It is an erect cholla that grows up to 2–3 meters tall, and occurs primarily in the foothills of the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges, parts of the Sonoran Desert, and in the Coast Ranges with a few populations around the Cuyama River.

The spines are generally less than 3.5 cm long, colored yellow to orange-brown, with the sheath translucent white to gold-brown.

The green to yellow fruits are a leathery to dry texture, and have few to no spines.

Subsequent taxonomic changes led to plants of this species undergoing numerous names, most notably as Cylindropuntia californica var.

[5] Plants of this species are typically found in the chaparral, plains, hills, oak scrub and pinyon-juniper woodlands of the aforementioned mountain ranges and their intervening valleys.