Botanical Name: Cylindropuntia Echinocarpa
Common Names: Silver Cholla, Gold Cholla
Alternate Botanical Names: Opuntia Echinocarpa
Visual Characteristics: New growths of small silvery spines darken into a golden brown as they mature. Enclosed by a thin sheath which easily flakes away, spines are sharp and strong enough to penetrate tough material. Tiny invisible barbs make them challenging to remove. Silver Cholla is among the most abundant cactuses in the region, along with Cylindropuntia Ramosissima. Further away, Buckhorn Cholla holds the thriving title. Where their ranges integrate, differentiation can be daunting unless specimens are in bloom. C. Echinocarpa has vibrant green flowers, similar to the color of its segments, while Buckhorn displays shades of deep red. Identification when not flowering requires more detailed criteria such as tubracle size, number of spines per areole, segment length and branching habits. Another foe in the path of taxonomic accuracy is the tendancy for many Cholla species form natural hybrids, expressing one or more traits of its predicessors.
Visual Characteristics: New growths of small silvery spines darken into a golden brown as they mature. Enclosed by a thin sheath which easily flakes away, spines are sharp and strong enough to penetrate tough material. Tiny invisible barbs make them challenging to remove. Silver Cholla is among the most abundant cactuses in the region, along with Cylindropuntia Ramosissima. Further away, Buckhorn Cholla holds the thriving title. Where their ranges integrate, differentiation can be daunting unless specimens are in bloom. C. Echinocarpa has vibrant green flowers, similar to the color of its segments, while Buckhorn displays shades of deep red. Identification when not flowering requires more detailed criteria such as tubracle size, number of spines per areole, segment length and branching habits. Another foe in the path of taxonomic accuracy is the tendancy for many Cholla species form natural hybrids, expressing one or more traits of its predicessors.
Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes
Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common
Occurance In Rural Areas: Common
Use by Indigenous Cultures: Numerous accounts depict Cholla buds for food, and plants such as Ocotillo as living fences. Although absent from avalible literature, imagine how the vegatative propagation of Silver Cholla might have been used in the same defensive manner.
Use by Indigenous Cultures: Numerous accounts depict Cholla buds for food, and plants such as Ocotillo as living fences. Although absent from avalible literature, imagine how the vegatative propagation of Silver Cholla might have been used in the same defensive manner.
Sentiments: Spines and stems are outstretched hands, Pointy pillars fertile lands, dry and spry through wind and fly, high on why the sharp plants spy, try through sly forboding screen, glimpse the flowers gleaming green.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.