Cylindropuntia fulgida – Jumping Cholla

Cylindropuntia fulgida - Jumping Cholla, Chainfruit Cholla, Chain Fruit Cholla (flower)

Cylindropuntia fulgida - Jumping Cholla, Chainfruit Cholla, Chain Fruit Cholla (fruit chain)

Cylindropuntia fulgida - Jumping Cholla, Chainfruit Cholla, Chain Fruit Cholla

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 StatusProtected 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

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map