Cylindropuntia echinocarpa

Silver or golden cholla, Silver Or Golden Cholla

Family: Cactaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 3.3

Silver or golden cholla is a California native shrub found in southern Sierra Nevada Foothills, southern Sierra Nevada, and desert regions in creosote-bush scrublands and Great Basin scrub at elevations of 300 to 1,600 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow-green flowers with green to pale yellow filaments. Growing up to 3 meters tall with spreading to upward-curving branches and short terminal segments about 2 to 3 centimeters in diameter, it forms distinctive clusters of pale gray to translucent yellow spines. Its branches feature prominent tubercles 6 to 15 millimeters long, with 9 to 20 spines per segment that are less than 4 centimeters long. The plant produces dry fruits with dense spines and can generate seeds less than 6 millimeters in size.

Habitat: Creosote-bush/white bur-sage, blackbush, saltbush, other desert and GB scrub

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 300-1600 m

Bioregions: s SNF, SNE, D

California counties: Los Angeles, Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Inyo, Mono, El Dorado

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.