[pct-l] Jumping Cholla!

[Nathan Miller]

All of the Opuntia cacti will be like this.  Their spines have microscopic hooks and barbs on them, which are responsible for the difficulty removing them.  I was taking cuttings of Opuntia fragilis near the John Day Painted Hills a few years ago and experienced a handling problem.  I'd grasp a single spine with two fingers, sever the pad from the one below it, and then drop the severed pad into a yogurt cup.  I fumbled one and quickly found three fingers of one hand and two fingers of the other stuck to the same bit of cactus!  I managed to pull my hands apart, but it was briefly disconcerting.
The worst thing about Opuntia is that they have these very tiny little spines called glochids.  On the plant, they look like little tufts of hair.  Opuntia basilaris, the beavertail cactus (has large purple-pink flowers...you'll see it in SoCal near Warner Springs and other areas), has glochids exclusively.  They have the same hooks and barbs as the larger spines, but their very small size makes them very difficult to handle.  The only real way to remove them is by scraping them with a knife blade like you'd remove a bee stinger.  Failure to remove the glochid will result in annoying little pricks every time you touch it for as long as it takes for your body to break it down like it would a splinter.

-Nate the Trail Zombie