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: CLUB-CHOLLA Habit: Perennial herb or shrub, erect to decumbent, many-branched, matted, succulent. Stem: winter- or drought-deciduous, regularly segmented, segments < 30 cm, < 6 cm diam, cylindric to club-shaped, fleshy, glabrous; ribs 0, tubercles generally elongate, occasionally 0. Leaf: deciduous. Spines: 0--many per areole, densest and longest near stem tip, < 4 mm wide, awl- to dagger-shaped, flat to angular, straight, roughened, tip smooth or barbed, epidermis at spine tip separating as a papery sheath; glochids generally numerous in each areole. Flower: lateral to terminal on stem, from upper portion of areole, 30--50 mm diam; perianth yellow or pink; ovary glabrous, spines 0--many, glochids many in each areole, scales 0. Fruit: indehiscent, obconic, base generally long-tapering, glabrous to densely spiny, glochids many in each areole. Seed: 3--6 mm, +- round, encased in an aril; bony, +- white when dry. Etymology: (Hermann August Jacques Gruson, German engineer, industrialist, 1821--1895) Note: Hybridization unknown. eFlora Treatment Author: Marc Baker, Bruce D. Parfitt & Jon Rebman
Grusonia pulchella (Engelm.) H. Rob.
NATIVE Habit: Perennial herb generally < 0.2 m diam, occasionally much larger. Stem: 10--20 cm, single to clumped, from glochid-covered tuber; segments narrowly club-shaped to cylindric, generally terminal < 10 cm, 0.5--2.5 cm diam; tubercles occasionally 0, generally 6--9 mm, < 1.5 mm high. Spines: < 15, < 6 cm, bulbous at base, largest flat, sharply angled; sheath separating only near tip; glochids of tuber generally 1--1.5 cm. Flower: inner perianth pink-magenta, 1.5--2.5 cm; filaments green to yellow. Fruit: 2--3 cm, fleshy, red; spines generally thin, numerous, crowded. Seed: 3--6 mm. Chromosomes: 2n=22. Ecology: Borders of dry lakes, sandy flats; Elevation: 1500--1700 m. Bioregional Distribution: SNE; Distribution Outside California: Nevada, western Utah. Flowering Time: May--Jun Note: Highly variable; juvenile forms occasionally flower. Synonyms: Opuntia pulchella Engelm. Jepson eFlora Author: Marc Baker, Bruce D. Parfitt & Jon Rebman Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory Previous taxon: Grusonia parishii Next taxon: Mammillaria
Botanical illustration including Grusonia pulchella
Citation for this treatment: Marc Baker, Bruce D. Parfitt & Jon Rebman 2012, Grusonia pulchella, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=88997, accessed on April 25, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 25, 2024.
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(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.
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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).
