bsmith: You have here an Opuntia of some sort - a paddle cactus, prickly pear cactus, or Indian fig cactus. I don't know the exact species (and there are many species of Opuntia, but when it flowers and the flowers then die off, it will produce these bulbous red fruit that are referred to as prickly pears. The seeds inside are edible; you just need to be careful in handling the fruit, because they are generally covered in glochids (tiny spines) that will stick in your fingers.

Opuntia - Wikipedia

It sounds like the care you're giving your Opuntia is working just fine. Do a little reading up on Opuntia care (which you can find through a Google search), and you should be good to go. Hopefully, others here will also respond with their sage advice. (There's a lot of wisdom in this forum.)

Congratulations on your lovely cactus! :)

*CG*

It looks like Nopalea cochenillifera, also known as Opuntia cochenillifera. I have some of these as well, which I obtained from Florida. It is host to the Cochineal insect, which when crushed produces a red dye still used in products today.

Christopher

I am not sure if it is cochinelifera. The bottom paddles seem fat and round and the top paddles are growing in long and maybe etiolated ( stretched out due to not enough sunlight. I also grow O. cochenellifera. Ask your mom what color are the flowers on this animal. If she says red then You have O. cochinellifera, if yellow, something else.

You are lucky that you got a plant to root. It is a water loving prickly pear that you have , because the treatment of rooting it with water would rot most prickly pears. Their are indigenous floridian pricklies that would be tolerant of excessive water and humidity.

Most rooting advice is stick it in a gravely dirt after it has callused on the cut and mist till it has roots. DO NOT water till it has roots. I opened my eyes wide when I heard how you rooted them and said (In my best Texan) "I'll be....." We never finish that sentence.

Sure looks like the cochenillifera I have seen, with the bright red flowers, I saw one growing in the St. Pete area near a childhood home of mine at least ten feet high. They grow well in the Florida humidity. The first photo above shows the pads from the front, not as rounded as many Opuntias.

Christopher

This post was edited by kaktuskris on Tue, Aug 6, 13 at 22:38

im surprised it didnt rot, in water for weeks above its roots ?

i am also curious as to what the tall-skinny cacti /succulent is in the first pic in the background ?

bsmith,

Kudos to the success...but really want to know how you finish that phrase Wantonamara ? In your best Texan

I like to go against the grain, what can I say!

I have yet to even slightly scratch the surface of this cacti/succulent hobby but I have yet to find anything that will not grow roots in a cup of tap water placed in my kitchen window. Certainly it will happen one day but till then ill keep going that route.

I have a text into my mom about the flower coloration.

Question, can I/Should I snip/pull off the (from what I'm gathering) remains of the flower buds? They are kind creepy/gross IMO. And give the plant a slightly sickly essence.

Yes You can pull i the dead flower off gently.

The succulent world is full of plants that will rot in water. MOST succulents that grow in arid areas will rot in damp soil much less water. so be careful with that assumption. I let my O. baselaris callous for 2 full weeks before I put it in soil and never let it be watered till I felt roots and then started the water slowly. I lost one due to rot beczuse I calloused it for 4 days and then started watering two weeks later.

Absolutely, all it takes is the wrong spore/bacteria to find its way into the water vessel and its curtains for the cacti.

The association of plants growing in arid v tropical climates and their ability to be rooted in water makes complete sense. I wonder if that's a pretty hard fast rule?