(Photo by Mark Brodie - KJZZ)

Prickly pears may help deal with the drought.

The architecture site Archinect recently announced the winners of its Dry Futures competition. It asked architects to submit ideas for dealing with California’s drought and divided the responses into two categories: pragmatic and speculative.

The winning pragmatic entry called for placing drains around the San Fernando Valley to replenish the underground aquifer. The winner of the speculative category imagines massive farms of Nopales cactuses – as a source of food and water treatment. Amelia Taylor-Hochberg is the editorial manager for archinect.com, which ran the Dry Futures competition.

Lucas Majure, who works on the plant at Desert Botanical Garden, said prickly pears may help deal with the drought.