The cane cholla's range is the arid regions of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, south to Durango, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí.

[6] In parts of its range, often just below the pinyon-juniper belt, it can be abundant, surrounded by low grasses and forbs that are brown most of the year; in such places chollas are conspicuous as the only tall green plant.

[7][8][9] The above-ground part consists of much-branched cylindrical stems, the end joints being about 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter.

The stems are armed with clusters of up to about 10 red to pink[10] spines, which may be 3 cm (1.2 in) long[10] and are barbed and sharp enough to easily penetrate leather gardening gloves.

[11] In addition to sexual reproduction, the tree cholla reproduces when stem joints fall to the ground and take root.

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle moved it to Opuntia in 1828 and Joseph Paxton published it in Echinocactus in 1840.

[3] The fruits are also eaten by various wild birds and mammals, including pronghorn, desert bighorn sheep, and deer.

The Roman Catholic Penitentes of New Mexico formerly tied fresh stems to their bare backs in Holy Week processions.