I found this plant yesterday. It was labelled as Opuntia Gomei, old Mexico cactus. It isn't in the database. I did a bit of research and it is is also called Opuntia laxiflora, but that isn't in the database either. What is the offical ID?

There are a lot of references online but, neither ITIS or Catalogue of Life list either of those names. The Plant List shows them as both being unresolved.

Horntoad said:There are a lot of references online but, neither ITIS or Catalogue of Life list either of those names. The Plant List shows them as both being unresolved.

Thanks, Jay. If that's the case, all we can do is wait for a future ID?

If you want to add it to the database, you could add it under the parent plant entry.

Prickly Pears (Opuntia)

Put the name in the comments for the photos.

Thanks, Jay. That sounds like a good plan. Thanks for your help.

Sorting out all the correct names for the Opuntias is going to be a huge undertaking as the botanical world does not really seem to have come to a uniform nomenclature - yes there are the official lists, but the moment one starts looking in detail at what those lists are based on it becomes apparent that for Opuntias a lot remains to be determined/resolved. On Opuntiads.com, this plant is presented separately as O. gomei - with the spineless version given the cultivar name 'Old Mexico'. The authors of that website state that it has been conflated with O. lindheimeri, which itself is not recognized by all taxonomists as a separate species - it is often given as a variety/subspecies of O. engelmannii, which to me is very distinct from O. lindheimeri.

Given it is pretty distinctive appearance, it would not be bad to give it a separate entry with it name and synonym, but maybe stating that it represents a currently unresolved species.