Identify and help please?

Discussion in 'Cacti and Succulents' started by AlmightySenator, May 9, 2007.

  1. AlmightySenator

    AlmightySenator Member

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    Location:
    Buffalo, New York
    I've had this cactus for 12 years, and just recently I began to get worried about the brown covering it seems to have on it. Also, there are a couple places where it is turning yellow, and looks like it is drying up.....I water it often, so i'm rather puzzled. Here are a couple pictures...I hope they help

    http://www.geocities.com/almightysenator/pdr_0280.jpg
    http://www.geocities.com/almightysenator/pdr_0281.jpg
    http://www.geocities.com/almightysenator/pdr_0283.jpg
    http://www.geocities.com/almightysenator/pdr_0284.jpg
     
  2. mitchnast

    mitchnast Active Member 10 Years

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    Location:
    Okanagan BC
    first, you probably water it too often

    older cacti form a sorta bark (corking) on old growth

    your opuntua would do far better if it had more light also, like FULL light.

    i would suggest chopping it down to a few lumps and let it offset in the sun, making new, thick pads out of the areoles. over winter it should be kept cooler.

    however you slice it, cacti arent really indoor plants. greenhouse maybe, or solarium.

    but indoors you get stretchy limpy things.
     
  3. AlmightySenator

    AlmightySenator Member

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    Thanks for the input. I usually only water it when the soil is dry.

    Winter just ended, and a winter in buffalo New York isn't very good on plants, so I have to figure that the summer light should do it some good. Any idea on the scientific classification of it. I saw this picture on wikipedia that looks a lot like it. What do you think?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Opuntia_littoralis_on_Côte_d'Azur.jpg
     
  4. TonyR

    TonyR Active Member

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    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Hard to tell from your rather murky photos what the surface color and texture are like. If it's a fairly glossy green, one possibility is O. elatior, which has thin, cuved pads like yours, though the trunks are usually more spiny. If they have a velvety surface, O. tomentosa is a possibility. There are others with this growth habit as well but O. littoralis is less likely.

    Opuntia elatior is naturalized here in New South Wales and I have seen big plants in two diffferent places recently. It likes forest conditions and is tolerant of shade and humidity. Here's a picture of it growing near the Nepean River bank southwest of Sydney. Plants were 3-4 m tall.
     

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  5. AlmightySenator

    AlmightySenator Member

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    Damn, you're good. I'm going to say that it is Opuntia elatior, since the description was right on and the photo you attached is pretty much exactly what it looks like....it even had the brown covering near the base.
    Thanks a million
     
  6. rockminer

    rockminer Active Member

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    Location:
    Northern California, USA
    I would suggest that you look into Opuntia monacantha as a possibility. They are subject to all of the symptoms you have noted including the "corking" which is a natural event. They are a sprawling cactus and are quite common as houseplants.

    Bill
     

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  7. AlmightySenator

    AlmightySenator Member

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    Hmm...I don't know what to say. It seems to look more like the second one, though they both look like my plant. Any ideas on how I could differentiate between the two of them? Also, My plant doesn't have many or the spikes....only 5-6, and a lot of the softer, thicker, rounder spikes, which I wouldn't classify as spikes at all.
     

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