coastal cholla Cactaceae Cylindropuntia prolifera (Engelm.) F.M. Knuth Listen to the Latin symbol: CYPR19 Other Fact Sheets
Leaf: Reduced to a spine, to 1 inch pale brown-yellow spines, with a shining sheath, arranged in obvious areoles with 6-12 stiff spines per areole.
Flower: Purple-red, less than one inch April to June.
Fruit: Generally sterile, pear-shaped to nearly round, without spines, fleshy and green, 1 1/2 inch long, often producing flowers the following year which will result in clustered fruits.
Twig: Segmented, each segment blue-green or yellow-green, to 8 inches long and 1 1/2inches in diameter.
Bark: Brown-black, becoming rough and scaly.
Form: A multibranched shrub to 8 feet.

 Looks like: cane cholla
leaf fruit twig bark form1 map
Additional Range Information:
Cylindropuntia prolifera is native to North America.
Range may be expanded by planting.
See states reporting coastal cholla.
External Links:
USDA Plants Database
Horticulture 		© Copyright 2016, Virginia Tech
Dept. of Forest Resources
and Environmental Conservation,
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Photos and text by: John Seiler,
Edward Jensen, Alex Niemiera,
and John Peterson
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