The culprit

[iann]

Last night I had that feeling of something sticking in my side, or perhaps an insect bite, but I couldn't tie down just where. One minute in my side, then under my arms. After much scrabbling about through layers of clothing (July, it shouldn't be so cold!) that only seemed to be making things worse, I found something stuck in my jumper. And inside it. And in my skin. It seems I leaned a little too close to this Tephrocactus.

I don't grow many plants with glochids and Tephrocactus are relatively free from them, but the flower stems produce very large aggressive ones. I tolerate them even when they stick to the plant for 6 months, because the flowers are nice.

[Mal L]

Obviously a good dispersal mechanism. It must have mistaken you for a vicuna - what colour is your jumper?

[iann]

I do have a jumper that might be from an Alpaca, but not quite that cold. Always wondered why these plants were so keen to disperse their detachable spines, but they're certainly good at it.

[Eric Williams]

Did you attempt to re root it, or did you bin it for the grief it gave you ?

[iann]

Only the glochids came loose. No cacti were harmed during the making of this thread.