The Christmas Cholla (Opuntia leptocaulis) is one of our favorite native plants. It is called by many names including: Pencil Cholla, Garambullo, Tasadijillo, Tasajillo, Tesage, Rat-tail Cactus, and Slender Stem Cactus. It is the most widespread of all cholla varieties, found from southwest Texas all the way to California and down into Mexico.
It prefers altitudes between 1000 and 5000 feet and sandy, heavier soils of the desert flats along especially along fence lines and under trees fertilized with bird droppings. We have found it annually in abundance at Brown's Ranch in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. It reaches a height from one and a half up to six and a half feet as a sprawling, thicket-forming cactus.
Lovely cream, yellow or green flowers open in the late evening in spring to mid-summer, but it grows best under the shelter of other plants and is inconspicuous until its bright red grape-sized fruits shine through in the late fall and winter months. Providing nesting sites for the cactus wren and berries for most birds and small mammals, this generous species is worth celebrating and propagating in your desert garden. It makes an excellent ornamental plant for your xeriscape garden, but be careful to pick up all pieces that fall to the ground, as it spreads easily!
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