chain cholla Cactaceae Cylindropuntia fulgida

Leaf:Reduced to a spine, young branches are covered with 1/2 to 1 inch silvery-yellow spines, darkening with age, slower growing or older branches with sparse, shorter spines.
Flower:Pink, one inch, displayed at the joint tips (or old fruit tips), mid-summer.
Fruit:Generally sterile, pear-shaped to nearly round, wrinkled with a few spines, fleshy and green, 1 1/2 inch long, often producing flowers the following year which will result in a distinctive chain of fruits.
Twig:Segmented, each segment blue-green or yellow-green, to 5 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.
Bark:Brown-black, becoming rough and scaly.
Form:Generally upright segmented cactus with one low-branching trunk, to 12 feet, with drooping branches of chained fruit.

leaf fruit twig bark form map

Notes: