Prickly Pear Fruit

Prickly Pear is a family of cactus plants known as Opuntia. They range over most of the United States, even in very cold locations and on the Eastern Seaboard. Some of the plants have large edible fruit. However, the plants and fruit are very difficult to deal with because of the tine spines known as glochids. Here is an explanation from Wikipedia: Glochid.

Glochids or glochidia (singular "glochidium") are hair-like spines or short prickles, generally barbed, found on the areoles of cacti in the sub-family Opuntioideae. Cactus glochids easily detach from the plant and lodge in the skin, causing irritation upon contact. The tufts of glochids in the areoles nearly cover the stem surfaces of some cactus species, each tuft containing hundreds of glochids; this may be in addition to, or instead of, the larger, more conspicuous cactus spines, which do not readily detach and are not generally barbed.

If you have ever had contact with glochids, you will remember the experience. We have found one way to remove them is with athletic tape. The tape sticks to the spines and pulls them out but it is not a pleasant experience.