It has been decided by fellow Cactaceae curators (see Cactaceae flag) to let the curators which are specialists in certain genera of the family to curate the taxa appropriately, and we are moving to Lodé’s Taxonomy of the Cactaceae as a taxonomic framework. The change has been discussed in the past, and can be verified by David Ferguson, the “go-to” curator for Opuntia.

I’ll add the message I sent regarding this swap here for others to see: “

It’s not a legitimate variety, though many authorities just copy that mistake over because hardly anyone wants to deal with Opuntia, they are a difficult group. O. lindheimeri ‘linguiformis’ is simply a cultivated clone with a growth form of elongated cladodes. It’s not even a stable growth form, as the cladodes often revert to normal growth. Nothing about it legitimizes the rank of variety, as the wild occurances are either escapes of the clone or wild plants showing the growth form from which the clone was selected. Opuntia, especially in TX, are understudied, and most botanists here in TX don’t understand them well. I cannot blame them though, as the group has been shrouded in confusion due to authorities repeating the errors of predecessors. David Ferguson has been correcting these errors throughout his lifetime and building upon the work of Powell & Weedin, you can find more info about it on the site he and Joe Shaw curate: https://www.opuntiads.com/opuntia-lindheimeri/”