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Photo courtesy Chaz Kasanicky
Yes. Well, no, not really. But ask anyone who has been stuck by one and they'll swear up and down that they do. The Teddy Bear cholla, also dubbed the jumping cholla, might look soft and fuzzy, especially in the brilliant Arizona sunlight, but those suckers hurt if you ever get in a scuffle with one.
It was less than a week after I moved here that I had my own painful encounter. Having spotted a family of javelina, I jumped the low wall of the Scottsdale patio home my husband and I were renting to catch a closer glimpse of the pig-like creatures. What happened next is a blur but somehow a cholla latched on to my tennis shoe and the next thing I knew, it made the leap from my shoe to the back of my bare leg. Each time my husband would tug at the stubborn ball of needles, I belted out a howl so loud, you could probably hear it back in my home state of Florida. Now I know why tequila was invented. He finally used a bed pillow to somehow rip the stubborn spikes from my skin. I had a welt on the back of my leg for weeks.
Here's the thing you need to know about Teddy Bear cholla. If you brush against one, the bulbs easily detach from the tree (that's how the plant propagates) and it darn well seems like they can fly through the air. The other thing you need to know -- the needles have bars that make them difficult and crazy painful to remove. Pliers are your best defense if you get stuck.
So do jumping cholla really jump? That little sucker attached to my leg sure did. My advice is don't going skipping through the desert and definitely don't go chasing down javelina (but that's another story). The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix is an excellent -- and safe -- place to learn more about our prickly natives.
For more info on the Desert Botanical Garden, call 480.941.1225 or visit www.dbg.org.
Got your own jumping cholla story? Share the gory details below!
Comments
It was March. I was on a simple hike at one of the mountain preserves in Scottsdale. I was even wearing pants! It didn't matter....I got "stung" by the barbs of the jumping cholla anyway. I just got a bit too close...I don't even think I was really touching the plant. But I know why they are called "jumping"....it really does seem like they do!
I had marks on my leg for about 6 weeks. They marks got much worse before they got better.
Gotta love AZ!
Do not wear sandals in the yard if you have one of these planted, AND definitely keep your pets out of the yard. Even after removal it hurts! They are very beautiful in bloom. To weed around them, wear thick heavy long gloves AND use long tongs or other long handled tools to care for the plant.
I was at my grandpa's in Scottsdale years ago and was fetching a golfball..sure enough, living in Missouri I had no idea what a jumping choalla was and got them all over my arms and legs. Practically everywhere! My aunt had to pull them out with tweezers and I still have the scars (little bumps on my wrists and ankles) 8 years later to prove it really happened! Extremely painful!
WHILE WEED WACKING MOMS FRIENDS ACRES NEAR KINGMAN,AZ,I UNKNOWINGLY WHACKED ' DE PINCHE CHOLLAS.' DIDNT FEEL NUTHIN TIL MUCH LATER CEPT FOR A BIT OF ITCHIN. BODY WAS COVERED HEAD TO FOOT & THICK. WITH A SHAVING RAZOR WAS ABLE TO YANK MOST OF EM, BUT 2 MONTHS LATER THEY STILL RISING UP TO GREET ME..ANYBODY KNOW IF THEY POISONOS??
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