The "jumping cholla" name comes from the ease with which the stems detach when brushed.
Often the merest touch will leave a person with bits of cactus hanging on their clothes to be discovered later when either sitting or leaning on them.
The ground around a mature plant will often be covered with dead stems, and young plants are started from stems that have fallen from the adult.
They attach themselves to desert animals and are dispersed for short distances.
Extinct, hairy megafauna may have played a role in their historic, more widespread dispersal in this manner.

Other names for this cactus include chain fruit cholla, cholla brincadora, and velas de coyote.
The "jumping cholla" name comes from the ease with which the stems detach when brushed. Often the merest touch will leave a person with bits of cactus hanging on their clothes to be discovered later when either sitting or leaning on them. The ground around a mature plant will often be covered with dead stems, and young plants are started from stems that have fallen from the adult. They attach themselves to desert animals and are dispersed for short distances. Extinct, hairy megafauna may have played a role in their historic, more widespread dispersal in this manner.
Other names for this cactus include chain fruit cholla, cholla brincadora, and velas de coyote.
Cylindropuntia fulgida