A well-defended plant
Click for better sharpness.
It’s bull nettle, Cnidoscolus texanus, making its first conspicuous appearance in these pages. All those hollow needles are intended to be hypodermic with respect (disrespect!) to any person or animal that makes contact with the plant. Once that happens, the needles pierce the offender’s skin, break open, and release noxious chemicals that cause burning and itching. Fortunately I don’t speak from experience. And speaking of speaking, people who speak Spanish have traditionally called this plant mala mujer, which we can translate equally alliteratively into English as wicked woman.
This photograph, taken in northwest Austin on July 2, looks straight down at a developing bull nettle seed capsule. The nuts that develop inside it are edible; again, I don’t speak from experience, but you can read about it in this article.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
hmmmm. edible?! it’s certainly taken its bite out of me in the past! i encountered it often when riding horses in thick areas of the edges of woods. i’d pull my legs and feet way high to dodge those stinging leaves!/.. i’d be curious to sample the nut!
z
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
July 17, 2013 at 6:44 AM
Not only edible but supposedly tasty. Some sources recommend using tongs to gather the mature seed pods, put them in paper bags, and then wait for them to split open. That’s a lot of work, and so far I haven’t tried it, but maybe one of these days. In any case, I’m sorry that this plant has taken its bite out of you.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 6:53 AM
it was part of growing up in the mississippi delta! there’s some plant that stings here in ecuador, but it’s not the nettle. at times i brush against it while working outside after the rainy season, though i am not sure yet which one is the villain!
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
July 17, 2013 at 7:02 AM
Z, I just laughed when I went looking for some information about this plant. The first entry on the page was for a hunting, fishing and outdoor forum called “The Mississippi Bull Nettler”!
shoreacres
July 17, 2013 at 2:09 PM
I guess Bull Nettler was intended to describe someone who isn’t afraid to tangle with difficult or even dangerous conditions.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 3:50 PM
ha! that is funny, and yes, during fall before a good hard frost, wow, one would always choose a horse over walking through dense vegetation!
Playamart - Zeebra Designs
July 20, 2013 at 3:12 PM
I saw a video recently where a young man thought it would be funny to jump, shirtless of course, into a large growth of nettle with his friends watching on. The rash that devolved looked really painful and based on his whimpers was. What’s wrong with kids these days I wonder. As for the edible part don’t you wonder who one day decides to try things like this?
themysterymeat
July 17, 2013 at 7:37 AM
Nowadays we talk about “first responders,” and I’ve often thought about “first tryers.” For every plant that we know is poisonous, someone had to find out the hard way. As for foolhardy young people, well, foolhardy and young are often synonymous. Last year I showed pictures of jimsonweed, a plant that some young people ingest for its hallucinatory effects; unfortunately a strong enough dose can be fatal, and every year in the United States there are people who die from that plant. At least in the case you mentioned, the pain was on the outside of the guy’s body and we assume he eventually recovered.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 7:46 AM
Sure looks like a mean (wo)man to me, and one that can keep its nuts, however edible they may be!
Jude xx
Heyjude
July 17, 2013 at 8:48 AM
It’s definitely a mean plant, one that gives pause to anyone who might otherwise be eager to harvest its nuts. Of course you’ve given me the chance to quote the Beatles:
Hey Jude, don’t be afraid,
You were made to go out and get her.
The minute you let her under your skin,
Then you begin to make it better
In this case, however, letting the wicked woman get under your skin will definitely not make it better.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 5:21 PM
I like that 🙂 and I am definitely keeping well away from any plant that looks that lethal
Heyjude
July 17, 2013 at 6:10 PM
Oh la la je n’aimerais pas qu’elle me pique.. quand on voit le bulbe, il doit y en avoir du toxique sous chaque piquant.. En tout cas cela donne une superbe photo. Merci Steve, j’apprends beaucoup!
chatou11
July 17, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Même les feuilles sont couvertes de piquants, mais plus petits que ceux qu’on voit ici. Mois non plus je n’aimerais pas qu’ils me piquent, et jusqu’ici j’ai pu les éviter.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 11:01 AM
Yikes! I have never seen Bull Nettle, but I have experienced stinging nettles while on a canoe trip. Very itchy is the best way to describe the sensation after just brushing up against the plants. Mud from the river soothed things rather quickly.
dhphotosite
July 17, 2013 at 10:36 AM
“Yikes” is an appropriate response, David. Bull nettle is pretty common in central Texas, and although I’ve managed to avoid their sting, I have suffered the effects of much smaller (unrelated) nettles; that’s what I get for sitting and lying on the ground as often as I do. I’ve never thought about river mud as a remedy, but I always carry some hydrocortisone cream in my camera bag.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 11:05 AM
Ouch~wicked indeed! This is one you want to see before it sees you…
melissabluefineart
July 17, 2013 at 11:29 AM
I’ve brushed up against prickly pear cacti from time to time, but thankfully bull nettle has remained ouchless for me. I hope it stays that way.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 1:27 PM
Click for better sharpness – no pun intended right? Very interesting species and photo. I wouldn’t want to run into this for sure!
Michael Glover
July 17, 2013 at 1:51 PM
Good for you for noticing my play on words, Michael. A sharp photo is a safe way to experience this species.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 1:55 PM
As are many…can a reply include an image?
