Opuntia Fragilis - Brittle Prickly Pear cactus Blossoms as Background, Westside Road, West Kelowna, BC - June 22, 2011.

Assembled images artwork.

This is a low-lying, thick, rounded, jointed, fleshy, perennial herb (one of two varieties of Prickly-pear Cactus) that is indigenous in the dryer, open ground areas in the British Columbia Southern Interior (also grows in Alberta, south to New Mexico). Prickly-pear Cactus leaves were widely used by native tribes as a food source - the spines were peeled or burned off, eaten raw or dried for later consumption. Settlers boiled the leaves to remove stems, then fried the interior of the leaf like a pan fry. When cattle forage was limited, herders would burn off the spines and feed them to livestock.

Richard Hennic at Science World on Granville Street in Vancouver during the Flow Motion Exhibit in October, 1985.

A young Equus Cabellus (domestic horse) munching on grass in a field along Whitworth Road in West Kelowna across from the Gellatly Nut Farm.