Barbados Gooseberry Pereskia aculeata Mill. Pereskia pereskia Karst. Cactus pereskia L.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/barbados_gooseberry.html

The fruits are generally stewed or preserved with sugar, or made into jam. Young shoots and leaves are cooked and eaten as greens. In rural Brazil, they are important as food for humans and livestock.

Origin and Distribution
The Barbados gooseberry is believed to be indigenous to the West Indies, coastal northern South America and Panama. It is seldom found truly wild but is frequently grown as an ornamental or occasionally for its fruits in the American tropics, Bermuda, California, Hawaii, Israel, the Philippines, India and Australia. In many areas it has escaped from cultivation and become thoroughly naturalized. It was growing at the Agricultural Research and Education Center in Homestead in the early 1940's and running wild to some extent in the Redlands, but has since disappeared, possibly destroyed by winter cold or excessive rainfall. At least one nursery in Winter Haven, Florida, is now growing the plant in quantity. Gardeners had to give up the plant in South Africa in 1979 when it was banned as an illegal weed because it had been invading and overwhelming natural vegetation. It is frequently grown in greenhouses and as a house plant in temperate regions of both hemispheres. Horticulturists often use this species as a rootstock on which to graft other less vigorous cacti.