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Cactus glochids easily detach from the plant and lodge in the skin, causing irritation upon contact. The tufts of glochids in the areoles nearly cover the stem surfaces of some cactus species, each tuft containing hundreds of glochids; this may be in addition to, or instead of, the larger, more conspicuous cactus spines , which do not readily ...
Not all of his ventures were successful. One of his failures was the "Indian Souvenir Toothpick Company". He planned to produce toothpicks from cacti with a new chemical process. However, the cost of removing barbed skin of cactus needles, by the patented chemical process, to make them suitable for toothpicks was too high.
In 1982, a man was killed after damaging a saguaro. David Grundman was shooting and poking at a saguaro cactus in an effort to make it fall. An arm of the cactus, weighing 230 kg (500 lb), fell onto him, crushing him and his car. The trunk of the cactus then also fell on him. [55] [59] The Austin Lounge Lizards wrote the song "Saguaro" about ...
These stems are often carried for some distance by sticking to the fur or skin of animals and are especially painful to remove. [4] When a piece of this cholla sticks to an animal or person, a good method to remove the cactus is with a hair comb. The spines have microscopic barbs which point backwards and hold on tightly.
Many glochidia are barbed, complicating their removal and enhancing their persistence in the skin. Exposure to glochidia is an occupational hazard to fruit pickers and other outside workers in areas where Opuntioideae thrive, as the spines can persist in clothing and gloves and can become airborne under the right conditions.
Prickles on a blackberry branch. In plant morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles, and in general spinose structures (sometimes called spinose teeth or spinose apical processes), are hard, rigid extensions or modifications of leaves, roots, stems, or buds with sharp, stiff ends, and generally serve the same function: physically defending plants against herbivory.
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The cactus family, the Cactaceae, evolved 30–40 million years ago in the Americas, [3] originally completely separately from Africa, Europe, and Asia, although, probably within the last few million years, some species of Rhipsalis appear to have been carried to parts of Asia and Africa, [4] most likely by birds.