Plant Name
Scientific Name: Cylindropuntia fulgida
Synonym: Opuntia fulgida
Common Names: Jumping Cholla, Chainfruit Cholla, Chain Fruit Cholla
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub, Cactus
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert
Flower Color: Pink, Lavender
Flowering Season: Spring (late), Summer
Height: To 10 feet (3 m) tall, but usually less
Description: The flowers are up to 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide and have colorful tepals, a pink style, and whitish stigma lobes. The flowers emerge at the tips of the old fruit. The fruit is smooth, green, and proliferating (new fruits grow out of old fruits, forming long, widening fruit chains). The stems are very tuberculate (bumpy) and variably spiny, with few to many straw-colored spines. The spiny stem segments easily detach from the plant, almost seeming to "jump" on you if you accidentally brush against them. The spines are covered in micro-barbs and can be very difficult to pull out of your skin. Fallen stem segments litter the ground beneath the plants and can take root, forming new plants.
Special Characteristics
Legal Status – Protected Native Plants (C. fulgida varieties are 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 fulgida (Engelm.) F.M. Knuth – jumping cholla
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