Delicate Prickly Pear, Plains Prickly Pear, Starvation Prickly Pear, Tuberous-Ro

Delicate Prickly Pear, Plains Prickly Pear, Starvation Prickly Pear, Tuberous-Rooted Prickly Pear
Opuntia macrorhiza

This was last year. This year it may produce more flowers.

you sure about that? Sure doesn't look like O basilaris to me. Flower color wrong as is pad shape and thickness. O basilaris is usually a very thick, stout pad plant with very short, almost non-existant spines but closely spaced small areoles. And it's rarely that green (usually a dull blue, grey, lavendar or even tan)... I am NO Opuntia expert, but O basilaris is a common one here in California and I just have not seen one look like that.

Thats what I was told it was. Maybe they were wrong? Any ideas on what it is?

Do you keep it outside all year? If so, it might be Opuntia humifusa. My parents in PA have that.

Hi,
Yes I do have it outside all year. My neighbor had it in her front yard all year as well. It just keeps popping out new pads every spring/summer.

I'd say you probably have the O. humifusa then. My dad loves them. They have them along the whole back wall of the house under the overhang since it is dry there.

Where mine are the rain waters them all spring. They were under 2 ft of snow this past winter. New pads this spring.

Bob, so you get this photo moved to the right entry, please.

Geoff, there is a yellow flowering so-called O. basilaris v. aurea growing in SW Utah. Very frost hardy with smaller pads than bas. v. bas.

Jordi

How would I go about moving it?

Report this picture as error and ask the Admin to either delete it or move it to the O. humifusa entry.

Jordi

Go back to the beavertail home page http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/59284/ and chose the button towards the upper right that says Report an error. Then another window will come up and you can send a message to the admin about what you want to do.

The photo has been moved. Thanks for working through this.

I'd hate to break it to you guys, but I personally don't think this is O. humifusa, either. Note the red flower throat; this is a common charicteristic of O. macrorhiza. Generally, the flowers of O. humifusa are completely yellow (there are, of course, a few exceptions).

glochid15 is correct.
This is actually O. macrorhiza, because of the red throat of the flower.

Xeno.

I'm still watching the discussion. Jordi? What are your thoughts on this?

Joan, sorry I don't know much about Opuntias. I can only say, my O. macrorhiza from near Prescott, AZ has more spines and the throat of the flower is not that red.
You should ask BobBrins to dig up his plant and check if there is a tuberous root :-)

Jordi

BobBrins, can you help us out? Unfortunately, if we can't positively ID this plant, the photo is going to have to be removed. We'd really like to hear from you so we can avoid that if possible.

Here are exerpts from the descriptions from Andersons book "The Cactus Family"
Quote...
Opuntia humifusa: Spines borne on upper areoles only, one at right angles to the segment needle-like, gray or brownish 0.8 to 2 inches long.
Flowers yellow, 1.6 to 2.4 inches long and in diameter.

Opuntia macrorhiza: Spines mostly borne on upper areoles, 1-6, mostly bent backward, straight to slightly curving, white to gray to brownish, 1.5 to 2.2 inches long.
Flowers yellow with red bases to reddish, 2 to 2.4 inches long and in diameter.

The fact that the flower has any red at all, to any degree, dictates that it is O. macrorhiza.
O. humifusa does not have any red at all, to any degree.
When you look in the PF at the flowers in O. macrorhiza page, you see that there are many degrees of redness to the flower bases probably because it is a very widespread species and some variations are bound to occur.

Concerning the spines, as you can see from the descriptions, they are similar in a few ways.
Spines can vary considerably, as you can see from the photos in the plants files.
I personally have a O. macrorhiza clone with NO large white spines, wilst other clones have many white spines.
Again, both species are very widespread and variations inevitably will occur.

If BobBrins wants to dig up his plant, that's his call, but I don't think it's necessary at all. I am completely sure about the identification.

Xeno.

Xeno is right; in my mind this photo should be moved to the O. macrorhiza entry. I also don't think the plant needs to be dug up to identify it, since the photo gives enough information, and digging up a plant when it is dormant may not be a good idea.

Okay, the photo has been moved again.

Thank you all for correctly labeling this plant. I moved it out from alongside the steps to a spot in the yard and it has really taken to the new spot. Last year it produced about 14 flowers. This year there is 19 or so spots that look like possible flowers.