Welcome to this article that will be talking about whether or not the thorns on a cactus plant will be poisonous. They are in fact not poisonous. Instead, they will just be painful if you get pricked by them.
They are meant to deter animals from eating the plant. But they also serve some other uses that we will be talking about more in-depth further below here. It involves collecting water and being a vital part of any wild cactus plant’s survival.
Follow along and we will together learn even more about this wonderful house plant that is the cactus.
Can Cactus Thorns Be Poisonous
Just like we said at the beginning of the article here, the cactus plant’s thorns will not be poisonous in any way, even though you might have heard so or believed it before. They are there for other reasons instead.
The first is that they will deter animals from eating the plant. This is the most effective way as the entire plant is edible and a real treat for some animals living in places where food might be scarce.
The other use that the needles or thorns have is that they will collect water from the ground and then store that in the stem of the plant. This is a great way for it to be more conservative with the use and water.
This is the main reason it’s able to even survive in places like deserts where every drop of water really counts. The thorns are technically a dead part of the plant so they will not be growing out once you have cut some off.
With all this being said, you should not feel worried about having a cactus plant at home and accidentally being pricked by it. It will not cause any harm more than maybe hurting a little bit.
If you are growing at home then you could even cut off the thorns as you will hopefully supply the plant with enough water so it doesn’t have to collect water from the ground when it condenses.
Are you curious why the stems of the cactus plant are normally very thick? Here we talk more in-depth about this topic, Why Are Cactus Stems Usually Very Thick.
Can Cactus Thorns Make You Sick
The thorns from the cactus plant will not be making you sick just like we have already talked about in the paragraph above here. They will however hurt a little bit if you get pricked by one.
But for consequences like getting sick, you will not have to worry about that. The thorns are harmless and instead serve some other purposes like deterring animals that would otherwise like to eat the plant.
But the thorns will also collect water from the soil when that water condenses. This happens usually when the weather is incredibly hot. It’s a process that lets the plant be able to survive in some of the harshest conditions to grow. This is why cacti are basically the only thing you will see growing in a desert, no other plants have adapted to this.
If you are worried about having thorns on a cactus plant at home then we can reveal that it’s perfectly fine to cut the thorns off. They serve very little purpose except for what we have already talked about.
Do you want to grow your cactus plant bigger and wonder how you could do that? Here we reveal the answer, How To Grow Cactus Bigger.
Why Do Cactus Thorns Hurt So Much
The thorns on the cactus plant will not be very pleasant to get stung by. They will prick the skin and might even cause you to bleed. But you should worry about being sick from them.
The thorns on a cactus plant are not poisonous. If you want to you could even our of the thorns from the plant. They are not something that will grow back and doing this won’t harm the plant either.
