In this case the flower you see in the pic won't help. It is one of those glued on straw flowers.

Poly,

Yes, I know, hence the single quotation marks around the aforementioned item.

Oh, OK. I thought you probably knew already but I missed seeing the single quotes.

Actually, I'm not so sure this is O. elata. I think it might be O. canterae elata. If I do an image search for Opuntia elata I see some that look a lot like my plant. The ones that look like the closest match are O. canterae elata but Llifle.com doesn't show O. canterae elata as an synonym for O. elata. I was at Home Depot and saw a larger cactus that looks a lot like O. elata but its label said O. quitensis and again Llifle.com doesn't show that is an synonym for O. elata.

Small and Brazilian is all I can commit to now. Beyond that....there is an FB Opuntia group you can post on and get a more learned answer, no doubt, in addition to your own study.

When I think of a regular shmegular Opuntia elata I picture this.

Pic from google.

I have no idea how the grower of the above elata got theirs’ to be so tall. I am always knocking the pads off mine. Hence so many single pads in the below pic. Anyways it seems that the growth pattern of my young elata and some other pics I see of young elata is they grow vertically, and not have a bunch of pads growing out of one pad like yours. I am only talking about when they’re small, not an old specimen. I’m sure they can get bushy once they get old.

That’s the only thing that’s throwing me off with your Opuntia.

The other problem is when you look at Opuntia elata images online there seems to be a bunch of different Opuntia species being called elata. So things get confusing.

My elata only seems to want to grow up and not out like yours.

What makes you think yours is not an Opuntia elata? Just curious. Yours sure does look like it. Honestly I’m probably thinking to hard about this. I’m sure it’s an elata.

I was having trouble finding a source of info on the web that said O. canterae is a synonym for O. elata and getting a lot of different looking plants in a Google image search. Later I found this which does say canterae is a synonym for elata but their picture doesn't look like our plants. Anyway, I agree that your plant and mine look the same except for the branching habit, so far. Though, I'm curious if that will change depending on culture conditions, age, or clone.