Putting a varietal name on an O. polyacantha out of habitat is a real challange but I doubt that it is var. erinacea. It has a lot fewer spines than anything I've seen around here. Looks more like a northern hystricina or even a polyacantha. The fact that it is winter hardy in your area gives a clue...

Welcome Eric !! Do you attempt to grow outside at all? Since you live in Alaska's "banana belt" you might be able to grow O. fragilis and O. humifusa outside as long as you have good snow cover. I had an O. humifusa in Fairbanks that grew outside fairly well for at least 4 seasons in an el...

Thanks Peter; great photos. This time of year I start wishing I was at that elevation but in summer I'm quite content to be farther north at 5100ft.
Dean

All look hardy,have you overwintered them under the described conditions before? I always worry here that Opuntia plants that "happy" and turgid might freeze but I doubt that the Willamette Valley winters are as rough although likely very wet. I believe I'd put them all out of the rain. Th...

Thanks peterb. I'm sure that O. macrorhiza occurs east of the Colorado river in both Arizona, and Utah(Some may call them O.pottsii). There are records for north central Arizona and southern Utah west of the Colorado but everyone I've tracked down so far has turned out to be based on mis-identified ...

I have lots of O.phaeacantha fruit you can have if you are still looking. PM me with address. Funny how hard it is to find O. macrorhiza in Utah when you actually look for it. I've been trying to find it in northern Arizona and southern Utah for two years now and no luck. Found that several in the h...

Thanks Andy and Daiv. Happy to join the forum. I've contributed to several orchid fora in the past but this site is the most interesting of all I've seen. Great work by Daiv and all concerned. I have tons of photos of Opuntia and other cacti from the southern Utah/northern Arizona area and will atte...

I guess I'm one of the oldest here. I "collected" an Opuntia in the back yard and put it in a pot at the age of about 10 (1948). I kept that Opuntia until some time in the 60s when moving to the Univ. of Utah (snow country) for graduate work forced me to leave it at home. Now I do research...