If you were anywhere near the Maltese or Gozitan countryside or some kind of field during the past few weeks, chances are you came across a prickly pear tree or as the locals known it in Maltese, Bajtar tax-Xewk.

Dwejra Tower is featuring the prickly pear as their plant of the month and took to Facebook to share some more information about the prickly fruit and its refreshing fruit.

The prickly pear grows out of a cactus that can grow as high as five to seven metres and has crown of three metres in diameters while its trunk has a diameter of one metre.

Although they are very great to look at be careful as they can definitely hurt if you touch them. Some of them grow spines of up to 2.5cm whilst other can be largely grow without any dangerous spines.

The tree also grows glochids which are “hair-like prickles”, that can easily stick to one’s hair and skin.

A prickly pear tree doesn’t only grow fruit but also grows very beautiful yellow like flowers from May to July. While the petals may not be edible, their pulp is.

The flowers are a great food source the Maltese honeybees and pollinators during Malta’s long summers.

The prickly pears soon come out after and are largely served into two different ways. They are either carefully peeled as the fruit itself also has lots of prickly spikes or they are harvested and made into a sweet liqueur known as bajtra.

The tree itself has uses way beyond the fruits it produces as many farmers plant the tree to give their crops protection form the strong winds while keeping people from unlawfully passing through their fields.

Facebook/Dwejra Tower