Opuntia macrorhiza glochids & Rooted cutting

When I posted pictures of my Opuntia macrorhiza flowers the question of glochids came up (as always when Opuntia are being discussed).

Opuntia macrorhiza, closeup.

The answer is yes. It has a lot of glochids.

While I was cleaning up around it last week I found a pad that had I guess mostly rotted off the main plant. Well I’d been planning to root a cutting and replant behind my barbecue to see if I could get it to grow there, so I cut off and picked up the cutting to find it had already rooted. Awesome. Though I doubt it’ll get enough sun.

I’m pretty sure the rot was because of Lamb’s Ears (Stachys byzantina) which was outgrowing its place. It was moved but it left behind some leaves on the pads of the cactus (I guess it was spring at the time?). Well, see the glochids above. So I guess I left the leaves and one thing (rotting leaves) lead to another (rooted cutting) and here we are. Yay!

Opuntia macrorhiza still looking a little deflated but otherwise in good shape.

So I’ve cleared up everything from around the Opuntia so it’s got a lot more airflow (note to self do that in the fall in the future) and all’s good.