What Kind of Flower is This?

While I was doing my evening chores something yellow caught my eye.  It was a strikingly beautiful flower beneath the Confederate Jasmine.  The filament and anther portions (remember high school biology?) seemed to almost glow with brightness.  Can you guess what type flower this is?

Beautiful

Backing up the picture a bit, I'll give you a hint as we see three flowers on the plant in different stages of bloom.  If you look closely, you can see part of the plant that is a dead giveaway to tell you that the flower is from a...

PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS!  I don't recall where the cactus came from, but it keeps growing and growing.  Fortunately, cacti don't need much water, because I forget to water it.  It is just watered by rainfall, but yet it thrives right there tucked between the air conditioning unit and the jasmine.

It is planted in an old terra cotta frog planter that I inherited from my grandmother. After reading the following from Wikipedia, I think I'm going to make sure that this cactus stays within the confines of the terra cotta frog!:

Prickly pears (mostly Opuntia stricta) were originally imported into Australia in the 18th century for gardens, and were later used as a natural agricultural fencing and in an attempt to establish a cochineal dye industry. They quickly became a widespread invasive weed, eventually converting 101,000 sq mi (260,000 km2) of farming land into an impenetrable green jungle of prickly pear, in places 20 ft (6.1 m) high. Scores of farmers were driven off their land by what they called the "green hell"; their abandoned homes were crushed under the cactus growth, which advanced at a rate of 1,000,000 acres (4,046.9 km2; 1,562.5 sq mi) per year.

I certainly don't want to be forced off my land by the "green hell."  It wouldn't make me very popular with the neighbors, either!

Keep it contained, frog!

Okay here's another one for you.  I snapped this photo on the same day as it was blooming on the back patio.  It has very distinctive looking flowers.  Do you know what plant this flower is from?

Well, it's from the Aloe Vera.  We keep a huge plant on our back patio and it gets used from time to time on burns or skin irritations.  The plant multiplies like crazy and produces 'pups' on the side of the main plant. I need to divide them and re-pot them into separate containers as this one is quickly outgrowing its pot.

The 'mother' aloe vera with 'pups'

Last but not least, I was checking out the garden and saw this.  What plant produces this flower?

This is the flower of the potato plant and it blooms toward the end of the plants' growth cycle.  It basically is a signal that lets you know that it is about time to start digging potatoes.  Funny thing about it, is that usually the flowers dry up and fall off, but sometimes, they'll form something that looks like a small tomato.  This is the true fruit of the potato plant, but they're not edible.

The potatoes definitely are and we'll be digging them up real soon!