Glochids

Glochid [ Botany ]
Adjective: Glochidiate

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Glochids are very sharp specialized short hair like spines, they are barbed at the tip, often occurring in tufts and deciduous ; They are a defining characteristic, only of the subfamily, Opuntioideae, of the family Cactaceae. Not present on other cactus genera.

Tuft of glochids
(Tephrocactus molinensis)

Their name derives from the Latin word “glochidium” a “barbed hair of a plant”.

Glochids are detachable and break away very easily and quickly become embedded in skin or clothing, they are strongly hurtful..

(Compare with bristle, spine, prickle, thorn)

The tip of barbed glochid

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994