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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.
Gymnosporia heterophylla, the common spike-thorn, is a small, hardy, deciduous African tree up to 5m tall, occurring in rocky places with a wide distribution from Ethiopia, the Sudan and the Congo, south to the Cape Province and west to Angola and Namibia, as well as the neighbouring islands of Madagascar and Saint Helena, with a closely related species from Mauritius.
It needs to be added that certain cacti have spines (not thorns) which are longer. The leaves are green, slightly paler on underside, glabrous , often borne clustered on very short dwarf spur-branchlets in the axils of the spines or infrequently on young spines or arranged spirally on new growth.
It is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and in the Transvaal and KwaZulu-Natal.In arid regions it prefers low-lying sites near streams, watercourses and in valleys, but in higher rainfall areas is a common constituent of the bush, often favouring forest margins.
Putterlickia, variously called spikethorns, false spike thorns, mock spike thorns and bastard spike thorns, are a genus of flowering plants in the staff vine and bittersweet family Celastraceae, native to South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique. Endophytic bacteria in their roots produce maytansine.
For example, the article says that spines are derived from leaves, but none of the four sources I listed at User:Peter coxhead/Work page#Spines vs. thorns restrict the term to leaf-derived structures. Also, the use of spinosus as an epithet is relevant; many plants with such names have what the article calls "thorns", e.g. Prunus spinosa.
The thorns are easily able to puncture human skin, and when successful, the piercing causes a slight inflammation and severe pain. Their dense thorny structure makes them particularly valued in situations where an impenetrable barrier is required.
The Serbian Wikipedia (Serbian: Википедија на српском језику, Vikipedija na srpskom jeziku) is the Serbian-language version of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Created on 16 February 2003, it reached its 100,000th article on 20 November 2009 before getting to another milestone with the 200,000th article on 6 July ...