A page for wildflower and hiking enthusiast. A lot of my pictures, both wildflowers and scenery, come from the beautiful Tennessee State Parks. I use the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for my description of native plants. All non-native plants will use someone else for the description. The best way to follow this blog is to enter your e-mail address below. You will receive an e-mail that looks just like the post with all the pictures.
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Comments are encouraged and appreciated. We are amateur botanist, and we do make mistakes sometimes with our identifications. We strive to make this a good identifying resource. All comments are moderated by me and may take several days to appear. This is due to the high number of inappropriate comments that have nothing to do with this subject.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Canada Cockleburr (Xanthium strumarium var. canadense (P. Mill.) Torr. & Gray)
Asteraceae (Aster Family)
USDA Native Status: Native to U.S.
Photographic Location: Cumberland Mountain State Park, TN
A cocklebur was the inspiration for a Swiss engineer, George deMastral, in 1948, for the invention of Velcro. He examined the burs that stuck to his socks and discovered that they consisted of hundreds of tiny hooks, which attached themselves to anything loopy.
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George, is this a different plant vs. just cockle bur? Nice find!!!
ReplyDeleteNo, just plane ole cockleburr we have always known and loved.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post on my blog. Yes, I think the plant I saw was a cocklebur. I'm not used to seeing them in flower.
ReplyDelete