As anyone who’s gotten too close to a jumping cholla cactus can attest, the experience is singularly painful — and difficult to resolve, as the cactus’ spines are particularly stubborn to remove.

After encountering a cholla cactus, Charlie had to have spines removed from his eyes, mouth, and paws by Arizona Humane Society veterinarians Kelli Bender is the Pets Editor at PEOPLE. She has been ...

If you've ever been poked by a Cholla Cactus, you may have gotten yourself into an even stickier situation by trying to pull ...

Did you know that there are over 1700 species of cacti—spiny plants that have evolved to survive some of the harshest environments on earth. Over the course of their evolutionary history, most species ...

If you’ve spent any time in Arizona, you’ve no doubt been introduced to the wide array of Plants That Will Hurt You. Ranking pretty close to the top and widely considered a terrible nuisance is the ...

The jumping cholla cactus’ innocuous, shrub-like appearance belies its prickly spines’ strength: As a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals, a single cholla spine embedded ...

It began innocently enough. While trail running at the El Modena Open Space in Orange a few years ago, I lost my balance and threw out my arms for stability. That’s when I backhanded a coastal prickly ...

The spines of the jumping cholla cactus slide in with ease, but they’re grueling to extract. You can thank their barbs. ByKatherine J. Wu Tuesday, November 20, 2018 NOVA NextNOVA Next This unfortunate ...

One benefit of working at a university with an agricultural school is the availability of meat. That’s especially useful if you need something to stab cactus spines into. The scientists weren’t as ...

This is a preview. Log in through your library . Abstract Spines are common morphological features found in almost all major biological groups offering an opportunity to explore large-scale ...