Needing help identifying specimen from Utah

[EJM3]

My partner & I went on a seven state 5 week camping tour of the West/SouthWest from Oct to early Nov; We went to Idaho, Wyoming, Utah (our main destination), Nevada, California, Oregon, Back to Washington.

On one of the little walks we did to stretch our legs & keep our sanity on some BLM or DNR land (can't remember, there was so much open space!) we found a small piece of cactus that had been broken off the mother plant quite a while previous to our finding him. He was on a small rock near the mother plant looking VERY shriveled so I adopted him and named him (Don Prickles, he'll make ya cry!), the ground there was almost rock like so I was unable to get some soil until we were in California (I kept forgetting!). As you can see the material I picked is quite devoid of organic matter, sandy, fast draining with some small rocks and as close a match as I could find for it's native soil (I did manage to get a small 20cc sample though!)

I have tried several times of the last couple of months to identify him on my own. I have looked at all kinds of websites, books, etc, but I have not found anything that resembles him. Also my ability to describe it's attributes is woefully undeveloped as I have never studied botany nor have I been able to piece it together from other sources due to lack of vocabulary there as well...

I have recently given him a thorough watering (distilled water) and the part of him furthest out of the soil has visibly swollen, but the really wrinkled part of him from the dehydration he suffered is still wrinkled, not filling out at all. He has also darkened by several shades of purplish color the splotches near the uppermost part of hm as well.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Don Prickles #1

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Don Prickles #2

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Don Prickles #3

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Don Prickles #4

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[7george]

Opuntia fragilis, I think. Barbed spines, easy detaching. This pad is not very dehydrated, don't be worried. My plants outside wake up somewhere in May and rooting happens usually in June but down South it should be earlier of course.

[A. Dean Stock]

Where in Utah did you find it. The plant is not Opuntia fragilis but could be an O. fragilis x O. polyacantha hybrid. Such hybrids are common in the state. As it grows and gets more of an adult look to it identification will be easier. The spines at this point look like O. polyacantha x O. fragilis as does the flattened pad. Utah is awash in Opuntia hybrids of every description so to be positive, I'd need to see it larger and in flower (with locality data). The plant appears to have rooted so it can be watered but go easy on it and let the "soil" dry out before attempting to water it again. It will need sunlight as it gets well rooted.
Dean

[EJM3]

7george: The spines are quite long, over 1 inch for the largest of them, with brown banding and a bit of near black on them. When we originally brought this guy home it was at least 50% dessicated & looking rather forlorn. But since planting him in the first week of November I have been giving small amounts of water every 2 weeks, but this past week is when I really got the whole container soaking wet as I noticed it swelling since I last watered. This is about the time of year they get all the melting snow at Bryce Canyon NP so figured I'd stick to something resembling their normal watering season.

A. Dean Stock: We picked him up around the Bryce Canyon NP in Southern Utah around October 25th 2014 on the return trip back to Washington state. I tried looking up several kinds of Opuntia but could never seem to find one that looks like the one that I have. There were more than a few of these around the Southern Utah area, but were gone by the time we hit California, probably even Nevada. They were all thick flat and small looking versions of the prickly pear.

I'll see about some pics with a few measurements in them the next time I am online tonight. Maybe find a way to put a backing up and make the contrast and colors stand out better. I'll see what I can do to be more creative with my camera and get some excellent shots to post..

EDIT: 6:48PM I went looking for the Opuntia category and noticed these words of wisdom. "It also seems that many Opuntia species hybridize easily in the wild and one population tends to blend into another. This further confounds taxonomists and therefore this genus will long frustrate those trying to separate it into a tidy division of various species."

So I may very well have a singular example from that area, but not a complete picture of the areas species..

