Common Name: CACTUS FAMILY Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, tree, generally fleshy. Stem: cylindric to spheric, or flat; surface smooth, tubercled, or ribbed (grooved); nodal areoles bearing flowers. Leaf: generally 0 or early-deciduous, flat to +- cylindric. Spines: areoles generally with central, radial spines, occasionally with glochids. Flower: generally 1 per areole, bisexual [unisexual], sessile, radial [bilateral]; perianth parts generally many [5], scale-like to petal-like; stamens many; ovary inferior [superior], style 1, stigma lobes generally several [many]. Fruit: dry to fleshy or juicy, indehiscent to variously dehiscent, spiny, scaly, or naked; tubercled or smooth. Seed: generally many, occasionally 0--few. Genera In Family: +- 125 genera, +- 1800 species: America (especially deserts), Africa; many cultivated, some edible. Note: Spines smaller, fewer (0) in shade forms; yellow spines blacken in age. Introduced species increasingly escape cultivation. Hybridization common in some genera. eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt, except as noted Scientific Editor: Bruce D. Parfitt, Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: CHOLLA Habit: Shrub or small tree, erect to decumbent, many-branched. Stem: regularly segmented, segments generally < 50 cm, < 5 cm diam, cylindric, fleshy, glabrous; ribs generally 0; tubercles generally elongate. Leaf: conic to cylindric, deciduous. Spines: 1--many per areole, < 2 mm diam, generally needle-shaped, smooth, straight, tip smooth or barbed, epidermis separating as a papery sheath; central spines generally not distinct from radial spines; glochids generally numerous in each areole. Flower: lateral to terminal, from distal portion of areole, 1.8--8 cm diam; perianth yellow, yellow-green, orange-yellow, to bronze, pink, or red; ovary glabrous, spines 0--many, glochids many in each areole, scales 0. Fruit: indehiscent; spheric or cylindric to obconic, dry or fleshy to leathery in age, green to dark yellow, glabrous, spiny or spines 0. Seed: 1.9--7 mm, flattened to +- spheric, surface smooth to angular, within an aril, bony and +- white when dry. Etymology: (Cylindric Opuntia) Note: Hybridization common. Young buds of some species used for food, many species for ornament. Cylindropuntia chuckwallensis newly described, added as native. eFlora Treatment Author: Marc Baker, Bruce D. Parfitt & Jon Rebman Reference: Baker & Cloud-Hughes 2014 Madroño 61:231--243; Mayer et al. 2011 Madroño 58:106--112 Unabridged Reference: Pinkava 2002 Succ Pl Res 6:59--98; Rebman & Pinkava 2001 Florida Entomol 84:474--483
Cylindropuntia prolifera (Engelm.) F.M. Knuth
NATIVE Habit: Plant < 2 m. Stem: trunk generally 1, branches few to several, generally curving upwards; terminal segments < 13 cm, 3.5--5 cm diam, easily detached; tubercles 1.2--2.5 cm, 4--9 mm high. Spines: 6--14, generally < 2 cm, pale red-brown to dark brown, sheath pale yellow-brown. Flower: produced from areoles of older fruit; inner perianth < 2 cm, purple-red; filaments green, generally tinted purple. Fruit: fleshy, "chained" (flowers and fruits produced sequentially from areoles of older fruits, forming chain of fruits), green, tubercles 0 to shallow; base obtuse; spines 0. Seed: < 4 mm, generally sterile. Chromosomes: 2n=22,33. Ecology: Ocean bluffs, inland coastal scrub; Elevation: < 450 m. Bioregional Distribution: SCo, ChI; Distribution Outside California: Baja California. Flowering Time: Apr--Jul Note: "Chained" fruit unique in genus in California. Synonyms: Opuntia prolifera Engelm. Unabridged Note: Probable hybrid of Cylindropuntia alcahes (F.A.C. Weber) F.M. Knuth and Cylindropuntia cholla (F.A.C. Weber) F.M. Knuth, both of Baja California. Jepson eFlora Author: Marc Baker, Bruce D. Parfitt & Jon Rebman Reference: Baker & Cloud-Hughes 2014 Madroño 61:231--243; Mayer et al. 2011 Madroño 58:106--112 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Cylindropuntia munzii Next taxon: Cylindropuntia ramosissima
Citation for this treatment: Marc Baker, Bruce D. Parfitt & Jon Rebman 2022, Cylindropuntia prolifera, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 10, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=80398, accessed on April 18, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 18, 2024.
MAP CONTROLS 1. You can change the display of the base map layer control box in the upper right-hand corner.
2. County and Jepson Region polygons can be turned off and on using the check boxes.
(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
READ ABOUT YELLOW FLAGS
CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).