Jim in IA
July 17, 2013 at 1:52 PM
I’ve never seen an actual image in a reply, but people can write a reply containing a link to an image.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 1:58 PM
That works for me. Sweetgum trees drop these painful things.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kKQFNPRGC-U/T8ZrCBc9tVI/AAAAAAAABOc/GMwquF-xanc/s400/sweet+gum.bmp
Jim in IA
July 17, 2013 at 2:14 PM
I’ve seen those (and even photographed them), primarily from a few sweetgums that people have planted as ornamentals in Austin, where the species isn’t native. As a result, sweetgums are rare here, but bull nettle is common, even if no one plants it.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 4:17 PM
This plant looks fairly dangerous. The little white nodules and the white “needles” certainly look nice combined with the green of the plant, but still…
I was most curious about how to pronounce the scientific name. I found a couple of paragraphs at the end of this piece about chaya that were amusing and informatitve. The “cn” combination’s what caught my eye. It reminded me of the Kpelle language of Liberia, where the “Kp” combination was everywhere and a killer to learn. We’d repeat the phrase “pin(k p)ig” to try to get the sound right.
shoreacres
July 17, 2013 at 2:23 PM
One advantage of preserving old spellings is that we can see the way words used to be pronounced. In English we no longer phonetically have the combination kn-, but preserved spellings show that we used to, and in some very common words: know, knee, knife. Other examples are knit, knight, knell, knead, knack, and knave.
I’d never heard of chaya, which I see now is a Central American Cnidoscolus. One mistake in the article you linked to is this: “The Romans had no ‘K’ sound…” On the contrary, the Romans indicated that sound with their letter C, which was always pronounced as k, even before e and i. For example, Cicero was pronounced Kikero.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 4:11 PM
Nasty indeed. As a doctoral student my wife studied reproductive allocation in the Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica subsp. gracilis so we know all about stingers such as your Cnidoscolus. Also, I noted the comment above about pronunciation; as a zoologist I could add that the Cnido … as in Cnidarian, Cnidaria, Cnidae, Cnidocyte, Cnidocyst, and Cnidocil, means STING! The phylum used to be called the Coelenterata (in reference to the digestive cavity) but it was changed to Cnidaria in reference to the stinging cell called the Nematocyst … without the ‘Cn.’ Isn’t language interesting? I also wonder about scolus … for scolex is a term referring to the head-end of a tapeworm! D
Pairodox Farm
July 17, 2013 at 6:19 PM
Thanks for letting us know that the Greek root cnid- appears in so many technical terms having to do with stinging; I hadn’t run across any of them except Cnidoscolus. According to Shinners and Mahler’s Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas, the second part of Cnidoscolus comes from Greek scolopes-, which meant prickle or sting. It seems biologists who named Cnidoscolus wanted to get its stinging nature in twice, and with good reason, I’d say. My dictionary tells me that Greek nemat- meant thread, and that scolex was a Latin word borrowed from Greek skolex, which meant worm. So yes, language is indeed interesting; I’ve spent years of my life studying it.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 7:09 PM
Yup … I should have known the reference to ‘thread,’ for the stinging mechanism of the nematocyst does indeed include a thread (through which neurotoxin may be delivered). D
Pairodox Farm
July 17, 2013 at 7:13 PM
Oooo…that would be a nasty one to encounter!
Steve
July 17, 2013 at 8:33 PM
We’ve had oh la la, yikes, ouch, and now oooo. I think this plant has elicited more interjections than any other.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 8:51 PM
And well deserved I’d say! 🙂
Steve
July 17, 2013 at 8:53 PM
That looks scary that does!
crazygoangirl
July 17, 2013 at 9:09 PM
Yes, but only if you touch it. I’ve managed to avoid doing that for 14 years.
Steve Schwartzman
July 17, 2013 at 10:01 PM
The artful dodger then! 😉 Are they abundant though?
crazygoangirl
July 18, 2013 at 12:50 AM
They’re fairly common, but luckily they usually occur singly or in small groups and don’t form dense colonies like some of the other wildflowers here.
Steve Schwartzman
July 18, 2013 at 6:42 AM
That’s a relief. They do have a kind of wild appeal though. I think I would be tempted to touch a spike to see how sharp they were!
crazygoangirl
July 18, 2013 at 7:05 AM
I’ve read that the pain is intense, so I’m not eager to try the experiment. You may be bolder than I am on this one.
Steve Schwartzman
July 18, 2013 at 7:09 AM
Not bold! Nutty is more like it. It’s just the child in me emerging at opportune moments!
crazygoangirl
July 18, 2013 at 7:14 AM
There you go: nutty for nuts. Let me wish you a happy inner child.
Steve Schwartzman
July 18, 2013 at 7:27 AM
LOL…thank you kindly 🙂
crazygoangirl
July 18, 2013 at 7:41 AM
That is indeed a nasty looking plant. The person who discovered the nuts to be edible must have been very hungry.
Bill
July 18, 2013 at 5:16 AM
Very hungry indeed!
Steve Schwartzman
July 18, 2013 at 6:39 AM
I remember these from my childhood and my interjection would be aye-yi-yi-yi-yi!
Judy
July 18, 2013 at 4:36 PM
Now that’s one hardy (and hearty) interjection: thanks for adding it.
Steve Schwartzman
July 18, 2013 at 5:56 PM
Fascinating that the nuts should be edible, given the defenses that must be overcome to get there! Wonder what they taste like?
Susan Scheid
July 19, 2013 at 8:14 PM
One of these days I’m going to find out, and when I do I’ll let you know.
Steve Schwartzman
July 20, 2013 at 1:18 AM