ᔕonoran Roᔕie desert herbals

This could be you.. when hiking in the Southwest be sure to watch out for jumping cholla. No they don’t “jump” onto you but they do have dense spines with little hooks on the ends and can detach easily from the main plant, that’s how they propagate. Each arm that detaches could take root and become a new established cholla.

This all means that there are tons of lil arms surrounding each jumping cholla (Cylindropuntia fulgida AND Cylindropuntia bigelovii - both nicknamed jumping cholla) so it’s very easy to accidentally brush up against one with your shoe, pants, arms, legs, paws etc. Trying to pull these out is painful!

When hiking, be careful where you step and aware of your surroundings. You can bring a comb & tweezers with you just in case but two sticks will also work for pulling these bad boys off.

#deserthike #cholla #tucson #phoenix #arizonahiking