Its name was chosen in honor of Hermann Gruson, a famous collector of succulents from nineteenth-century Germany. These are extremely particular and dangerous cacti: made up of several cylindrical segments, which united together give it a columnar structure, Grusonia is renowned for being equipped with glochids, or tufts of very thin, almost invisible thorns, which tend to detach very easily from the plant to adhere to what they touch (including skin!). Other species, on the other hand, have much more robust and resistant thorns, cylindrical, straight and very long, a characteristic that makes them commonly known as "cholla devils" due to the ferocity of the quills. Many of these characteristics sometimes lead Grusonia to be considered simply as a subspecies of the genus Opuntia, however the distinction is still recognized and used today. Be enchanted by the timeless charm of these cacti in which, more than all the others, fierce ferocity and extreme ornamentation coexist harmoniously!