Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa

Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. major

Common Name: Buckhorn Cholla
Oˊodham Name: Hanam Audio
Group: Cacti － Desert

Description

Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. major is a sparsely-branched cholla cactus found in sandy and gravelly soils on desert hillsides and alluvial fans in south central Arizona at 500 to 3500 ft elevation. Flowers are produced in late April or May and can be yellow or red. The fruit are spiny.

Chollas are an important and highly nutritional traditional food source. Baked, dried buds of C. acanthocarpa have moderate amounts of iron, but high amounts of calcium (Greenhouse 1979). A 100-gram serving, or approximately 50 freshly baked buds, provides 1.4 milligrams of iron and 650 milligrams of calcium. This is equivalent to 14 percent of the recommended iron allowance and 81 percent of the recommended calcium allowance for adult males.

entire plant

young plant
stem (Spring)
stem (Summer)
flower

Classification

Kingdom Plantae － Plants

Subkingdom Tracheobionta － Vascular plants

Superdivision Spermatophyta － Seed plants

Division Magnoliophyta － Flowering plants

Class Magnoliopsida － Dicotyledons

Subclass Caryophyllidae

Order Caryophyllales

Family Cactaceae － Cactus family

Genus Cylindropuntia (Engelm.) Kreuzinger － cholla

Species Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa (Engelm. & Bigelow) F.M. Knuth － buck-horn cholla

Variety Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa (Engelm. & Bigelow) F.M. Knuth var. major (Engelm. & Bigelow) Pinkava － buckhorn cholla

More Information

USDA Plant Profile and Map
Greenhouse, R. 1979. The iron and calcium content of some traditional Pima foods and the effects of preparation methods. M.S. thesis, Arizona State University, Tempe.