Cactus Leaves or Nopales (noh-PAH-lehs) are leaves that make up a Mexican flat leaf cactus called nopal.
In Mexico these cactus are readily visible as very large living barriers to separate one property from another. Cattle ranchers have used walls of this flat-leaf cactus as hedges all around their homes. They are also an inexpensive fence for ranchers to use to keep their cattle from crossing a road.
For example, after the Pan American Highway that goes from Texas through Mexico to Central America was built, many a tourist, going 50 miles an hour around a corner, had been "taken out" by a cow or a horse that just happened to be crossing the Pan Am Highway. There was a lot of safety complaints so Mexico had large tunnels built under the Pam Am so that Mexican ranchers and their cattle could cross this Highway without fear of losing the cattle or the rancher's life.
Matter of fact, I have a lawyer uncle who lived in Mexico City and boasted that he drove his American Cadillac 100 miles an hour through Mexico. In the 1970's, he and his wife were "taken out" on a secondary highway in Northern Mexico--the authorities thought it was done by an animal, but nothing was left except a broken speedometer that read 100--but that's another story.
Check out more about cactus: www.sierramadrecactus.ca/
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