glochidium
/ɡləˈkɪdiəm/
noun
- A tiny, barbed hair or bristle found on some plants, especially cacti, that can easily detach and stick into skin.
- Gardeners should wear thick gloves to avoid the tiny glochidia of certain cacti.
- The cactus is covered in glochidia that can be painful to remove.
- She brushed against the prickly pear and got several glochidia stuck in her hand.
- The parasitic larval stage of freshwater mussels in the family Unionidae, which attaches to fish gills or fins.
- The glochidium of the freshwater mussel attaches to a fish to complete its life cycle.
- Each glochidium must find a suitable fish host within a few days or it will die.
- Biologists study how the glochidium finds and latches onto a host fish.