Serious question, why does everyone call every succulent a 'cactus'?

I was at a garden center last weekend and heard three different people point to an aloe vera and call it a cactus. One lady was telling her friend it was a 'nice cactus for the kitchen.' I mean aloe is a succulent, not a cactus. Cacti have areoles, those little fuzzy spots where spines grow. Aloe doesn't have those. I only know this because I killed like 15 plants before I figured out the difference. Has anyone else noticed people just lumping all succulents together like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

ellis.mia22d ago

My neighbor calls everything with a spike a cactus. Ferns, aloe, even a pine cone she found. She put a Christmas cactus in her bathroom and told me it was a 'spiky plant.' I tried to explain the whole areole thing once. She just nodded and said 'ok but it has needles.' Gave up after that. People just want a name for anything that doesn't need water.

the_tara22d ago

Okay but to be fair a Christmas cactus is NOT a cactus in the botanical sense, it's actually a Schlumbergera and it's a tropical plant that needs water way more than a desert cactus. So your neighbor isn't totally wrong calling it a spiky plant, but she's also not right calling it a cactus either. It's more like a succulent that happens to have pointy segments. Honestly the areole thing is a losing battle with most people, I just nod and smile now when someone calls a euphorbia a cactus.

the_holly19d ago

Oh man, I read somewhere that pine cones aren't even plants, they're seed holders.