Cylindropuntia spinosior

Toumey. 1898. Botanical Gazette 25: 119.

Isotype specimen; Herbarium specimen; Herbarium specimen; Herbarium specimen; Herbarium specimen; Herbarium specimen; Herbarium specimen; Herbarium specimen; Herbarium specimen; Herbarium specimen (C. ×tetracantha); Herbarium specimen (C. ×neoarbuscula); Herbarium specimen (C. ×neoarbuscula); Herbarium specimen (C. ×kelvinensis); Herbarium specimen (C. ×kelvinensis)

Original species description

Flora of North America treatment

What is Cylindropuntia spinosior?

Cylindropuntia spinosior is a cholla found in sandy loamy flats between 300 to 2000 m elevation in the Sonoran desert of Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico.

Details

C. spinosior is a widely branching tree growing to over 2 m tall. The firmly attached terminal stems are 5 to 23 cm long by 1.3 to 3.5 cm wide. The areoles have 5 to 24 tan, pinkish, or red-brown spines which overlap the spines of adjacent areoles. The spine sheaths are white and fit tightly to the spines. The flowers are rose to purple and sometimes yellow. The filaments are pine to purple and sometimes green. The style is white or pink and sometimes purplish at the tip. The fruits are yellow, fleshy, tuberculate, and spineless. Plants may be reddish or purplish harsh environments. C. spinosior is diploid (2n = 22)

C. spinosior hybridizes with C. acanthocarpa var. major, C. arbuscula (C. ×neoarbuscula), C. fulgida (C. ×kelvinensis), C. leptocaulis (C. ×tetracantha), and C. versicolor (C. ×grantiorum). C. spinosior also introgresses with C. imbricata where the ranges of the two species overlap from central New Mexico to Chihuahua, Mexico.