a crushed leaf... for a brief second or two.. might smell like rootbeer but sometimes not ... but all 3 will smell the same.. if the same.. rootbeer or not... ken

Looks like what I've been seeing in the stores lately called Opuntia Emerald Wave. Who knows what that means;)?Maybe Opuntia cochenillifera. I've seen that on Opuntias, well I've seen it on some of mine, where the new growth looks dehydrated. Once the pad gets bigger it should plump up.Remember these guys can take the sun. The more sun the merrier for this plant;).

Yup, agreed on the ID. You could probably take cuttings a few nodes long & pot them back into mother plant's pot, to make it look even more full & lush.

Thanks, ladies. That was my opinion, as well. but I'd only ever seen it growing out of old cracks and forming dense mats, as in the pic. I wonder how it got there. I haven't seen any locally. It's apparent loci would be consistant with having been in with the medium it came in, but can it propagate from bits of roots after 3-4 years? Can't see that.