Cockel-Burr (from Bill - newtoyou): The next time someone uses the analogy of "having a burr under your saddle", this is what one looks like when magnified. They are quite pointed with...

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

The next time someone uses the analogy of "having a burr under your saddle", this is what one looks like when magnified. They are quite pointed with spurs going in all directions. When I was a lad I picked countless numbers of them out of our dogs coats that they would get running through the fields 'doing what dogs do'.

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DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

sippyjug104 wrote:

The next time someone uses the analogy of "having a burr under your saddle", this is what one looks like when magnified. They are quite pointed with spurs going in all directions. When I was a lad I picked countless numbers of them out of our dogs coats that they would get running through the fields 'doing what dogs do'.

You picked them off your dog - I picked them off my britches legs, shirt sleeves, and maybe couple other places I care not to mention! 😎😎😎

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Mother Nature sure comes up with some creative ways to help assure the continuation of a species with the means she develops to help disperse the seeds of life.

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

sippyjug104 wrote:

Mother Nature sure comes up with some creative ways to help assure the continuation of a species with the means she develops to help disperse the seeds of life.

Yes, nature is so clever. I suppose the small nuisance value these give us is a small price to pay to help plant life along. Good stack.

DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

EnglishBrenda wrote:

Yes, nature is so clever. I suppose the small nuisance value these give us is a small price to pay to help plant life along. Good stack.

“. . . small nuisance value . . . .”
Have you ever been stuck by a pod of these things?

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Pretty great.

Common cocklebur - Xanthium strumarium canadense - is native to just about all parts of North America, but that looks more like Common burdock - Arctium minus - which is native to Europe, but is a common alien weedy plant in North America. Hard to say for sure.

Quite a few plants have hooks or barbs of various kinds. Tickseeds, Desmodium, stickseeds, Avens, Bidens, Sweet cicely are some of the plants with seeds that will stick to clothes.

Mike

newtoyou Loc: Eastport

Blenheim Orange wrote:

Pretty great.

Common cocklebur - Xanthium strumarium canadense - is native to just about all parts of North America, but that looks more like Common burdock - Arctium minus - which is native to Europe, but is a common alien weedy plant in North America. Hard to say for sure.

Quite a few plants have hooks or barbs of various kinds. Tickseeds, Desmodium, stickseeds, Avens, Bidens, Sweet cicely are some of the plants with seeds that will stick to clothes.

Mike

Just the opening I was looking for.
The specimen Gary posted is from me.
This is a true grass. Many species in the genera Cenchrus exhibit this form of seed pod.
Now, I go barefooted year round.
I was collecting at a waterline beach wrack.
I had made my way to and from, somehow missing these. On the last trip I walked into them.
Barefooted. So do not think insect collecting free of hazard.
I should stop limping next week.
For the life of me, I cannot see the need for this.
You presented a few of the hitchhiker type. This one does not hitch-hike, it hijacks a ride.
They are common in Rehobeth, Ocean City ( MD and Jersey) and more, at the edges of the dunes.
FYI. These form rhizomes. Similar to crab grass. Very hard to eradicate.
Bill

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

Ocean City Maryland.... I went there often over the years. Used to target practice with my dad in the dunes near the Delaware line. Of course, that was long before any developments were there...Spent many a summer weekend there as well...

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Bill, again thanks for providing me such interesting specimens. I hope that you and others enjoy seeing them in a much different way than the common eye.

These were quite "stickery" as they would prick me as I tried to stage them for the camera. They are very hardy also for I could barely get the tip of a mounting pin into it.

From your experience with them I suspect it gives a new meaning to the phrase, "Don't Tread On Me".

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

newtoyou wrote:

Just the opening I was looking for. br The specime... (show quote)

Very interesting Bill. Sure enough that looks like it is from a Cenchrus species. If it is Cenchrus longispinus it is native and probably an important plant for dune stabilization, but unwelcome on beaches.

I don't see it here, but maybe I need to pay more attention, since the University of Michigan Herbarium shows it as having been collected right in my county.

Here is what they have to say:

"Roadsides, railroads, fields, and disturbed places generally; an obnoxious weed, especially frequent in dry sandy places but mercifully not yet common on beaches. A most unpleasant species to humans (especially if barefoot where Cenchrus grows) and animals (the readily deciduous burs rendering an otherwise good forage grass unpalatable when mature). Our plants are presumably largely adventive, although perhaps originally native in the southwest part of the state, where known since the First Survey in 1838."

Mike

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Commonly known down here as sandspurs, I have collected more than my share over the years, and yes they can be quite uncomfortable especially should they find their way under your toe.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Blurryeyed wrote:

Commonly known down here as sandspurs, I have collected more than my share over the years, and yes they can be quite uncomfortable especially should they find their way under your toe.

I hope they don't get a foothold on the Great Lakes dunes and beaches.

Mike

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

A good subject and discussion. These will be in plain view now. I admire the ones with curved hooks, and am sure those too would make good subjects to photograph.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Mark Sturtevant wrote:

A good subject and discussion. These will be in plain view now. I admire the ones with curved hooks, and am sure those too would make good subjects to photograph.

Yes, the ones I know seem to be on a single stalk about 8" off the ground, pretty much looks like a common weed with the exception of the seed pods....

Here they are a bit more round than the one you have pictured and have plenty of spikes. My problem is that being a Floridian I am pretty much a flip flop type of a guy and I always feel them before I see them. I don't look for them because they are not everywhere but when you find them they will plentiful in the area where you find them.

Image taken from the web.

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Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Blenheim Orange wrote:

I hope they don't get a foothold on the Great Lakes dunes and beaches.

Mike

They have always been in Florida, I would not be too concerned about these headed up your way, I don't think that they would survive your climate.