5 plants with thorns and spines to avoid in family gardens . Regardless of where you live or your US hardiness zone, there are many thousands of trees, shrubs and perennials to choose from.

Plants have evolved all sorts of wickedly clever defense mechanisms, and the most primal—and effective—are thorns, prickles, and spines. Spiky plants can be a hassle for maintenance and ...

Other plants with thorns include the Common Spike-thorn (Gymnosporia buxifolia) and the Forest Num-num (Carissa bispinosa), both small trees from South Africa. Spines.

While many plants lie dormant during the winter months, the Himalayan blackberry stands out like a giant mass of green and reddish leaves with its weaving, giant, thorny arms daring you to cross it.

The “prickles,” as botanists call them, evolved in roses and other plants thanks to a single gene, a new study found. ... There is no rose without thorns, the old saying goes.

A new study has found how a rose and other plants like a tomato and eggplant came to get their prickles. The discovery could help engineer new thorn-free variants.