Opuntia Species, Santa Rita Prickly Pear

Menk, you are not exactly correct. the name Opuntia santarita is an accepted name with Kew Gardens. Reference the following link:
...Read Morehttp://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/tro-5108198

I live in Austin also and I have not had any problems with my gosseliniana, santa rita, or macrocenta. Maybe it is because I have built ...Read Morea mound of granite gravel under the roots for drainage because my native soil is clay.

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to the true identity of the 'Santa Rita' clone. And it is important to note that it is just a sel...Read Moreected clone of a species (a cultivar), not a species in its own right. I have seen plants with the 'Santa Rita' label attached to purplish specimens of O. gosseliniana, O. macrocentra, O. chlorotica, and O. violaceae. From a botanists viewpoint, all of the above are probably synoymous taxa, just variable. Even some forms of engelmannii, and a plant of suspect rank called Opuntia "azureus", have purplish segments at times, particularly when grown in full sun. Moreover I have seen miniature plants as well as giant tree pears given the name 'Santa Rita', just because they have very purple pads. My first introduction to Santa Rita was in the old Sunset Book publication "Cactus and Succulents - House Plants & Landscaping Ideas in Color", edited by Linda Brandt, Lane Publishing, 1978, which has a fantastic photo of a very large, shining purple bush called 'Santa Rita' on page 10. This is the image I have always carried in my mind as the "true" Santa Rita type. I would be interested to know exactly where this photo was taken, if the original photographer is still alive and can recall the location.

Purple color is stunning in the garden BUT tends to rot out easier than most opuntias in my experiance. We have wet winters here and I've...Read More had these just topple over going into spring. Also I have had the experiance of heavy winter damage to the pads, which was unsightly in my wildflower garden that spring. Still, I have several beautiful containerized specimens that have always done well, and have replanted more out in my yard. The flowers are stunning on the purple pads in spring, definately an eyecatcher.

I'm not sure if I managed to kill this or not. It certainly looks awful after the winter, and shows no signs of recovery--my other opunt...Read Moreias look awful, too, but they do show signs of recovery. It certainly wasn't poor drainage that did it in at any rate--I live in a desert and the yuccas on either side of this plant look fine.

Often confused with Opuntia gosseliniana.
O. gosseliniana has plain yellow flowers, O. santa-rita has yellow flowers with a bright...Read More red base.
O. gosseliniana gets to about 3.3 feet high, while Opuntia santa-rita gets to about 6.6 feet high and has larger pads.
O. gosseliniana's pads are proportionately thicker but smaller in diameter.

This plant is ALSO confused with Opuntia macrocentra, another nice turquoise species with very similar flowers. A few differences are in ...Read Morethe spines: Opuntia macrocentra usually is a fairly spiny plant, often with long, solitary black spines (not always black though) and not purple as often as O santa rita (though it can be); usually this plant has only glochids for spines. Not ever seen any with with long spines. Also, this plant gets fairly tall (as mentioned above) while O macrocentra is usually a shrubbier species that grows more horizontally rather than tall, upright.