Cylindropuntia echinocarpa Calflora

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Taxon Report

Cylindropuntia echinocarpa (Engelm. & J. M. Bigelow) F. M. Knuth

Silver cholla

Cylindropuntia echinocarpa is a shrub (stem succulent) that is native to California, and also found elsewhere in western North America.


	Plant Range Observation Search ~1691 records in California Plant Characteristics

Bloom Period

Photos on Calflora


Genus:	Cylindropuntia
Family:	Cactaceae
Category:	angiosperm
PLANTS group:	Dicot
Jepson eFlora section: eudicot

Communities: Creosote Bush Scrub, Pinyon-Juniper Woodland, Joshua Tree Woodland

Name Status:
Accepted by JEF + PLANTS + POWO

Alternate Names:


JEF	Cylindropuntia Xwigginsii
JEF	Cylindropuntia wigginsii
JEF	Opuntia Xwigginsii
JEF + PLANTS	Opuntia echinocarpa

Information about Cylindropuntia echinocarpa from other sources


Nursery availability from CNPLX This plant is available commercially. Jepson eFlora USDA PLANTS Profile (CYEC3) Photos on Calflora Photos on CalPhotos Google Images Photos on iNaturalist ID Tips on PlantID.net	International Plants Names Index Search efloras.org (Flora of North America) Landscape information from Calscape BONAP Distribution Map Consortium of California Herbaria 2 Search the Native American Ethnobotany Database	Add an Observation Location Suitability Planting Guide Distribution by County
[Wikipedia] Taxonomy: The first description as Opuntia echinocarpa by George Engelmann and John Milton Bigelow was published in 1856. Frederik Marcus Knuth placed the species in the genus Cylindropuntia in 1936. Further nomenclature synonyms are Cactus echinocarpus (Engelm. & J.M.Bigelow) Lem. (1868) and Grusonia echinocarpa (Engelm. & J.M.Bigelow) G.D.Rowley (2006). (link added by Mary Ann Machi) photos / record / common / links

Suggested Citation

Calflora: Information on California plants for education, research and conservation, with data contributed by public and private institutions and individuals. [web application]. 2025. The Calflora Database [a non-profit organization]. Available: https://www.calflora.org/ (Accessed: 03/29/2025).