jgoodman Wrote:
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> Altozwei mentioned stickers. I'm thinking the goat
> head types she spoke about are the roundish
> gray-green nodules with little spikes?? They were
> painful but didn't seem to penetrate too far...and
> you could see them before you blundered into
> them....if you paid attention. There was a second
> type you couldn't spot. They were ALL spike and
> hard(dried out). They brought blood at times and
> were painful to remove. Not being a botanist I
> have no idea what they were, but they were damn
> painful. Jim
The two kinds of "sticker burs" that I remember from growing up and still see today are (1) _Tribulus terrestris_, commonly called "goat head" in Texas and with many other common names including "puncture vine," and _Cenchrus_ (several species), commonly called "grass bur" and "sand bur" in Texas. Both are non-natives from Eurasia and Africa.
The former is a prostrate herb with pinnately compound leaves and a heavy, nutlike fruit with spikes. The entire fruit is about 3/8" across. The latter is a grass, with several fruits about 1/4" across born on a spike. The fruits are softer than those of _Tribulus_, but painful nevertheless. I have had blood drawn by both. The latter will stick to shoe laces, pant cuffs, and pet fur, making for some painful finger sticks.
When I was a small boy in west Texas, there was a lady in our neighborhood who used to fuss at kids who would "cut across" her yard, telling us to stay off of her "lawn." Since the entire surface was covered with _Tribulus_, we used to refer to her as the "goathead lawn lady."
Later, when I was in graduate school and spent a couple of summers at The University of Oklahoma Biological Station, a visiting professor, known as one of the foremost ichthyologists in the U.S., Professor Clark Hubbs of The University of Texas at Austin, used to spend his free time squatting on the campus lawn pulling out _Cenchrus_ plants from the sandy soil. Neither plant grows much except in disturbed areas, so a "well tended" lawn is not likely to harbor them much, though the edges around walkways will.
Another interesting anecdote concerning _Cenchrus_: Captain Randolp Marcy did a fair amount of road exploration for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in early Texas, prior to the Civil War. In some of his reports he noted the degree to which _Chenchrus_ had invaded campsites and trails, relating its commonness to the amount of usage by travellers a site was experiencing.
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> Altozwei mentioned stickers. I'm thinking the goat
> head types she spoke about are the roundish
> gray-green nodules with little spikes?? They were
> painful but didn't seem to penetrate too far...and
> you could see them before you blundered into
> them....if you paid attention. There was a second
> type you couldn't spot. They were ALL spike and
> hard(dried out). They brought blood at times and
> were painful to remove. Not being a botanist I
> have no idea what they were, but they were damn
> painful. Jim
The two kinds of "sticker burs" that I remember from growing up and still see today are (1) _Tribulus terrestris_, commonly called "goat head" in Texas and with many other common names including "puncture vine," and _Cenchrus_ (several species), commonly called "grass bur" and "sand bur" in Texas. Both are non-natives from Eurasia and Africa.
The former is a prostrate herb with pinnately compound leaves and a heavy, nutlike fruit with spikes. The entire fruit is about 3/8" across. The latter is a grass, with several fruits about 1/4" across born on a spike. The fruits are softer than those of _Tribulus_, but painful nevertheless. I have had blood drawn by both. The latter will stick to shoe laces, pant cuffs, and pet fur, making for some painful finger sticks.
When I was a small boy in west Texas, there was a lady in our neighborhood who used to fuss at kids who would "cut across" her yard, telling us to stay off of her "lawn." Since the entire surface was covered with _Tribulus_, we used to refer to her as the "goathead lawn lady."
Later, when I was in graduate school and spent a couple of summers at The University of Oklahoma Biological Station, a visiting professor, known as one of the foremost ichthyologists in the U.S., Professor Clark Hubbs of The University of Texas at Austin, used to spend his free time squatting on the campus lawn pulling out _Cenchrus_ plants from the sandy soil. Neither plant grows much except in disturbed areas, so a "well tended" lawn is not likely to harbor them much, though the edges around walkways will.
Another interesting anecdote concerning _Cenchrus_: Captain Randolp Marcy did a fair amount of road exploration for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in early Texas, prior to the Civil War. In some of his reports he noted the degree to which _Chenchrus_ had invaded campsites and trails, relating its commonness to the amount of usage by travellers a site was experiencing.