Botany Photo of the Day

Thanks Ruth and to your Mother for the photo which stimulated an informative write-up about the 'desert desert'. Very interesting! BPotD brings us new facets every day!

Soil requirements tag might read: Rocks and pebbles.

And this is a major "weed" in New Mexico....

Great pic!!! Hm, but is it really a Potentilla sp.? My first thought was Tribulus terrestris... :)

Hwyyyyyyyyyy!!!
That plant looks a lot like a creeping weed we have here in the lower Yakima valley. I do not know its scientific name, but folks around here call it puncture vine, and/or goat head weed. The latter, since the seed pod resembles a "Billy Goat" head. Can we blame China for the incursion of this noxious weed? It easily prevents me from riding
a bicycle! What is the etymology of our unbeloved weed?

As a child in the Central Valley of California, I was tortured endlessly by this lovely plant!!!
We called it ''Puncture Vine''...and it provided an awful wound in a child's foot! Or anyone's for that matter...the seed pods become hard as a rock with at least 3 hard pointed sharp ''needles'' that make a large painful hole in the flesh. I was raised on a farm and liked to go barefoot in the summer...I hated the stuff.
It was also plentiful in Arizona when i lived there...:)

This is the common "Goat Head", which produces a lot of stickers. I kill them by the hundreds every year. Terrible plant. - Millet

I have to agree with some of the others who identified this as puncture vine. In my book Weeds of Nebraska and the Great Plains it says this is Zygophyllaceae - Caltrop Family Tribulus terrestris L. I am just putting that in for all you folks who understand it.:-) It can be eradicated if you have lots of time and want to bend over a lot. It pulls up fairly easily if you grasp it in the center when it is young before the seedheads (sticker parts) form. I agree it is a terrible weed and hard on bare feet and bicycle tires.

That looks like Tribulus Terrestris to me. Exactly the growth habits of young plants prior to producing their evil, evil, seed pods.

I have a write up with detailed photos here:

http://www.friday.com/bbum/2007/07/07/tribulus-terrestris-goatshead-terribly-evil-plant-from-hell/

It is a universal plant, often grown purposefully by ignorant people because it will grow where no other plant will grow. Then the seeds come and these ignorant people become people in pain.

I lived in Suisun valley for nineteen years on twelve acres. It took me ten years to eradicate this pest from the entire place,,by each year in the spring "pulling it up by hand"!. Trucks that visited the property were constantly bringing it back in their tires. Which when turned to leave left the seeds behind.

There is no doubt that plant is a Tribulus species, likely T. terrestris but I'm not familiar with the flora of Mongolia. You can actually see the developing "goat's heads" on the young stems.

yes...#1 enemy of my footies....

This must be in the same family as the round sprawling weed that comes up in my garden. I don't pull it up because I love the yellow flowers and it is such a nice ground cover. it doesn't cause problems in the garden on general terms.

Elaine

oh, by the way. this plant I have in my garden is soft with no stickers. it is a lovely ground cover. does anyone have any ideas as to what my plant is? and a good site for ground covers. this one grew in the dry side of the cascade range of oregon and we have it here in Denver also dry weather.

Thank you, Elaine

We walked across this and rode our rented mountain bikes over it in the Gobi and never found anything sharp in this plant. We were warned about many things, but not stickers. This was in the last half of August and beginning of September.

This plant is definitely not a Potentilla, but is Tribulus terrestris.
Elaine mentioned a plant in her garden with similar flowers, but is soft with no stickers. That one sounds like common purslane (Portulaca oleracea). It produces hundreds to thousands of seeds that are less than 1 mm wide and can drive gardeners crazy once it starts to emerge. It does make an excellent Mexican vegetable dish called verdolaga when it is harvested before flowering.

yes, it's puncture vine, the bane of my dog. I knew it well when I lived in California, but I hadn't seen it here in Laramie until a couple of years ago. It now grows on disturbed soil adjacent to prairie between my house and the river ... a spot my dog and I now avoid during the growing season.

It's a great photograph. However, one that should not appear on any internet search for Potentilla. There is the potential that someone might not read the comments on this page. There's already substantial botanical misinformation on the internet.
Carl Wishner

We have what must be a relative of that 'goat's head' plant here in Phoenix. It's a beautiful, beautiful flower, but the seedheads are a menance.

Kallstroemia grandiflora

I will begin my studies toward an associate's degree in Horticulture here in Omaha, NE in December. I left an 18 year career as an Intellectual Property Paralegal behind and took a job as a gardener for a nice, small company. I have pulled many weeds in the past few months! I have this one (or something much like it) in the gardens here. It kind of reminds me of something we call scurge or scourge (sp?). We pull a great deal of it.

Than you for the great pictures and discussions everybody! They have helped me come to understand what can be a complex field at times.

Patricia (Omaha)

Verrry niiice Ruth !!! Much respect to Melinde for the wonderful picture!

It is nice to see a different kind of Potentilla. It a very good photograph and I thank your Mother for that.
Thank you,
Margaret-Rae

Does this plant (Tribulus Terrestris) grow in the lower mainland? If so, where?