Common Names: Pencil Cholla
Habitat: sandy or gravelly soils, desert plains or along washes, found in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, and Sonora, Mexico
Flowers: small, yellow to bronze, growing from the tips of the stems; fruit is green to pale yellow, spineless at maturity
Description: large shrub or small tree, dense, pencil-diameter stems, few spines, areoles contain short glochids (hair-like spines).
Comments: Very similar in appearance to Christmas Cholla (Cylindropuntia leptocaulis), however, C. leptocaulis has red fruit. Fruit of both species is edible.