There are several bushes scattered around the half-acre lot where our new house stands. I have no idea what these are, but they have some nasty spikes and red-orange berries with tufts of smaller hair-like spikes. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t want one of the dogs to come into contact with anything to do with this bush. There is a close-up of one of the berries in the inset. Does anyone know what this monster bush is? Click on the image to enlarge.
Update: Reader Crotalus informs us that this is opuntia leptocaulis, commonly called Desert Christmas Cactus. Thanks, Crotalus!
Ran afoul of Opuntia leptocaulis, did you?
Because the red fruits show up in December, that one is often called “Desert Christmas Cactus”. It”s one of the chollas, but it’s sneakier, because it looks more like a regular bush than a cactus.
Happy to help. As you can see, cacti are my thing.
I jumped in on this one a little late but you can see other examples here
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=desert+christmas+cactus&cp=0&qe=RGVzZXJ0IENocmlzdG1hcyBDYWN0dXM&qesig=xBfoUDgPPE0qKOsIiSA1aA&pkc=AFgZ2tkWIfU_LgFmsrcVPboixchxpufYZ24iR3EOoOa-kltIP5jn_1LSs4X6B1gB_bNwZAg2XA8xrhuvMAO6XoOMvgT7e1KZdg&rlz=1R2GWYE_en&wrapid=tljp129584131583900&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=LPg8TcTzDtHPgAeQs5ytCA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&sqi=2&ved=0CEIQsAQwAg&biw=1084&bih=611
Thanks for the link, Norm. There are a lot of different types of cacti and succulents associated with Christmas.