Arizona, Boyce Thompson Arboretum: Devil Cholla With Yellow Fruit Royalty-Free Stock Photo

Boyce Thompson Arboretum (BTA) holds collections of desert plants from the United States, Mexico, Australia, Madagascar, India, China, Japan, Israel, South America, the Middle East, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Arabian Peninsula—all told 4,025 taxa and 20,000 plants within 135 acres of gardens. Situated on 372 acres of scenic upland Sonoran Desert with nearly five miles of trails, BTA is Arizona’s oldest and largest botanical garden and one of Arizona’s top tourism sites. The short (up to 6 inches) green stems of the Devil Cholla show the distinctive club-shape of all species in this genus, narrow at the base, widening to be 2 inches across at the top. Each areole has between 12 to 30 spines, longest 2 inches, colored white, pale yellow or pale brown. Both flowers and fruit are yellow. The plant occurs in scattered, low elevation locations in the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts and is native to Arizona.