Diario de srall

Opuntia humifusa is the more common cactus on the dunes in NJ.

• Its flowers have no red in the center. It never has any spines.
• Its areoles (the dark spots) should not have much in the way of obvious spined hairs (but this is subtle)

If it has red in the flowers or any spines it is probably O. caespitosa.

• This is the much less common cactus of the Jersey Shore.
• Pretty much all cacti with spines are this, but it can also completely lack spines.
• It has flowers with red centers (always).
• Its areoles (the dark spots) have lots of spiny hairs that should be relatively easy to see.

Note that there are two weird species of Opuntia on Long Beach Island and Brigantine.

• O. durmmundii has tiny pieces to it
• O. lindheimeri is very upright not sprawling as the main two

O. humifusa (yellow flowers):

O. caespitosa (I think) (spines):

The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge is coming up in two weeks! (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022) It takes place April 29-May 2 and cities compete against one another to see who can make the most observations of the most species and with the most participants. Any observation made on those days within the boundaries of one of the "cities" counts toward the project, unlike the Personal Bioblitz, you do not need to add it by hand.

I will be helping New York (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-new-york-city) and Philly (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-greater-philadelphia-area). If you are in the New Jersey area, I am hosting three "meet-ups" where folks gather at an interesting park and then go around looking for observations and sharing interesting finds for an hour or two.

Saturday, April 30 at 10 am at Conference House Park, 243 Satterlee St. Staten Island, NY
Sunday, May 1 at 10 am at Whitesbog Historic Village, 120 West Whites Bog Rd., Browns Mills, NJ (Burlington Co.)
Monday, May 2 at 9 am at Giving Pond, 1068 River Rd., Upper Black Eddy, PA (Bucks Co.)

If you can make any of them, I would love to have you. At any rate, I hope you can find a city near you to observe in over the weekend, or can help in the following week to ID others' observations.

Sara Rall