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teddy-bear cholla

Christmas cactus, desert Christmas cactus, desert Christmas cholla, tasajillo

Habit Shrubs or small trees, sparingly to densely branched, 0.5–1.8 m, usually bearing similar, commonly spineless terminal branchlets arranged at right angles along major axes.
Stem

segments usually alternate, gray-green or purplish, 2–8 × 0.3–0.5 cm;

tubercles linear, drying as elongate, riblike wrinkles, 1.1–2(–3) cm;

areoles broadly elliptic, (1–)1.5–3.5 × 0.7–2 mm;

wool white to yellow, aging gray.

Spines

0–1(–3) per areole, usually in apical areoles to well distributed, erect, flexible, straight or arching upward or downward, red-brown with gray to whitish coat, tips yellow, aging red-brown, terete, angular-flattened basally, the longest (4–)14–45 mm;

sheaths gray to purple-gray with yellow to red-brown tips or yellow throughout.

Glochids

in adaxial tuft or crescent to encircling areole, yellow or reddish brown, 1–3(–5) mm.

Flowers

inner tepals pale yellow to greenish yellow, sometimes tipped red, narrowly obovate, 5–8 mm, acute, apiculate;

filaments greenish yellow;

anthers yellow;

style yellow;

stigma lobes greenish yellow.

Fruits

occasionally proliferating, yellow to scarlet (rarely green, sometimes tinged purple, becoming yellow), sometimes stipitate, obovoid, 9–15(–27) × 6–7(–12) mm, fleshy, smooth, spineless;

umbilicus 2–4 mm deep;

areoles 16–20.

Seeds

pale yellow, suborbicular to squarish and crenate in outline, warped, 3–4.5 mm diam., sides smooth, each with 1–3 large depressions;

girdle smooth or with very narrow ridge.

2n

= 22, 33, 44.

Cylindropuntia bigelovii

Cylindropuntia leptocaulis

Phenology Flowering spring–early summer, sometimes fall (Mar–Aug, Oct).
Habitat Deserts, grasslands, chaparrals, oak-juniper woodlands, flats, bajadas and slopes, sandy, loamy to gravelly substrates
Elevation 40-1500 m (100-4900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; NM; OK; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Cylindropuntia leptocaulis forms hybrids with C. acanthocarpa var. major (see 3. C. ×tetracantha), C. arbuscula, C. fulgida, C. kleiniae, C. spinosior, C. versicolor (see discussion under C. ×tetracantha), and C. whipplei. Hybrids in central Arizona have flowers intermediate in size to the parents, narrow tuberculate stems bearing 0–1(–2) major spines per areole, and tuberculate, spineless, orange to red fruits. The chromosome number reported for hybrids is 2n = 22.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 4, p. 109. FNA vol. 4, p. 105.
Parent taxa Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Cylindropuntia Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Cylindropuntia
Sibling taxa
C. abyssi, C. acanthocarpa, C. arbuscula, C. californica, C. davisii, C. echinocarpa, C. fulgida, C. ganderi, C. imbricata, C. kleiniae, C. leptocaulis, C. munzii, C. prolifera, C. ramosissima, C. spinosior, C. tunicata, C. versicolor, C. whipplei, C. wolfii, C. ×kelvinensis, C. ×tetracantha
C. abyssi, C. acanthocarpa, C. arbuscula, C. bigelovii, C. californica, C. davisii, C. echinocarpa, C. fulgida, C. ganderi, C. imbricata, C. kleiniae, C. munzii, C. prolifera, C. ramosissima, C. spinosior, C. tunicata, C. versicolor, C. whipplei, C. wolfii, C. ×kelvinensis, C. ×tetracantha
Subordinate taxa
C. bigelovii var. bigelovii
Synonyms Opuntia bigelovii Opuntia leptocaulis, C. leptocaulis var. brevispina, C. leptocaulis var. longispina, Opuntia fragilis var. frutescens, Opuntia frutescens, Opuntia frutescens var. brevispina, Opuntia frutescens var. longispina, Opuntia leptocaulis, Opuntia leptocaulis var. longispina, Opuntia leptocaulis var. vaginata, Opuntia vaginata
Name authority (Engelmann) F. M. Knuth: in C. Backeberg and F. M. Knuth, Kaktus-ABC, 125. (1935) (de Candolle) F. M. Knuth: in C. Backeberg and F. M. Knuth, Kaktus-ABC, 122. (1935)
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