Small cactus:
Basic model in C4D, UV-unwrapping and details in ZBrush, textures in Substance-Painter, subsurface scattering-map done manually in Photoshop. Spines are just thin cones arranged using MoGraph (C4D) and render-instances, rendered in C4D. Renderings are just different seetings of illumination and subsurface scattering.
Done just for fun, the model is available on TurboSquid:
https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/plant-cactus-3d-model-1684911
Cactus HD Turntable