Q: Last year, the cactus plants in our neighbor's yard developed a disease where white stuff that looked like snow was coming out of the spine pores, and the main branches were turning yellow. Now, ...

The powderpuff cactus might look (and sound) soft, but its spines are as pesky as they come. DepositPhotos 3. Methodically remove the big and small cactus needles. First of all, don’t grab the ...

That’s pretty frightening — and also a bit ingenious. Cholla spines serve an additional purpose: reproduction. When a person or animal brushes against a cholla, the spines hook into their muscle ...

He encountered cholla while filming a segment on the Sonoran Desert last summer. He reached out to a teddy bear cholla (C. bigelovii) with thick gloves, and I found myself screaming at the TV “Nooo!

Image by Rob Pilley. Cholla cactus spines in the knuckles of Producer Rob Pilley, a very painful experience and surprisingly hard to pull out as the spines are heavily barbed.