Plant Name

Scientific Name: Cylindropuntia arbuscula

Synonym: Opuntia arbuscula

Common Name: Arizona Pencil Cholla

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial

Growth Habit: Shrub, Cactus

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Desert

Flower Color: Red, Bronze to golden brown, Yellow-green

Flowering Season: Spring. These cacti bloom from late April to June.

Height: To 9 feet (2.7 m) tall, but usually less

Description: The flowers are up to 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) wide and have green to bronze anther filaments, a whitish to reddish style, and pale yellow-green stigma lobes. The fruits are green to yellowish, may be tinged with red, and last throughout the winter. The green, pencil-like stems are 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) in diameter and have usually 0 to 2 deflexed spines per areole, but there can be as many as 4 spines per areole.

Special Characteristics

Legal Status – Protected Native Plant (Salvage Restricted)

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Caryophyllidae
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Cactaceae – Cactus family
Genus: Cylindropuntia (Engelm.) Kreuzinger
Species: Cylindropuntia arbuscula (Engelm.) F.M. Knuth – Arizona pencil cholla

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map
Arizona Pencil Cholla (Cylindropuntia arbuscula) – The Firefly Forest