Cylindropuntia fulgida

Cylindropuntia fulgida
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Cactaceae
Genus:	Cylindropuntia
Species:	C. fulgida
Binomial name
Cylindropuntia fulgida Engelm.
Natural range
Synonyms
Opuntia fulgida

Opuntia fulgida

Cylindropuntia fulgida, the jumping cholla, also known as the hanging chain cholla, is a cholla cactus native to the Southwestern United States and Sonora.

The greatest range of the jumping cholla is the entire of Sonora, except the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera on the east and northeast; the range stops 100 mi north of the Sinaloa border on the south, and it is not found in the northwest in the Gran Desierto de Altar. It does occur on the islands in the Gulf of California, including the major islands of Tiburon and Isla Ángel de la Guarda.

In the Southwestern United States, the range extends into the Colorado Desert of California, and in Arizona. There it occurs south and southwest of the Arizona transition zone of the Mogollon Rim; in the northwest-central Sonoran Desert of Arizona, it is in a few selected locales. It also reaches into the northeast section of the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada and Utah, and in the very southern section of the Great Basin Desert of southern Utah. It also occurs just south of the east-west section of the Bill Williams River, east of the Colorado River in the Yuma Desert.

Cylindropuntia fulgida grows at elevations ranging from 300 to 1,000 m (980 to 3,280 ft). While the name "jumping cholla" is applied especially to this species, it is also used as a general term for all chollas.

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Wikipedia