Editing Eastern Prickly Pear (section)

=== Coastal Indicator Species ===

Coastal colonies can be found growing in scrubland with a relatively high diversity of plant life including herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees.  All of these associate plants are typically found on warm, dry, sandy habitat along the coast.  Thus, I have so far been unable to correlate any specific plant species to ''O. humifusa'' on coastal sites.

There is a very minor degree of correlation between coastal ''O. humifusa'' and coniferous trees.  A field exploration of the [[#Short Beach Colony (Stratford)|Short Beach Colony]] in Stratford, Connecticut revealed ''O. humifusa'' growing amongst an unusually dense concentration of ''Toxicodendron radicans'' (Poison Ivy), though I do not have sufficient data at this point in time to believe that this association is anything more than incidental.