About Myrtillocactus cochal (Orcutt) Britton & Rose
Myrtillocactus cochal grows as a shrub or tree, with heavily branched blue-green branches. It reaches a height of 1 to 3 meters, and typically forms a short trunk with 6 to 8 ribs. Areoles are spaced 1 to 3 centimeters apart. Most individuals have a single black central spine up to 2 centimeters long, though this central spine is occasionally absent. There are also 5 radial spines, which are grayish or blackish and measure 5 to 10 millimeters long. The flowers are light greenish-white with a darker central stripe, measuring 2.5 centimeters in both length and diameter, and open both during the day and at night. The fruits are spherical, red, and edible, with a diameter of 1.2 to 1.8 centimeters. Myrtillocactus cochal is distributed on the edge of the Sonoran Desert, in the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur.
