Cactus varieties are a generalization of secant varieties. They are defined using linear spans of arbitrary finite schemes of bounded length, while secant varieties use only isolated reduced points. In particular, any secant variety is always contained in the respective cactus variety, and, except in a few initial cases, the inclusion is strict. It is known that lots of natural criteria that test membership in secant varieties are actually only tests for membership in cactus varieties. In this article, we propose the first techniques to distinguish actual secant variety from the cactus variety in the case of the Veronese variety. We focus on two initial cases, [Formula omitted] and [Formula omitted], the simplest that exhibit the difference between cactus and secant varieties. We show that for [Formula omitted], the component of the cactus variety [Formula omitted] other than the secant variety [Formula omitted] consists of degree d polynomials divisible by a [Formula omitted]rd power of a linear form. We generalize this description to an arbitrary number of variables. We present an algorithm for deciding whether a point in the cactus variety [Formula omitted] belongs to the secant variety [Formula omitted] for [Formula omitted] [Formula omitted]. We obtain similar results for the Grassmann cactus variety [Formula omitted]. Our intermediate results give also a partial answer to analogous problems for other cactus varieties and Grassmann cactus varieties to any Veronese variety., Author(s): Maciej Galazka [sup.1] , Tomasz Mandziuk [sup.1] , Filip Rupniewski [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.12847.38, 0000 0004 1937 1290, Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Mechanics, University of Warsaw, [...]