oldest and possibly the only commercial date grove in Europe. (HFHA Coll.)