For the Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus flower to open....
I'm new having Prickly Pear Cacti... Started growing them 3 years ago by planting some pads. Last year I planted a pad with 2 flower buds that I was unaware of till they bloomed. The flower buds look like new pads emerging so hard to tell...
So yesterday this flower appears... The day before deer had eaten some of the top pads and what I think now were flower buds...
You can see above the flower where the pad was eaten by deer...
My little Cactus patch... Eastern Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa).. There are over 1,800 species of cacti in the world, all or most native to the new world. There are 150 species in the Opuntia division alone...
See where the cactus was eaten...
Looks like I'm going to get a bunch of flowers 🌼
info... https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/opuntia_humifusa.shtml