As a wild plant, in a wild area, this is an interesting plant. The leaves are shiny, the single stalk (trunk?) often has an interesting ...Read Moresilhouette.
If you 'stumble' into a patch of these in shorts, you are in a world of hurt, or at least a leg of scratches. The thorns are similar to a thorny rose in terms of hurt-potential, agressiveness and irritation -- fairly mild on the Texas thorn scale, but not pleasant.
Despite what it says above, these are drought tolerant, ... and round-up ready. They are near impossible to kill. They form an enlarged tuber/root knot thing underground. If you don't dig this out you will never eliminate it. Assuming you can find/follow the root, a sharp-shooter shovel is adequate. You don't need the grubbing hoe. Keep a bucket handy to put the root knots in. Loose one and it will quickly regrow.
You can control (but not kill) by frequent mowing -- as long as you start when they are small. They quickly grow too big to mow, and of course those that are growing in the fence, in the cactus, among the rocks in the field, etc. are not amenable to mowing.
As a wild plant, in a wild area, this is an interesting plant. The leaves are shiny, the single stalk (trunk?) often has an interesting ...Read More