Plants: Ground Mat Cholla vs. Jumping Cholla
Question: Is there anything worse than a cholla cactus with arms that extend in every direction and seem to jump at you when you come near as a means of self-defense?
Answer: Yes, there is a cholla that lies in waiting for you to step on it, lying hidden in the dark and so close to the ground.
Grusonia parishii is a species of cactus known by the common names Matted cholla, Ground mat cholla and Parish club cholla. It is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of California, Arizona and New Mexico. Grusonia parishii grows in spreading mats along the sandy ground no more than about 20 centimeters tall. The segments are up to 9 centimeters long by 3 wide and is surfaced in fleshy tubercles bearing many spines each up to 5 centimeters in length. The seasonal flower is yellowish and the fruit is yellow and up to 8 centimeters long.
Not to be confused by the other bad buy cholla, the Jumping Cholla (Cylindropuntia fulgida), which can be pretty harrowing.
If I were this gal pictured above, I would give that cholla a wide area of separation. She is almost embracing that plant (Cylindropuntia fulgida). Yikes! Also known as the jumping cholla, this desert plant is sometimes called the hanging chain cholla. It is among a large variety of cholla (Cylindropuntia) cactus that are native to the Southwestern United States.
The species has many common names, though the most common one is “jumping cholla,” which comes from the ease with which the stems detach from the main plant when brushed, and almost “jumping” onto passing animals (like us humans).
The jumping cholla is an arborescent (tree-like) plant with one low-branching trunk. It often grows to heights of 4 m (13 feet), with drooping branches of chained fruit. The stems are light green and are strongly tuberculate, with tubercles (small, wart-like projections on the stems) measuring from 1⁄4 to 1⁄3 inch or 6 to 9 millimetres. Together, the plants form forests that may range over many hectares.
Flowers are white and pink, streaked with lavender, and are roughly 1 inch wide (2.5 cm). The flowers are displayed at the joint tips (or old fruit tips), blooming in mid-summer. According to naturalists/writers Henry and Rebecca Northen, a curiosity of these flowers is that C. fulgida opens its flowers at exactly 3:00 p.m. solar time, and can be used to set one’s watch.
Most of the fleshy, green fruits are sterile, pear-shaped to nearly round, wrinkled with a few spines. They are typically about 4 cm (1+1⁄2 inches) long, often producing flowers the following year which add new fruits to those of previous seasons. It is these hanging chains of fruit which give it the name “hanging chain cholla”.
Like other cacti, the plant’s leaves have been reduced to spines, 6 to 12 of which grow from each areole. Young branches are covered with 2 to 3 cm or 3⁄4 to 1+1⁄6 inches silvery-yellow spines, which darken to a gray color with age. These spines form a dense layer that obscures the stems. Slower growing or older branches have sparse and/or shorter spines. As the spines fall off of older parts, the brown-black bark is revealed. It becomes rough and scaly with age.
Henry E. Hooper 