Plant Description
Upright, shrub-like plant with many branches made up of slender, cylindrical joints. Often grows at the base of other shrubs or mixed with grasses. The branches often twist together with the branches of adjacent plants to form inpenetrable thickets.
A smaller cholla, usually under 3 feet tall, slimmest branches of any cactus. Fruit is red and remains on plant through winter. The fruits are one way to distinguish this plant from the similar Arizona pencil cholla, as it has dull green fruits.
Habitat
Washes, slopes and flat areas.
Flowers
Flowers to 1 inch wide. Sometimes flowers in fall.
Stems
Up to 1/2 inch diameter, cylindrical and branched to 16 inches long. The new segments are dark green; they can also appear grayish-green to purplish. Segments have rib-like wrinkles. With age the branches and trunk develop a scaly bark and turn pale tan.
Areoles
These are structures unique to cacti, found on the stems, areas from which spines, flowers and fruits emerge.
Glochids in crescent to encircling areole, yellow or reddish brown.
There is usually just one white or golden brown 2-inch long spine per areole.
Fruit
Bright red to 1/2 inch long and wide, becoming fleshy at maturity. Fruit remains on stems much of winter.