| Cylindropuntia echinocarpa | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Cactaceae |
| Genus: | Cylindropuntia |
| Species: | C. echinocarpa |
| Binomial name | |
| Cylindropuntia echinocarpa | |
| Synonyms | |
Opuntia echinocarpa — Engelm. & Bigelow Contents | |
Cylindropuntia echinocarpa is a species of cactus known by the common names silver cholla, golden cholla, and Wiggins' cholla. It was formerly named Opuntia echinocarpa. [2]
Cylindropuntia echinocarpa is native to the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico, where it can be found the Sonoran Desert, the Mojave Desert, and Colorado Desert in California and other states. [2]
It commonly occurs in desert dry wash, creosote bush scrub, Joshua tree woodland, and pinyon-juniper woodland communities. [3] It ranges from Mono County to Baja California Peninsula. [3]
Silver cholla is a large, tree-like cactus which may exceed 2 m (6.6 ft) in height. Its stems and branches are made up of cylindrical green tubercles (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. [3]
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. [3] This plant reproduces mainly through seeds, but its tubercles may break off and have a chance of producing new plants through asexual reproduction. [4] [5]
The Mojave Desert is a xeric 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 in southeastern California and southwestern Nevada, with small portions extending into Arizona and Utah.
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert and ecoregion that covers large parts of the southwestern United States, as well as the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is the hottest desert in both Mexico and the United States. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi).
Cylindropuntia fulgida, the jumping cholla, also known as the hanging chain cholla, is a cholla cactus native to Sonora and the Southwestern United States.
Cylindropuntia bigelovii, the teddy-bear cholla(choy-ya), is a cholla cactus species native to Northwestern Mexico, and to the United States in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Cylindropuntia imbricata, the cane cholla, is a cactus found in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, including some cooler regions in comparison to many other cacti. It occurs primarily in the arid regions of the Southwestern United States in the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. It is often conspicuous because of its shrubby or even tree-like size, its silhouette, and its long-lasting yellowish fruits.
The strawberry hedgehog cactus or Engelmann's hedgehog cactus is commonly found in desert areas of the southwestern United States and the adjacent areas of Mexico, including the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Baja California and Sonora.
Opuntia engelmannii is a prickly pear common across the south-central and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It goes by a variety of common names, including desert prickly pear, discus prickly pear, Engelmann's prickly pear in the US, and nopal, abrojo, joconostle, and vela de coyote in Mexico.
Ferocactus cylindraceus is a species of barrel cactus which is known by several common names, including California barrel cactus, Desert barrel cactus, and miner's compass. It was first described by George Engelmann in 1853.
Opuntia, commonly called prickly pear or pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae. Prickly pears are also known as tuna (fruit), sabra, nopal from the Nahuatl word nōpalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nōchtli for the fruit; or paddle cactus. The genus is named for the Ancient Greek city of Opus, where, according to Theophrastus, an edible plant grew and could be propagated by rooting its leaves. The most common culinary species is the Indian fig opuntia.
Grusonia parishii is a species of cactus known by the common names matted cholla and Parish club cholla. It is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of California and Arizona.
Cylindropuntia californica is a species of cactus known by the common names California cholla, snake cholla, and cane cholla.
Cylindropuntia prolifera, known by the common name Coastal cholla, is a species of cactus.
Cylindropuntia ramosissima is a species of cactus known by the common names diamond cholla and branched pencil cholla.
Cylindropuntia wolfii is a species of cactus known by the common name Wolf's cholla.
Cylindropuntia leptocaulis, the desert Christmas cactus, desert Christmas cholla, pencil cactus, or tasajillo, is a species of cholla cactus.
Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name rayless goldenhead. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it occurs in southern California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, and Arizona.
Cylindropuntia abyssi, common name Peach Springs cholla, is a species of cactus endemic to northwestern Arizona. It is known from only from the Grand Canyon and in Peach Springs Canyon, on the Hualapai Reservation in Mohave County. It grows in desert scrub on limestone ledges and hilltops. The natural range of the species is fairly small, but it is locally abundant and growing in an isolated area with few threats to the species survival.
Creosote bush scrub is a North American desert vegetation type of sparsely but evenly spaced desert plants dominated by creosote bush and its associates. Its visual characterization is of widely spaced shrubs that are somewhat evenly distributed over flat or relatively flat desert areas that receive between 2 and 8 inches of rain each year. It covers the majority of the flat desert floor and relatively flat alluvial fans in the Mojave Desert, Chihuahuan Desert, and Sonoran Desert. The dominant plants that typify this vegetation type are creosote bush and its associates, white bur-sage, brittlebush, cheese-bush, Mojave yucca, silver cholla cactus, and beavertail cactus. Creosote bush has a wider range than its associates, so codominant shrubs, which are associated with more narrow ranges, will vary from region to region.
Flora of the Sonoran Desert includes six subdivisions based on vegetation types. Two are north of the boundary between the United States and Mexico, and four are south of the boundary. The flora of the Colorado Desert are influenced by the environment of the very dry and hot lower areas of the Colorado River valley, which may be barren, treeless, and generally have no large cacti. Flora of the Arizona Upland are comparatively lush, with trees and large columnar cacti that can withstand winter frosts. South of the border subdivisions are characterized by plants that cannot withstand frost.
Cylindropuntia bernardina is a species of cholla cactus commonly known as the cane cholla or valley cholla, native to California and northwestern Baja California. It is an erect cholla that grows up to 2–3 meters tall, and occurs primarily in the foothills of the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges, with a few populations around the Cuyama River. It was formerly placed as Cylindropuntia californicavar. parkeri, until it was renamed to C. bernardina after taxonomic analyses.
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