Your plant is an Opuntia showing abnormal etiolated growth from not
receiving enough light. Remove the scrawny new growth and move the plant to
a brighter location.


"Ben Rush" wrote in message
om...
Hello all,

This is my first time posting to this group so I hope my question is
fine.

My wife and I acquired a fairly curious cactus about two or three
years ago and it has been getting more and more "curious" as time goes
on. It's strange to me as I've never seen anything like it. It's very,
very thin and keeps growing upwards as opposed to outwards. The thorns
on it are more like tiny little, hairy bristles. And every so often
from the base to the tip it seems to get a oddly placed 'bulge'. It
also appears to grow in sections (I think this may be typical of
cacti, but I'm not sure), with the spring section appear much brighter
in coloration than the older sections.

It's about a foot tall now (perhaps an inch over). I have a picture of
it here -

http://my.mindvision.com/~ben/general/cactus.jpg

If someone could lend me some assistance in identifying what in the
world this thing is it would be most appreciated. We live in Nebraska
and it was given to us by some people we knew at the time as a gift
(they spotted it growing in their garden area completely unannounced).

Thanks in advance,

Ben