Can anybody identify this cactus and tell me if it has pest damage please?

[HaoBao]

Hi

I’d really appreciate some help with this one please. I’m a bit concerned it might have red spider mite damage or something else wrong with it. I also don’t know what type it is as it wasn’t labelled in the nursery

[flounder]

I would love to sound smart and say it's tephrocactus articulatus, but I'm new to this i.d. lark and I'm probably very wrong....
Just seen my post, there is a bit missing.
var inermis is what I thought I'd copied, I found it when looking up var. pyracanthus.
Still could be wrong

[HaoBao]

Thank you for your reply,

I found a pic of a hand written label for it and it said Opuntia Subinermis.

I also found a post on Reddit and someone else had an identical looking, to me anyway, plant from the same nursery and it was labelled Cumulopuntia Dactylifera.

I also just saw one through Google called Tephrocatus Subinermis that looked the same.

I’m lost!

[Tony R]

Hello HaoBao,

Yes, it is a 'poor' specimen of what used to be called Tephrocactus subinermis (when all small opuntias were known as tephrocactus!). It is not pest damage, just old age!
Today, we would name it as Cumulopuntia boliviana, it is the almost spineless form, other clones have long spines.
Here is a picture of one of the plants of this in my collection:

Your plant has many old segments and just a little new growth on top. If it was my plant, I would take cuttings, for example as shown, below, and root the segments to gain 3 new plants which in time would grow into fine specimens. Hope this helps!

cutting.jpg (140.72 KiB) Viewed 900 times