What a wonderful tour, lzddr - thank you for posting so many and so alphabetically, too.

Wow....wonderful...wonderful...beautiful....beautiful...
thank you for posting.

Beautiful. Thank you for the pics and names.

I grow a few that are hardy for my area. I do not know the names but the flowers in June are very pretty.

I just got my Ellisiana in the mail today. I have been interested in the more spineless varieties for cooking.

Awesome. Thanks for posting all those. O. littoralis is native and still all over our area, undisturbed (no surprise).

martenfischer, Maybe your O. Ellisiana is different from what I know as Ellisiana. I have seen so much mislabeling and hybredizing and name confusion.The O. cacanapa ellisiana is needleless but is not a very good cooking napales. Its skin is too waxy and thick. Even the coried bug leaves it alone. The ficus indicus and the O. cochenellifera are much better. This is the info that I have here in Texas. The O cacanapa Ellisiana is hardy to Zone 7 at least , whereas the O. ficus indica is only hardy to around 20F. Maybe I am wrong about this but this is my understanding. Burbank needless is a good eating one . It is a ficus indica. Maybe Burbank bred some more hardiness into that one. I don't know. I think he bred several Burbank needless out of several strains of cactus for different locals and he kept lousy notes from what I read so he left things pretty indefinite when one starts talking Burbank needleless. The academics are driven mad by him. My kind of guy. He designed them for cattle fodder. The O. Cacanapa has been used for cattle fodder for generations in south Texas and northeastern Mexico.

Thanks for the pics! O. Cacanapa has escaped in Texas and grows all over the place, it tolerates salt spray and being under saltwater for >24 hours.
My IGOTTAHAVEIT list is getting bigger.
Tally HO!

Actually I think the cattlemen planted them all over south texas in the 20's and 30's to feed the cows. They have been all over for aehile. They may even be endemic to south TX.

Some O ficus indica I planted in the empty lot next door many years ago were just harvested of this years big red fruits by neighborhood woman a few days ago. Last I tried them,they had a mild strawberry x watermelon flavor. Lots of seed.

Yes, we called the fruit 'Prickly Pears' in New Mexico, though i am pretty sure that was not the same Opuntia... probably all Opuntia fruits are called prickly pears. I had a friend eat one but didn't realize you needed to peel it first (or at least vigorously wash the surface), and it had hundreds, if not thousands, if itty bitty spines on the surface and he regretted it for weeks to come.