You might have also been fooled if your prickly pear has been getting along fine ... produce can easily be mistaken for Christmas cactus flower buds. After all, they are similar colors and shapes.

Their astonishment stems from the perceived hardy nature of the cactus able to withstand heat, drought and poor soil. But the Iberian peninsula's emblematic prickly pear is absent from Brugger's ...

Sir David Attenborough inspects cholla buds during filming ... I found myself sitting on prickly pear too many times to recall, and at the end of each day I had to pull spines out of my skin ...