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Cylindropuntia thurberi; photograph (c) Bruce Hartman, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Bruce Hartman, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-04

Cylindropuntia thurberi (Engelm.) F.M.Knuth

Thurber's Cholla

Cactaceae · Arizona, Mexico Northeast +1 · listed by its family as a cactus or succulent

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Cylindropuntia thurberi, photograph (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cylindropuntia thurberi, photograph (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cylindropuntia thurberi, photograph (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cylindropuntia thurberi, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCylindropuntia thurberi, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCylindropuntia thurberi, photograph (c) Luke, some rights reserved (CC BY) 74 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-0.8°C
Record low -6.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
36°C
Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
390mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–53DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes December to January and July to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cylindropuntia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent, listed under the family Cactaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent shrub”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (272 mm of 378 mm) falls in December to January and July to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.1 °C against a yearly mean of 21.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and June to July.

Rain

378 mm in the median year at the habitat, 272 mm of it December to January and July to September. Wettest month August at 85 mm, driest month May at 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 260 mm to 710 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 390 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 378 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -6.4 °C, 265 frost nights in 44 years, 6.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.4 °C in January and December (across the grid cells of the range 2.3 °C to 13.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 36.1 °C in June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 38 to 54% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -85 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the family Cactaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent shrub”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cylindropuntia thurberi through the yearWarmest month June, mean daily high 36 °C; coldest months January and December, mean nightly low 5.4 °C; 378 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost43.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-6.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 23–53RH 38–54%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 341 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 16–2521 / 17–2624 / 20–2828 / 25–3232 / 29–3536 / 32–3935 / 32–3834 / 31–3733 / 30–3629 / 26–3323 / 20–2918 / 15–25
Night °C5 / 2–137 / 4–149 / 6–1513 / 9–1717 / 14–2122 / 19–2525 / 21–2724 / 20–2822 / 18–2616 / 12–2310 / 7–185 / 2–14
Rain mm27 / 17–3824 / 10–3719 / 4–328 / 2–135 / 1–88 / 2–2780 / 42–18085 / 55–18849 / 31–12724 / 18–5018 / 12–2831 / 21–42
DLI25 / 23–2731 / 29–3441 / 39–4248 / 47–4953 / 51–5353 / 48–5446 / 38–4742 / 37–4339 / 35–4033 / 32–3527 / 25–2923 / 21–25
RH %50 / 47–5748 / 45–5544 / 42–5340 / 37–5138 / 34–5339 / 34–5651 / 44–6154 / 48–6450 / 44–6346 / 42–5846 / 43–5650 / 47–57
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 341 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1357 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1152:1377 (32.375, -111.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 341 distinct grid cells holding 1357 of the 1358 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1152:1377 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-111.250, lapse-corrected -85 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 653 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker32.273, -110.938 · in the densest population, 1123 records (75% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1499 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1357 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1358 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 776 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 141 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1499 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cylindropuntia thurberi, photograph 1did not loadCylindropuntia thurberi, photograph 2did not loadCylindropuntia thurberi, photograph 3did not loadCylindropuntia thurberi, photograph 4did not loadCylindropuntia thurberi, photograph 5did not loadCylindropuntia thurberi, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Luke, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Jatropha cardiophylla Jatropha cardiophylla Heartleaf limberbush Photo: CC BY, Bruce HartmanCylindropuntia arbuscula Cylindropuntia arbuscula Arizona Pencil Cholla Photo: CC BY, Bruce HartmanPectis cylindrica Pectis cylindrica Sonoran chinchweed Photo: CC BY, Jared ShormaCylindropuntia fulgida Cylindropuntia fulgida Jumping cholla Photo: CC BY, Mark PollockPhysalis acutifolia Physalis acutifolia Wright's ground-cherry Photo: CC BY, Sula VanderplankOpuntia gosseliniana Opuntia gosseliniana Violet Prickly-pear Photo: CC BY, Enrique Martínez Núñez

Other Cylindropuntia 30 in the reference

Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa Buckhorn cholla Photo: CC BY, Andrew DudleyCylindropuntia alcahes Cylindropuntia alcahes Brincadora Cholla Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroCylindropuntia arbuscula Cylindropuntia arbuscula Arizona Pencil Cholla Photo: CC BY, Bruce HartmanCylindropuntia bernardina Cylindropuntia bernardina California Cholla Photo: CC BY, Adam J. SearcyCylindropuntia bigelovii Cylindropuntia bigelovii Cactaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Cactus.manCylindropuntia californica Cylindropuntia californica Snake cholla Photo: CC BY, Roberto Daniel Avila Cylindropuntia × campii Cactaceae Cylindropuntia caribaea Cylindropuntia caribaea Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Laurimar SepulvedaCylindropuntia cholla Cylindropuntia cholla Baja California Cholla Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroCylindropuntia chuckwallensis Cylindropuntia chuckwallensis Chuckwalla Cholla Photo: CC BY, Ian McFaulCylindropuntia echinocarpa Cylindropuntia echinocarpa Wiggins's cholla Photo: CC BY, CK2AZCylindropuntia fosbergii Cylindropuntia fosbergii Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Rosario Douglas all 31 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Engelm.) F.M.Knuth
Native to
Arizona, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest
Wild records
1499 in range · 776 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 35 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (32 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-111.250, lapse-corrected -85 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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