Plant Profile- Cocklebur or Clotbur

I'm still hunting for the picture I really want to show you. Meanwhile, I found these.

This is most of the rest of the life cycle of Common Cocklebur or Clotbur, Xanthium strumarium. (Link below about the seeds) There's discussion on whether it's native to Eurasia and was brought here or the other way around! I don't have pictures of the flowers yet, which are moderately interesting, so you may see this plant again.

At any rate, it's not a plant many people are going to like. Here's what a roadside covered with it looks like before it blooms.

The leaves are rather distinctive. A few other plants look similar, but it's pretty easy to identify. Here they are closer. Similar leaves might be: Coltsfoot, but they are short and not branched, Sycamore, but that's a tree, Velvetleaf, which has large leaves but not as lobed.

The stem is streaked, so I'm a little surprised the word "maculatum" isn't in the name. So how about the name? The binomial name is always so much easier to remember if you know what it means. So Xanthos is Greek for yellow. I knew that, but there's nothing on this plant that's yellow. Well! They used this plant to dye their hair yellow! Another source says the seedpods turn from green to yellow, but the first idea comes from Miriam-Webster which seems more reliable. Strumarium is supposedly a "cushion-like swelling," apparently referring to the rounded form of the seed pods.

Animals die from eating this plant, as it causes liver failure. Farmers sure don't want to see it growing in their pastures. It's not so good for humans either. Supposedly it's been used medicinally, but people who eat it often die.

As if that weren't enough, once it forms the seedpods, it's no fun either. These are nasty seedpods, with hooks like burdock but much stiffer. It's actually painful to pick these up.

It's a novelty to find this plant, but it's no treat.

In other news, we had an inch of rain overnight, and then thunder and wind in the morning. Consequently, I worked inside. I kept busy all morning, but I wasn't doing anything that is a priority. I did get my act together in the afternoon and worked hard on a priority project. Also dug up some more autumn olive. Maybe one or two more sessions of that and I can finish the mowing (I don't work on the olive for very long at a time. It's hard and nasty work. It has thorns.)

See Cocklebur Seeds