[A. Dean Stock]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the "Words of Wisdom" you found; it is true that hybrids abound in Opuntia but they can be identified to species by morphology, locality, and chromosome counts. I'm working on Opuntia taxonomy in Utah and I live only 30 miles from Bryce Canyon. I've seen most of what occurs in that area. Your plant, judging from the size, is likely to be a hybrid involving O. fragilis but not with O. polyacantha as it first appeared. It is likely an O. fragilis hybrid with O. nicholii. as that is the main species that hybridizes with O. fragilis in that area. Both species are hexaploids. The other hybrid that occurs there is between O. fragilis and O. macrorhiza but they tend to have very few spines. I have plants from the same area that are very similar to yours and they are hexaploid hybrids between O. fragilis and O.nicholii. The range of O. nicholii in Utah is vastly larger than indicated by the literature available. I would need to get a chromosome count and see flowers and fruit to identifiy it further. When it grows up a little and flowers, present it again for identification. Knowing it is from the Bryce Canyon area was essential in determining what possible hybrid you could have.
Dean

[EJM3]

Closeup & size comparison of my little cactus:

Don Prickles - Closeup & size comparison

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[peterb]

A very nice little hybrid!

Peter

[EJM3]

Thanks!!! Hopefully he will not be the last one, but plants of any kind are hard to acquire from the wild. There are quite a few nice specimens of cactus from our local areas that I would love to get a sample of. But I cannot in good conscious take anything, unless it has already been severed from the mother plant, or is in imminent danger. This is the first cactus piece that I have found in over 7 years that I felt I could remove from the wild, and it was not even local to our ecosystem!

There are a lot of cactuses from the stores, but they are not to my tastes. I like some of the more esoteric kinds of plants for my collection, but do not have access to them here (Leavenworth, WA) like I did when I lived in the South West (Palm Springs, CA). Also my entire collection of plants had to be left behind, so I have begun to start over, this being my first cactus. It will take me many more years to put a collection together, but it will have to be a small one, as I am limited on space and energy but not time...

Does anyone have some recommendations on a watering/feeding schedule for this little guy?? I am thinking that once a week or so due to our weather and his living inside where it is desiccatingly dry, that seems to be about when the pot dries completely...

Thanks A. Dean Stock for your identification and knowledge in this area.
Thanks Peterb, I think he's quite a nice looking fellow myself! Can't wait for another to come my way when the time is right.

[EJM3]

Update: This little guy has swollen up quite nicely now that I have been giving him water at least once a week. Also with the weather warming up nicely I am considering placing this little guy outside for the rest of the warm season. This will start with hardening him off for ~10 days before placing him out where he can get full sun from ~7:00AM to 8:00PM currently. There will be leaves on a maple to shade it during the mid day sun here (it can get over 100°F in Summer) so he won't get baked. Good idea, bad???

[greenknight]

Opuntias are happiest outdoors, I say do it.

[A. Dean Stock]

Outside is certainly the place for your Opuntia . Consider that the area it is from is currently under snow, I'm sure the little plant will like its new home. As long as you have a well drained soil and location, not much should be a problem. I think that a little shade at midday would be a big help. Afternoon sun however is generally the worst for "baking" plants. You might erect a small slab of rock on the west side of the plant to take care of that.
Dean

[EJM3]

OK great, I'll be putting him outside today, with some shade from the noon sun. There is a spot on the North side of the house that will work better than my original spot. 3-4 hours direct morning sun, dappled through the afternoon, 2 hours towards evening sun. I'll place him out next to the wild penstemon rescue (road crew was grading the area), wild ginger (road crew rescue also), strawberry & rhubarb patch, near the garlic. That'll make for an interesting contrast...

I plan to bring him back inside for the Winter, but was thinking that I might as well get him into a new pot at the end of the season as well. At least before he starts to grow new segments, I know these guys are fragile, so I don't want to break the new buds off transplanting him into a new container. A larger, shallow (6") & wider container is what I am thinking of. I do not have one for him yet, but will be on the lookout for an appropriate sized container as the year goes on.