''Cylindropuntia echinocarpa'' is a species of

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

known by the common names silver cholla, golden cholla, and Wiggins' cholla. It was formerly named ''Opuntia echinocarpa''.USDA: ''Cylindropuntia echinocarpa''
. accessed 3.23.2013

Distribution and habitat

''Cylindropuntia echinocarpa'' is native to the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico, where it can be found the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...

, the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

, and Colorado Desert in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and other states. It commonly occurs in desert dry wash,

creosote bush scrub Creosote bush scrub is a North American desert vegetation type (or biome) of sparsely but evenly spaced desert plants dominated by creosote bush (''Larrea tridentata'') and its associates. Its visual characterization is of widely spaced shrubs tha ...

, Joshua tree woodland, and pinyon-juniper woodland communities. It ranges from

Mono County Mono County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. The county seat is Bridgeport. The coun ...

to Baja California Peninsula.

Description

Silver cholla is a large, tree-like cactus which may exceed in height. Its stems and branches are made up of cylindrical green

tubercles In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection, ...

(segments) up to 1.5 cm wide and just under 1.0 cm tall. The fleshy tubercles each bear up to 20 long, straight, grayish or yellowish spines which may be nearly 4 cm long. The width of the tubercles is less than twice the length, which helps to distinguish it from buckhorn cholla ('' Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa''), which occurs in a similar geographical distribution.Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Pam MacKay, 2nd ed., p 223, 266 The flowers are usually greenish yellow, sometimes pinkish or brownish in color. The fruit is lumpy, spiny, and tan in color, with white seeds and a foul scent, reminiscent of rancid butter. It measures up to two centimeters long. Very few fruits reach maturity, and many immature fruits can often be seen lying on the ground below. This plant reproduces mainly through seeds, but its tubercles may break off and have a chance of producing new plants through asexual reproduction.

References

External links

''Cylindropuntia echinocarpa'' photo gallery at Opuntia WebJepson Manual Treatment — ''Cylindropuntia echinocarpa''Flora of North America''Cylindropuntia echinocarpa'' Photo gallery
echinocarpa Cacti of the United States Cacti of Mexico Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of Arizona Flora of Baja California Flora of Nevada Flora of Sonora Flora of Utah Natural history of the Mojave Desert Natural history of the Colorado Desert North American desert flora {{Cactus-stub