glochid
English edit
Etymology edit
From Ancient Greek γλωχίς (glōkhís, “barb of an arrow”).
Noun edit
glochid (plural glochids)
- A small, detachable, irritant spine occurring in dense clusters in the areoles of certain cacti such as the prickly pear.
- 2016, Justin O. Schmidt, The Sting of the Wild, Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 29:
- [The bunny-ears cactus is] a particularly unpleasant cactus with thousands of nearly invisible, glochid [...] spines.