The Golden Spined Jumping Cholla, or Teddy Bear Cactus, is a very conspicuous and attractive plant among the Cholla species, and is the spiniest of all this clan, growing as high as twelve feet, and with a very tough stout main trunk sometimes eight feet tall and three or four inches in diameter, from which appear numerous ascending branches forming a dense rounded head. The joints or branches are three to six inches long and are yellow-green. There is a dense armor of light golden-yellow spines, dark at their tips, eleven to fifteen of them interlocking, an inch of more in length and covered with paperlike sheaths which are somewhat loosely placed. The spicules are straw-colored and appear in the form of bundles. The flowers of this Cholla are borne at the tips of the joints and are pale green suffused with purple. The fruit is covered with tubercles or knobs and is yellowish green. This plant grows best in the most arid parts of the Southwest and in the hottest southern exposures of rocky foothills and slopes.
How to grow
Young plants may be transplanted at any season, or joints may be planted in gravelly rocky soils. The plants should be watered once a month during the growing season until well established, after that less frequently. They will grow indoors and out, and are not injured by a temperature of twenty degrees below freezing. With colder temperatures they require protection.
Many Colored Tree Cholla (Opuntia versicolor)
(Named from the many colors of its joints and flowers)
How to identify and how it grows
The Many Colored Tree Cholla, or Opuntia versicolor, grows as a main trunk two or three feet high, with many ascending intricate branches which form a broad rounded head from five to ten feet across at the widest part and six to twelve feet high. The bark is coarse and fissured, gray or tan, latterly scaling off. The joints or branches are from two to ten inches long, are green or brown and tubercled. The spicules form in a flattened mass and are yellow or brown. The spines, five to fifteen, are awl-shaped and about three-fourths of an inch long with brownish bases. The body is of gray-brown or purplish hues covered with close-fitting thin light yellowish sheaths. The flowers form in clusters at the tips of the joints and are a yellow-green suffused with red, pink, orange, or sometimes a deep maroon. The fruit is also yellowish green suffused with purple and is pear-shaped. Sometimes one fruit is found growing out from the end of another on this fantastic growth, all fruit remaining on the plant for a year or longer.
How to grow
Plants may be transplanted at any season, or joints may be planted in gravelly rocky soils. The plants should be watered once a month during the growing season until well established, after that less frequently. They will grow indoors and out and are not injured by a temperature of twenty degrees below freezing. With colder temperatures they require protection.