Hi Matenfisher,
That is a really nice prickly pear! I was wondering if you had any other pieces that you didn't pot up that I might be able to get? I tried to email you. I could offer diffrent succulents or tropicals for trade.
Andrew

I don't mind trading. I have been doing alot of trading with a guy in California. I can get the big flat rate box and fill it if you like. I will check the email. I guess no one knows what it is. I recommend trying the fruits on these. I preffer trading for heirlooms or hardy edibles.

Well, I'm in Florida too and I can tell you it is common around Florida. It appears to be Opuntia stricta. BUT, That Black stuff on the bottom right of the first picture is and apparently on a few other spots on the other picture, are Droppings of the Cactoblastis cactorum moth. The larvae are inside the pads eating away.
Treat your plant (and any others you see that appear infected) as soon as you can!

Here's some pictures I took of O. humifusa with larvae

Look how hollow the Pad is and how many moth larvae in this one pad (only 3 inches long)

Notice the worms are all a bit different looking

You freaked me out a bit there. I went out and looked and the black was just some soil that stuck from me potting it. I have never seen those caterpillars before. I have heard of an invasive caterpillar that destroys cactus and is a major threat to certain species of cactus. I hope they don't invade my plants.

I looked up Opuntia stricta but it still seems to look like Opuntia littoralis to me. Most of the stricta pictures I see are thin with almost no large spines. Are ther some other stricta pictures that show the spines. I have never seen a pad even young pads without spines on these cactus.

so, there was no hole under that black stuff? Good. It was how I found the worms... I walked around looking for that black stuff on pads. I've spoken to someone that found them inside an Echinopsis and saw a picture of an egg case on an Astrophytum, but the owner of that plant picked it off before they hatched so no idea if they would have eaten it.

Ok, there's been a lot of confusion about O. stricta, O. stricta v. dillenii and O. dillenii. Look up O. dillenii

http://www.opuntiads.com/html/opuntia-stricta.html

http://www.opuntiads.com/html/opuntia-dillenii.html

http://www.opuntiads.com/zpdf/A_Reassessment_of_the_Type_of_Opuntia_stricta.pdf

Maybe some of that will help... And after reading some of that, I'm now not sure. I have three plants that look like some of the pics shown... I'm going to just throw all the labels away!

Being a landscaper I never thought identifying plants would be so difficult. When I look up dillenii that I get more consistant pictures with what I have. Some sights call it a stricta variety others call it a species but most give you 6 or 8 scientific names. I deal with reptiles and they do DNA testing on reptiles for classification and heredity. Alot of what I see with cactus seems to be much guessing. I was in Cedar Key today and saw some cacus growing there in the salt marsh. Most of the cactus there have little to no spines at all and there was one over 3 feet tall with fruits. I brought a pad home from that region. There are some difference with the Cedar Key one and mine but I am not sure if that means anything. Maybe there are different forms of stricta some with heavy spines and others without or sparse. Very confusing no matter what.

First picture shows the Crystal River cactus (on left)very typical heavily spined for the place in the gulf where I find these. On the right is a spineless that I found in Cedar Key. This is typical of what I found there.

This is a one and a half inch piece of a sprout that shows that even at the tiniest stage the Crystal River cactus has spines. Maybe this could be the dillenii.

Paulzie,

Thanks for posting that - I had never seen before the spawn of the Anti-cactus Moth.

My pleasure JH :) keep your eyes open for the eggs if you don't want to see the worms in person ;)

Marten... I was told there is a book where the author did DNA testing to determine lineage... I could be wrong, but I think it was Anderson. Can someone confirm?

Marten, I have to ask... are you a fan of animals of the Martes genus (martens and fishers) or is Marten Fisher your name.

Paul Fischer ;)

Just an aside...
Martes martes is one of my favorite animals. ;)


Josh

You are correct. Martenfisher is after weasels and is not my real name. That is my internet ID for personal protection. I came up with that name from the field guide marten and fisher side by side and I loved the Wild America that showed Marty Stouffer raise fishers in the house. That is probably one of my favorite episodes he made.