Basin wiki · Plants
Teddy-bear cholla
Cylindropuntia bigelovii · jumping cholla
Looks soft from the road. The joints detach, and they will ride home on a dog, a boot, or a tire.
Where you'll see it
Teddy-bear cholla favors rocky fans and benches. In Joshua Tree National Park it is a signature of the warmer Colorado Desert side, including dense stands in the Pinto Basin, and it also shows up on rocky ground nearer Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms. Jepson notes it mostly reproduces when a joint roots, and that the seeds are generally sterile. A carpet of small plants under a big one is the normal way a patch grows.
How to tell it
The plant is a short trunk with dense, pale-spined cylinders that catch the light and look fuzzy at a distance. Joints are a few inches long and come off with a brush of a leg. Pencil cholla, the lookalike people argue about, has much thinner stems that stay attached and a more open, twiggy shape. If the joint is in your shin, the field ID is already done.
Getting a joint off
Do not use fingers. A comb, a pair of sticks, or pliers can flick or pull the joint free; work from the spine base, not by squeezing the flesh. Check shoelaces, tire sidewalls, and the dog’s paws before you get in the car. A joint left in a floor mat becomes next week’s flat or next week’s vet bill. Dense patches are a reason to put the dog on a short leash, including on social trails inside the park.
Leave the patch
Detached joints are how the plant spreads, so kicking them into a “cleaner” pile just plants a new one. They are native. On private land, cacti are still not yard waste for the burn pile without thinking about neighbors, pets, and county disposal rules. In the park, collecting is illegal.