cholla

plural chollas

1. Any of several species of cactus in the genus Cylindropuntia, having very spiny, cylindrical stem segments.

   The cholla was two feet high, and six feet in diameter.

   1890 October 28, “A Series of Eggs of Palmer's Thrasher”, in The Ornithologist and Oölogist, volume 15, page 155

   3 more examples

   Throughout Arizona the floors of such caves are found covered with a deep bed of chollas.

   1889 January 26, “Archæological camping in Arizona”, in American Architect and Architecture, volume 52, page 43

   The terrain was thick with cholla and clumps of it clung to the horses with spikes that would drive through a bootsole to the bones within […]

   1985, Cormac McCarthy, chapter 17, in Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC

   On the front nine, Jones stuck to Woods like a cholla cactus.

   2009 February 26, Karen Crouse, “Woods Returns as He Left: A Winner”, in New York Times