Still don't know the name but I have seen them all over the place. It looks like a cholla type cactus - teddy? jumping?

LOL! It didn't jump at me...do they really "jump" or was that just someone trying to be funny when they named it?

I would have jumped after I slid into it, but I was about 300 feet up the side of a straight up cliff.

You know how something hurts you and you just FREEZE in agony? That was me.
I had people above and below me and they were berating me for stopping so suddenly and I couldn't even answer back until I got to the bottom. I just had to keep climbing down and then when I got to the bottom I walked off and cried by myself. When I was done, I dried up and calmed down and went back to the group and asked for advice. It wasn't until then that the rest of the group knew what had happened and they did help me pick them out, came up with the duct tape suggestion, and eventually agreed with me when I decided to shave them.

If I ever go back to the desert I will be watching for these buggers like a hawk and avoiding them as well as I can, even to the point of not going up anything when they are growing there!!

Here's a good site for the jumping cactus and it's proper name and why it appears to "jump". Click on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylindropuntia_fulgida

I have one, but i've never tasted it, lol. The house we're trying to buy has bunches of them. I was wondering (every time we went to the property) why they looked like someone had topped them off. They should have been much taller and you could see the ends, where there was like a scab, like the next lobe was picked or cut off.

Then we hit a flea market and one stand had PILES of the lobes. Aha. Somebody must be snatching *mine*. Probably the guys who are cutting the grass.


RW, I don't know the botanical name of the one that got you, but I sure know what I would have called it, LOL.

Brain - They are supposed to taste like watermelon according to the website I was reading. Apparently they have to be cleaned very carefully, though.