cholla
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈtʃoʊ.jə/
- US
:
cholla
- Big Bend here in April after a wet winter was in thorough bloom: prickly pear, cholla, century plants, scores of others, colors picked from the sunset and the sandstone cliffs and the backs of birds.
- cholla cactus
- cholla spine
- spiny cholla
Examples
-
I stood there and watched her until she disappeared around the curve, stopping once and bending to a fuchsia cholla bloom.
Fiction book (1993) -
The tall Saguaro cactus and the short, round teddybear cholla, right, are common Southwest species.
-
I was on a big rise, with a giant cholla behind me.
Blog text (7) -
Cholla segments were embedded in his leg.
Fiction book (1990) -
Amid the cholla and mesquite, they're easy to miss.
Academic text (2011) -
Hold it there, pardner; you just jumped into a cholla cactus bush.
Blog text (5) -
He raked out sticks, bits of cholla cactus, and a few bottle caps.
Fiction book (2000) -
She jammed the accelerator to the floor as the truck slewed across the ranch road, spraying mad patterns of dirt and whacking a cholla.
Fiction book (2000) -
Miles and miles of low flat land forested with saguaro, cholla, and prickly pear cacti.
-
In this windswept field of buffalo grass, spiky yucca, and cholla cacti stands a gracious adobe building.
Compounds
How Spiny
Surface Forms
Etymology
Cholla comes from Mexican Spanish cholla, probably taken from a Native American name for the plant. It is the local name for the spiny, jointed desert cactus, which is why we call those cacti cholla today in the southwestern United States and Mexico.