Field Sandbur, Coast Sandspur

Until the seeds set, I find it quite impossible to differentiate it from less formidable grasses, which here in North Central Florida, th...Read Moree grass seems to wait until early September to do. Although the plant sends out rooting branches, it is a clump grass; the runners are above ground and not 'ropey' and underground, unlike another benign grass that looks virtually identical.

Anyone with personal experience meeting one of these seed heads will give it a negative report. They are a menace, sending their barbs i...Read Morento the flesh of fingers, toes or paws.

HELPFUL HINT: Before trying to remove them, spit on your fingers and don't squeeze too hard. The barbs seem to slip in the saliva. This is an old "Florida Cracker" remedy from an old Florida Cracker.

MATURE PLANT Coast Sandspur is an annual or short-lived perennial. The stems are erect or bend at the lower nodes with the stem tips asce...Read Morending. The leaf sheaths are either hairy or bare. The blades have a few scattered long hairs on the upper surface and often have scattered hairs at the base of the otherwise nonhairy lower surface. The seedheads of spiny burs are 2-8.5 cm wide and 4.1-7.0 mm long to the tip of the spikelets. The spines of only one kind are flattened and spread over the body of the bur. The seedheads appear throughout the year.
HABITAT This weed occurs throughout Florida in dry, sandy, cultivated and disturbed areas; in warmer parts of the United States from Virginia to California; Mexico; Central America; South America; the West Indies; the Philippine Islands; and South Africa.
BIOLOGY The southeastern United States has two similar weedy sandspurs. These are the Coast Sandspur and the Southern Sandspur (C. echinatus). Only one kind of spine on the bur of the Coast Sandspur separates it from the Southern Sandspur.
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