Cylindropuntia Species, Chain Fruit Cholla, Hanging Chain Cholla, Jumping Cholla

A cactus garden will never take the place of a petting zoo. With this in mind, even a cactus garden will reach new levels of threat with ...Read MoreJumpers. Curve-billed thrashers will build their nests on the top of these plants because ground dwelling predators have not figured out how to climb over the nasty spines.

Jumping Cholla branches have harpooned spines each with a protective "paper" sheath to keep the barbs extremely sharp for the moment of action. Touch a needle and it will securely anchor to your skin. Pull it out and the mooring quills will yank flesh with them. Grab an attached branch with your free hand and you have suddenly inserted many more spines into your innocent self.

SO DON'T PANIC

GET TOOLS (fork, tongs or even sticks) AND SLOWLY PRY THE BRANCH OFF

I have dozens of these beautiful cacti on my property. I have grown most of them from branches off of a mature plant. Stick a broken branch in the ground anywhere and it takes off.

I have not seen this plant for sale in any local Tucson nursery. You cannot legally extract and transport this indigenous Arizona plant without a permit. I think you can transport branches legally without a permit and therefore you can start your own plants from gathered unrooted pieces.

I rooted four cuttings of Cylindropuntia fulgida a few years ago. The spines are terribly dangerous. They even penetrated welder's gloves...Read More. I had to use tongs and fat wads of rolled-up newspaper to manipulate them.
Water very very sparingly. One teaspoon every few weeks for each cutting (a cutting is a segment of the plant) is enough. Never give even rooted cuttings a heavy watering. I killed my rooted cuttings this way. They were just starting in on their growing season, and I reasoned that they could tolerate the extra water. Not likely!

This plant loves the south texas soil. This plant has a rapid growth rate and will produce tons of arms once its established. I recently ...Read Morepruned around 50 arms and gave them out to people I know who wanted this unique cacti. My plant has not bloomed yet though.

As Palmbob indicates there is nothing worse than getting one of these in you. I have had them go right through a hiking boot and once in...Read More they barb and make it impossible to pull out. Anything they touch they will get stuck to.

I do however contend that this is a beautiful cactus. When the morning or evening light hits the Jumping Cholla spines, they light up with a glow unlike any plant I have seen. In areas where they grow prolifically like on Route 60 near just past Gold Canyon, AZ they create an amazing environment when mixed with saguaro and ocotillo. I think it is one of the most beautiful desert environments I have seen. .