If you had to guess what plant (other than corn or sugar) could power cars with a clean fuel source, what would you guess? I’ll save you some pondering time and come out and say it: it’s the cactus. Yes, those prickly plants could become the world’s next powerhouse biofuel.

According to Grist, this is welcome news because cacti are cheap to grow and drought tolerant. Corn and sugarcane, other plants used for biofuel, haven’t proven to be environmentally friendly (they both use a lot of farmland space — not cool, considering they also can be eaten).

Cacti, specifically prickly pear cacti, however, excel at staying alive in incredibly dry climates where people don’t farm. The news about cactis’ cool secret was published in detail at Chemistry World, “[R]esearchers from the University of Oxford, Tropical Power, Imperial College London and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, say that CAM species like Opuntia ficus-indica (prickly pear) and Euphorbia tirucallli could make a huge contribution to sustainable biogas production.”

The work was led by Mike Mason, a bioenergy entrepreneur. Mason says that “electricity production from biogas is incredibly flexible” — ” ‘you can bring it up or down as demand goes up and down. The problem is that there isn’t much resource to turn into biogas and it’s horribly expensive.’ ” And that’s why it’s so great that CAM plants could change the alternative gas game.

“Mason estimates that it would take between 4 percent and 12 percent of available semi-arid land to generate 5PWh of electricity per year, equivalent to that generated from natural gas. The products of anaerobic digestion, nutrient rich wastewater and solid digestate, can be re-used for irrigation or as fertilisers. The wastewater could also be used for highly productive forms of aquaculture – potentially increasing food production from land growing biofuels instead of decreasing it,” Chemistry World reports.

Does this news excite you as much as it does us? Enough to hug a cactus?

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“A succulent garden can look quite lush, not just drought tolerant,” insists Stephen J. Suzman, a landscape designer from South Africa who planted this remarkably organized rooftop containing $10,000 worth of seedum, aeonium and echeverria.

The resulting masterpiece is wowing visitors to the 2009 San Francisco Decorator Showcase, which runs from April 25-May 25 at a mansion in Pacific Heights (2830 Pacific Avenue).

The contemporary design Suzman conceived with associate Paula Erickson, of Suzman & Cole Design Associates, includes a deck and walkways of wood and stone that allow access to the garden’s nooks and crannies filled with low-maintenance succulent plants, Nomow Fescue grasses and seedum, as well as lightweight pots and outdoor sculptures.

The composition is so masterful that it easily holds its own with the breathtaking bay and city views on all sides.

When asked if these plants can hold up to wind, rain and frost, Suzman is quick to sing their praises, adding the only caveat to the low maintenance look is being sure to hydrate when necessary, but not over-water the rugged genera, or else they will turn yellow and might droop.

Otherwise, you can go to a nursery and buy the succulents, grasses and South Arican restio and make your own garden arrangement, selecting plants of different ages and sizes for an interesting composition.

“We’re not close to replacing the front lawn with these yet, but having seedum instead of lawn would be wonderful,” he tells me, adding you cannot walk on it or play on it, but it will save water and power.

Seedums can withstand a freeze, he points out, as evidenced with the rooftop gardens in Germany. “This garden is the tip of the iceberg of what succulents can do.”

Adding to the green scheme is the lighting by Lindsley Architectural Lighting, which installed recycled fixtures with an output of only one to ten watts.

Images: Luanne Bradley

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