[Illustration: Opuntia leptocaulis
Opuntia ramosissima
Opuntia bigelovi]
Common Names: (_TASAJILLO_), CHRISTMAS CHOLLA, DIAMOND CACTUS,
(TESAJO), DARNING-NEEDLE CACTUS, PENCIL-JOINT CHOLLA,
HOLYCROSS.
Arizona and Texas deserts: (_Opuntia leptocaulis_). Green-yellow.
May-June.
California desert: (_Opuntia ramosissima_). Green-yellow.
May-September.
Cactus family. Size: Much branched, shrubby, 2 to 4 feet tall.
Flowers of these small, slender-stemmed, shrubby chollas (CHOH-yahs) are
small, sparse, and so inconspicuous as to be rarely noticed. However,
the fruits, particularly those of _O. Leptocaulis_, are scarlet,
egg-shaped, about 1 inch in length, and occur in such profusion that
they immediately attract attention to the plants during the late fall
and winter months, giving these plants the appropriate name of Christmas
Cholla.
A large Cholla, _O. bigelovi_, also has greenish to pale yellow flowers
but inconspicuous fruits and short, heavy joints so densely covered with
silvery spines as to give it the name Teddybear Cholla. Found in south
central and southwestern Arizona and westward into southern California,
southern Nevada, and south into Sonora and Lower California, the Silver
Cholla is noticeable at any season. Propagation is chiefly by joints
which drop from the plant and take root, the new plants forming dense
thickets on desert hillsides. Because the joints are so easily detached,
they actually seem to jump at a passerby, this characteristic giving the
plant the name Jumping Cactus.