This cholla with jointed branching stems varies from 1 foot tall and mat-like to shrubby and thicket-forming to 5 feet tall with a central trunk. Note the slender stem joints are lined with bumps (tubercles), each with an areole with two types of spines: 4 (usually) long, stout central spines and 4 (usually) smaller radial spines. Flowers are yellow, fruit yellow to red and spineless. It’s the common cholla in the 4–Corners region.

FLOWER: May–July. Numerous showy, cup-shaped to spreading flowers to 1 1/4 inches wide (3 cm); inner petal-like tepals usually yellow to greenish-yellow, outer often tinted red; filaments yellowish green, anthers yellow; stigma lobes whitish, yellowish, or pale green. Fruit yellow to red, barrel-shaped, 3/4–1 1/4 inches long (18–30 mm), spineless but with glochids; remains on plant through winter.

SPINES: Stem joints 1–3 1/2 inches long (3–9 cm), 1/4–5/8 inch diameter (5–15 mm); each areole has 3–8 (10) spines, whitish or pale-yellow to pale red-brown; usually 4 stout central spines 3/4–1 3/8 inches long (2–3.4 cm) and 4 smaller radial spines; spines covered with whitish to pale yellow sheaths. Glochids barbed, bristle-like, 1–3 mm long in a tuft at base of spines.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, gravelly soils; desert flats, bajadas, slopes, hills; desert grasslands and scrub, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 5,000–7,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, NV, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Candle Cholla, C. kleiniae, in eastern and southern NM, has candle–sized stems 1/4–1/2 inch diameter (6–12 mm) with 1–4 spines per areole, and reddish-bronze flowers. The nearly statewide Cane Cholla, C. imbricata, has 3/4–1 1/4-inch diameter (20–32 mm) stems, magenta flowers, and yellow fruit. Whipple Cholla hybridizes with other Cylindropunta throughout it’s range. In NM, It crosses with C. imbricata and C. leptocaulis. The NM RARE-listed hybrid Santa Fe Cholla, C. viridiflora, (see photo below) found in Santa Fe County, is considered a stable cross between C. whipplei and C. imbricata. Other similar hybrids, classified as  C. x viridiflora, occur within the shared range.

NM COUNTIES: Western half of NM in mid-elevation, dry habitats: Catron, Cibola, Dona Ana, Grant, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro.