Sandbur
Yesterday’s photograph of strangely spiky galls at Illinois Beach State Park suddenly reminded me this morning of something spiky that’s common in Austin but that I’ve somehow never shown you in these pages. It’s Cenchrus spinifex, a native grass known as sandbur and bur grass. What’s common to those two common names is the bur, and in this June 30th photograph from Great Hills Park you can see how sharp the burs on the seed heads of this grass are. Ouch.
© 2016 Steven Schwartzman
Another lethal weapon.
Gallivanta
July 28, 2016 at 5:52 AM
Aye, and ay!, another example of how “welcoming” the ground is in Texas.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 5:57 AM
I’ve heard Cenchrus spinifex called by other names: many of which aren’t suitable for a family-friendly blog. If my shoelaces and socks are any indication, it’s been as good a year for this grass as for any flower. Funny, how much more attractive they seem in your photo.
shoreacres
July 28, 2016 at 5:55 AM
Giving me an attractive picture is the least this grass can do to compensate for all the times I’ve had to deal with its burs in my clothing or, worse, my skin. As you know, I carry a protective pad with me that I can lie down on to take pictures, but when sandburs are around I have the secondary problem of getting the burs out of the pad.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 6:02 AM
http://www.hear.org/pier/imagepages/singles/vchr_bish_649452.htm This photo looks like the sandburs that terrorized my childhood.
Gallivanta
July 28, 2016 at 6:04 AM
Ah, what a coincidence that you got terrorized by a species of Cenchrus over there. I don’t recall any from my childhood on Long Island, but Texas has sure made up for that.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 6:12 AM
We tried to avoid them as best we could but there always seemed to be at least one burr stubbornly attached to a towel or an item of clothing whenever we went to the beach.
Gallivanta
July 28, 2016 at 6:21 AM
When I’ve tried to get them out of my clothing I’ve sometimes managed to get them into my skin instead.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 6:30 AM
Ditto.
Gallivanta
July 28, 2016 at 6:43 AM
In responding to a later comment, I did a little research and found that the Cenchrus echinatus that plagued your childhood (and the commenter’s in Alabama) is native to the Americas. Too bad it got carried to Fiji and Australia.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 7:40 AM
I am not sure when it arrived in the Pacific but I wonder if like the Bittervine it arrived thanks to WW2. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Mikania_micrantha.htm
Gallivanta
July 28, 2016 at 8:21 AM
I suspect you’re right that WW2 moved a lot of species around, often unintentionally. I hadn’t heard of bittervine or its invasiveness, but I recognize the genus from a related vine that grows natively in Austin:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/mikania-scandens/
It’s the only vine I’ve encountered that’s a member of the sunflower family.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 8:28 AM
Steven: Great capture of one, tough customer.
elmdriveimages
July 28, 2016 at 6:29 AM
We have to strive to be tough customers to deal with this tough customer of a grass.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 6:31 AM
We had sand spurs, I’d guess a similar grass, in Alabama-the bane of my childhood ramblings barefooted or flipflopped.
Dianne
July 28, 2016 at 7:09 AM
From what I’ve found online, it seems that what you had in Alabama was the related species Cenchrus echinatus. I’ve not heard the name sand spurs till now, but spurs are as good as burs to describe these spiky things.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 7:34 AM
Sandburs and their ilk rank high in Sock Removal Difficulty Units (SRDU) according to this site. http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plmay98.htm
Jim Ruebush
July 28, 2016 at 8:14 AM
SRDU: what a great concept. I see there’s a caveat at the end of the table: “Ranking & SRDUs are purely hypothetical without any quantitative data to support them.” Now there’s an opening for an enterprising graduate student in need of a thesis topic.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 8:23 AM
Did you notice some of the close-ups of the barb ends. They are worse than fish hooks. Ouch!
Jim Ruebush
July 28, 2016 at 8:27 AM
Ouch indeed. Farther down on the page is a picture of jumping cholla, a closely related species of which I experienced in the Southwest two years ago:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/chain-fruit-cholla/
I’ve had little experience with fishhooks but plenty with clinging plants.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 8:35 AM
A plant with the same sort of “hooks” turns out to have been the inspiration for velcro. The SRDU is funny — but of course there’s another approach. I found a resale shop down the street that sells perfectly acceptable heavy socks for ten cents per pair. At that price, bur-laden socks can be worn a few times and then disposed of. A sock budget of twenty cents a month isn’t bad, especially when there still are the shoelaces to be dealt with.
A friend with a backyard full of sandburs and a fuzzy little dog found a good, environmentally safe way to deal with the situation. As the burs are forming, she drags a burlap bag over the yard. It’s amazing how many the bag will pick up, and how few she has to pluck from her dog’s fur.
shoreacres
July 28, 2016 at 7:54 PM
The SRDU is funny indeed. I didn’t know about it but did know the origin of Velcro, which I learned a long time ago when investigating some native plant or other. It could well have been the cocklebur, and years later, when I showed that plant’s seed heads in a post,
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/cocklebur-seed-head-remains-by-pond/
I mentioned the creation of Velcro as an imitation from nature.
Heavy socks for 10¢ a pair: wow, you’ve found yourself a time machine.
I hope your friend publicizes her method of gathering up sandburs before they can do a lot of damage.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 8:11 PM
Fantastic picture, but I still don’t like those d*** stickers! 😉 Luckily, we have way fewer here than we used to have in the old place in Karnes City. But still there are too many in our lawn, 😦
Have a great day,
Pit
Pit
July 28, 2016 at 8:44 AM
I’m sorry to hear that you know about these first-hand. I’ve dealt with my share in Austin, so the least the plant can give me in return is a good photograph.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 11:04 AM
😉
Pit
July 28, 2016 at 12:45 PM
I don’t know which species of Cenchrus we had in the Lower Rio Grande Valley when I was young, but we called them “stickerburs”! They were everywhere!
Judy T
July 28, 2016 at 9:29 AM
You’re not alone. So far this morning I’ve heard from people who experienced “stickerburs” in Texas, Alabama, and even Fiji.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 11:15 AM
Excellent photo!
Roland Theys
July 28, 2016 at 10:43 AM
Thanks, Roland. I wanted the picture to be as sharp as the barbs on the seed heads.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 11:12 AM
Yep that looks like an ouch!
Julie@frogpondfarm
July 28, 2016 at 1:56 PM
Unfortunately from personal experience I can assure you that it is.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2016 at 2:50 PM
Nice.
BuntyMcC
July 29, 2016 at 5:32 AM
To look at, if not to touch.
Steve Schwartzman
July 29, 2016 at 6:18 AM
They do look formidable. I hope the tips don’t contain anything irritating like the stinging nettle.
Steve Gingold
July 30, 2016 at 2:36 PM
If there’s anything positive to say about these sandburs, it’s that the damage they do is strictly physical. There’s no chemical component the way there is with the dreaded bull nettle:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/a-well-defended-plant/
Steve Schwartzman
July 30, 2016 at 3:50 PM
Ouch! I do remember this little beast of a plant from our trips to Texas. Quite elegant looking, but still.
melissabluefineart
August 18, 2016 at 9:05 AM
This is definitely one of those look-but-do-not-touch plants. Unfortunately it has a way of getting into clothing and then touching people who’d rather not be touched.
Steve Schwartzman
August 18, 2016 at 9:12 AM