Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Cylindropuntia ramosissima

branch pencil cholla, diamond cholla, pencil cactus
Habit Trees or shrubs, intricately branched, 0.5–2 m. Stem segments firmly attached, green drying gray and ropelike, cylindric, 2–8(–10) × 0.4–1 cm; tubercles rhombic, convex (flattened upon drying), 0.4–0.8 cm; areoles subcircular abaxially, adaxially becoming usually deltate-linear; glochid-bearing portion protruding distally, wedged between bases of 2 adjacent tubercles, (3–)4–7 × 1–1.5(–2) mm; wool tan to white.
Spines

0–5 per areole, usually in distal areoles or sometimes absent or nearly so, tan to red-brown to deep purple, aging gray;

major abaxial spines 0–1(–2), the longest spine spreading, (1.5–)2.5–6 cm;

adaxial spines usually reflexed, short to ± 1 cm;

sheaths baggy.
Glochids

in subcircular to linear adaxial tuft, yellow to tan to brown, to 2 mm.
Flowers

inner tepals bronze-red ± suffused rose, with mid stripes darker, ovate, 6–13 mm, acute-apiculate to attenuate;

filaments greenish;

anthers yellow;

style whitish or blushed with rose-pink or light green;

stigma lobes whitish.
Fruits

maturing tan, ellipsoid to stipitate-ellipsoid, 15–30 × 10–15 mm, dry at maturity, tuberculate, developing increasingly burlike, with many bristlelike spines;

areoles (32–)40–66, evenly spaced, woolly.
Seeds

pale yellow to tan-gray, angular to squarish in outline, warped, 4–4.5 × 3.5–4 mm, sides irregularly concave-convex;

girdle smooth.
2n

= 22, 44.

Cylindropuntia ramosissima
Phenology Flowering spring–summer (Apr–Aug).
Habitat Mojave and Sonoran deserts, washes, flats, and bajadas, sandy loam, desert pavement, stony volcanic substrates
Elevation 50-1100 m (200-3600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 118.
Parent taxa Cactaceae > subfam. Opuntioideae > Cylindropuntia
Sibling taxa
C. abyssi, C. acanthocarpa, C. arbuscula, C. bigelovii, C. californica, C. davisii, C. echinocarpa, C. fulgida, C. ganderi, C. imbricata, C. kleiniae, C. leptocaulis, C. munzii, C. prolifera, C. spinosior, C. tunicata, C. versicolor, C. whipplei, C. wolfii, C. ×kelvinensis, C. ×tetracantha
Synonyms Opuntia ramosissima, Opuntia tessellata
Name authority (Engelmann) F. M. Knuth: in C. Backeberg and F. M. Knuth, Kaktu s-ABC, 122. (1935)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers