Łódź, Stoki

Native to central Mexico; widely cultivated in warm temperate zone. Ornamental plant. Edible plant - fruit raw, cooked or dried for later use, sweet and gelatinous, very refreshing, they are somewhat like a watermelon in flavour; stem segments (or pads) cooked and used like French beans, or used as a pot-herb, watery and very mucilaginous; flowers raw; seeds ground into a meal; the red fruit colour of some varieties is used as a dye for food; an edible gum is obtained from the stem. Herbal plant - the flowers and stems are antispasmodic, diuretic and emollient; the flowers are astringent and are used to reduce bleeding and treat problems of the gastro-intestinal tract, especially diarrhoea, colitis and irritable bowel syndrome; the flowers are also used in the treatment of an enlarged prostate gland; the fruit is diuretic, eating the fruit turns the urine red. Useful plant - the spiny forms of this plant make an excellent stock-proof barrier or hedge; the plant serve as a host plant for cochineal insects, which produce desirable red and purple dyes.