Species
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Cylindropuntia imbricata (Haw.) F.M.Knuth

Cholla cactus, Devil’s Rope Pear, Imbricate Prickly Pear, Jo

Climate known 61 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cylindropuntia imbricata, the cane cholla, is a cactus found in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, including some cooler regions in comparison to many other cacti. It occurs primarily in the arid regions of the Southwestern United States in the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. It is often conspicuous because of its shrubby or even tree-like size, its silhouette, and its long-lasting yellowish fruits.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cylindropuntia imbricata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cylindropuntia

Cylindropuntia is a genus of cacti, containing species commonly known as chollas, native to northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States. They are known for their barbed spines that tenaciously attach to skin, fur, and clothing. Stands of cholla are called cholla gardens. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cylindropuntia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Haw.) F.M.Knuth
Native to
Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma +8
Wild records
1336 in range· 471 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jun, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
393mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Aug 71 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–50DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by Cactaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 393 mm a year, wettest August at 71 mm, driest February at 16 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 50 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cylindropuntia imbricata var. imbricata; Opuntia imbricata var. imbricata.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by Cactaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (286 mm of 393 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 393 mm a year, wettest August at 71 mm, driest February at 16 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

393 mm a year at the habitat, 286 mm of it May to October. Wettest month August at 71 mm, driest February at 16 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 299 mm to 583 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 50 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 50 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.1 °C, the absolute minimum -11.2 °C, about 41 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.5 °C to 7.0 °C), warmest day 30.4 °C in June (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 44 to 52% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 15 °C in Dec to 30 °C in Jun; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 393 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 825 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -11.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-11.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 21–50RH 44–52 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 825 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 6–2117 / 8–2320 / 12–2625 / 18–2928 / 23–3230 / 25–3530 / 24–3429 / 24–3427 / 22–3123 / 18–2719 / 11–2315 / 6–21
Night °C1 / -7–73 / -5–85 / -2–119 / 2–1413 / 8–1816 / 12–2218 / 13–2317 / 13–2315 / 11–2011 / 5–156 / -1–102 / -6–8
Rain mm18 / 11–3616 / 9–3419 / 7–3419 / 9–3827 / 7–5537 / 9–8770 / 47–11171 / 48–10248 / 30–8733 / 22–4916 / 9–2719 / 8–38
DLI24 / 20–3030 / 27–3739 / 35–4446 / 42–4850 / 44–5349 / 41–5346 / 40–4742 / 40–4338 / 34–3932 / 28–3426 / 21–3221 / 18–29
RH %50 / 48–5649 / 45–5446 / 42–5344 / 38–5344 / 36–5646 / 36–6050 / 46–6252 / 49–6150 / 46–6349 / 44–6149 / 45–5851 / 48–56

Each figure is the median across the 825 grid cells holding the 1244 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1155:1403 (32.225, -109.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 825 distinct grid cells holding the 1244 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1155:1403 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.00_-110.000, lapse-corrected -113 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1267 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest· introduced: Spain, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Peru, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“succulent shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker31.961, -110.348 · in the densest population, 579 records (43% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1336 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 471 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 493 km away. 317 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 92 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1336 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cylindropuntia imbricataCylindropuntia imbricataCylindropuntia imbricataCylindropuntia imbricataCylindropuntia imbricataCylindropuntia imbricataCylindropuntia imbricataCylindropuntia imbricata

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) John Powers, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Mauricio Calderón, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cylindropuntia imbricata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Chromosome Numbers in Some Cacti of Western North America-VIII
Marc A. Baker, Jon P. Rebman, Bruce D. Parfitt, Donald J. Pinkava (2009) · Haseltonia
The biology ofDactylopius tomentosus(Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae)
C.W. Mathenge, Paul Holford, J. H. Hoffmann, Robert Spooner‐Hart (2009) · Bulletin of Entomological Research
The competitive advantage of a constitutive CAM species over a C4 grass species under drought and CO2 enrichment
Kailiang Yu, Paolo D’Odorico, Scott L. Collins, David E. Carr (2019) · Ecosphere
Effect of Gibberellic Acid on Germination of Seeds of Five Species of Cacti From the Chihuahuan Desert, Northern Mexico
Mariana Rojas‐Aréchiga, Karla Ma. Aguilar, Jordán Golubov, María C. Mandujano (2011) · The Southwestern Naturalist
Vegetation Response in a Colorado Grassland-shrub Community to Extreme Drought: 1999–2010
Renée Jane Rondeau, Kristen T. Pearson, Sylvia Kelso (2013) · The American Midland Naturalist
Notes on the breeding biology of common resident birds in an urbanized area of Hidalgo, Mexico
Iriana Zuria, Georgina Rendón-Hernández (2010) · Huitzil Revista Mexicana de Ornitología
Extrafloral nectaries of Cylindropuntia imbricata (Cactaceae) in the southern Chihuahuan Desert: anatomy and interaction with ants
Melissa Ávila-Argáez, Laura Yáñez‐Espinosa, Ernesto I. Badano, Felipe Barragán (2018) · Arthropod-Plant Interactions
Cholla cactus wood (Cylindropuntia imbricata): Hierarchical structure and micromechanical properties
Swapnil Morankar, Amey Luktuke, E. Nieto-Valeiras, Yash Mistry (2023) · Acta Biomaterialia
About the binomen Cylindropuntia rosea (Cactaceae) and its invasive individuals recorded in the Valencian Community (Spain)
Emilio Laguna Lumbreras, Vicente I. Deltoro, Pedro Pablo Ferrer, Ana Novoa (2013) · SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)
Does ant–plant mutualism have spillover effects on the non‐partner ant community?
Marion L. Donald, Tom E. X. Miller (2022) · Ecology and Evolution

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Cylindropuntia 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 54 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.