[Hilary]

Opuntia, but which one?
If any one knows could they please let me know?
The poor plant is behind bars, but look at the flower.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

In my view behind bars is exactly where every opuntia should be - a criminal genus.

[Umbrian]

I am currently doing a " Ecological Humanities" course that I am finding very interesting. Who are we as humans, and just a part of the whole system, to decide what is desirable and what not? This conflict often rears its head when gardening as I am only too aware - which insects are pests and which useful, when is a plant a weed or just growing where we do not want it etc. food for thought indeed and, I am not plagued by Opuntia!

[John J]

Towards the end of last year we eventually decided to completely remove a veritable giant of an Opuntia ficus-indica from the top left hand corner of our property. The job was accomplished with the assistance of a workman with a chainsaw. The resulting debris filled a large skip. We now have a very large area to fill with new planting and no regrets at losing the fruit from the plant as it produced far more than we could ever consume. In fact the only complaints came from various neighbours who we used to supply with the excess fruit. The following photos do not do justice to the size of the beast in question or to the amount of debris that had to be disposed of but they were taken by my wife on her iPad and are the only record we took.

[aristoflora]

Hilary,

I'm quite sure your Opuntia is O. humifusa - my plant looks almost identical in size and flowers. If your species is from the Mediterranean, it will be this species, otherwise there are many more similar species in the Americas...

Regards
aristoflora

[Hilary]

Many thanks for your identification of the Opuntia.
Next time I see this particular plant I will look to see if it has barbed spines which Opuntia humifusa has