Help Identifying Cactus

Moontanman moontanman at aol.comnospam
Fri Apr 30 22:11:48 EST 2004

>You are a real master troll, moonmad.

What ever you say, you must be the expert

>You lucked out guessing that it would still be an Opuntia even though many
>species formerly placed in that genus are now inother genera. On the other
>hand, you are completely ignorant about the actual species.

No luck involved, I do not claim to be a cactus expert but I used to grow a 16
by 32 greenhouse full of them. Most grown from seed many bought from dealers in
the western states. Oputias are usually rather obvious and I did say it was
deformed from being grown in low light levels.

>Ben never said it was being grown outdoors in Nebraska, only that he got it
>from a friend as a gift.

 If you would go back you would find that the guy did say his friend who gave
him the cactus found it growing in his garden. 

>I am very familiar with Opuntia humifusa. I grow several collections of the
>species from different localities, including several I had collected from
>the wild myself. There is no way the plant is Opuntia humifusa.

 I didn't say it was Opuntia humifusa O. humifusa isn't even listed in my
source. Actually O. kiska-loro looks more like it but I would have to see the
real growth form to really hazard a guess. I think I said it might be O
compressa but that since it wasn't growing in it's true form it would be hard
to tell.

>If I had to guess, I would say the plant is a badly etiolated Opuntia elata
>but I would rather wait until it flowers. Note the dark blotch below the
>areole typical for that species.
You could very well be right, I was just assuming that since his friend found
it in his garden it was a more cold tolerant species. Why does it bother you I
might have a little bit of knowledge about cactus? Do you have a patent on
cactus knowledge. I'm old enough to have had many passions in my life and I
hope to have many more. When something interests me I find out as much as
possible about it. 


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