I think these are sedum sprouts in my prickly pear. Which kind is it, and should I move it out of the prickly pear (or will they cohabit just fine)?

I can't help with the ID, but I love the combo and don't think it'll hurt the prickly pear at all. Sometimes those accidental combinations turn out to be really nice.

Silly me thought they were baby prickly pears before I really dug into identifying the things that grow in my yard. Then I found out I have stonecrop on the other side of the yard and said, "oh, bet that's what is in my prickly pear." Would be nice to know which stonecrop exactly, though. Maybe it will encourage my prickly pear to flower... or fruit... or do anything but just sit there.

Is the prickly pear in a full sun area? They do need a lot of sun to flower and fruit. If it's in a shady area, maybe remove a few pads and place them in a sunny location.

That sedum looks very happy starbookworm. It looks like it might be one of the Phedimus, which used to named Sedum.
Could you take a photo of the entire area, so we can see all of the plant in one photo?

The front portion of the plant is never in the shade, but a tree down the hill has grown tall enough to start to shade out the back portion. It is naturally growing down the side the slope but has lots of southern exposure on the top still.


This is the stonecrop that is growing on my front hillside.

Yes, that first photo does look like one of the Phedimus spurius stonecrops. When it blooms you might be able to come closer to an ID, unless it is seedlings.
https://garden.org/plants/sear...

Your second photo is a different type of stonecrop. It looks to be one of the many Hylotelephium:
https://garden.org/plants/sear...

A blossom does appear to be turning up in my cactus sedum! The first one got torn up before I could see it's size and shape, but it appears a second one is coming along. I'm going to try and keep a close eye on it.

Looks like it might set seed.

That won't disrupt the prickly pear, right? There is a lot of open space between the pads since I tried to rescue it from neglect. It might be nice to have a good cohabitor taking up some of that space.

They should live happily side by side.

Hi starbookworm,

Your prickly pear appears to be Opuntia "Ficus Indica" a hybrid cultivar developed by Luther Burbank at his greenhouses in Santa Rosa, California. His intention was to develop a cattle fodder for desert conditions. Ironically many cattle ranchers in Australia imported this hybrid and planted them all over the outback. As they grew, and multiplied, the resulting offspring reverted back to their wild, spiny form, and have become invasive and worthless as cattle fodder.

Yours appear to be healthy and about mature enough to bloom and set fruit. These Opuntias bloom late in the season, then set fruit. It's possible that yours may bloom late August to early September.