noun

• A cactus with a cylindrical stem, native to Mexico and the south-western US.

  Genus Opuntia, family Cactaceae

  ‘The vegetation is a mix of grasses, annual herbs and isolated patches of mesquite, cholla, ephedra and yucca.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Less than an hour west of Tucson, coasting down State Highway 86 before reaching Kitt Peak and the Baboquivari Mountains, a small hill rises from the cholla, saguaro, and mesquite dotting the landscape.’
  • ‘Land plants include many cacti, the most spectacular of which are the saguaro, with its thick, armlike branches, and a number of large chollas, such as the tree cholla, the jumping cholla, and the cane cholla.’
  • ‘In their desert habitats their diet consists of spiny cactus, yucca pods, creosote bush, cholla, pinyon nuts, seeds, prickly pear, and any available green vegetation.’
  • ‘Velvet cactus, prickly pear, Bergerocactus emoryi, and cholla are widespread, often joined by box thorn, a prickly shrub in the nightshade family.’