Expert: Greg Simpson - 11/15/2006

Question
After living 18 months working in Madagascar I'm back to my home country, Uruguay. I would like to know if cactus ("racatamena" (?) a very invasive sp)I saw in southern Madagascar (arid zone) are native from this country or came from America. Many tks.  

Answer
Oscar,

Unfortunately, "racatamena" must be a local name for the plant. The only cactus I could find was Opuntia which apparently was brought to Madagascar to be planted for its fruit and has escaped into the wild as it also did in Australia. If you have a picture or can describe in detail what it looked like, I may be able to identify it. If you have a picture, email it to gregandkat@msn.com

Thanks,

Greg