Nasty grass -- help ID

[GoWyo]

Have this a long the county road and never have seen it before.

 

[Hereford2]

Looks like what we used to call sand burs when I was a child. Nasty things that would stab into your foot when you walked barefoot....

 

[GoWyo]

Looks like what we used to call sand burs when I was a child. Nasty things that would stab into your foot when you walked barefoot....

It's definitely a grass plant.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Yep. Sand burrs. Don't step on bare-foot, lay down on, or fall on, or even lightly touch. They will stick in fingers at even the lightest touch. Don't ask how I know.

 

[bird dog]

Stickers amongst many other names. I didn't think they would survive in WY. A scrounge here in hay fields and residential lawns. You have to use a grass herbicide like Pastora to knock it out. The stickers are the seed so they transfer easily from pasture to pasture.

 

[GoWyo]

I don't know where it came from, but I'd like it to go back. Only see it along the edge of the road where road grader has been working. We have had a hot July with several good rains. Maybe it has been here all along and this year has the right conditions for it to take off.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

.

 

[branxchar&charx]

We call em stickers. Old timers call em sand burrs. Very common in these parts. Seems to like sandy soils and more prevalent in drier years.

Once, i mean ONCE, i walked bare footed through grandparents' yard when i was a young un, yard was bermuda with stickers. I never walk barefoot outside in any type of grass now.lol

 

[Mrcopier]

Sand burs and I am dealing with them now, have to get them early spring. MSMA is what I used last year but to late. I still have them, work with my extension agent to wipe them out come spring. They will stick to your tractor tires and replant them all over your place. So I decided to not mow that area till after I spray them next spring, yes they are a grass and yes it is NASTY

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Sand burs and I am dealing with them now, have to get them early spring. MSMA is what I used last year but to late. I still have them, work with my extension agent to wipe them out come spring. They will stick to your tractor tires and replant them all over your place. So I decided to not mow that area till after I spray them next spring, yes they are a grass and yes it is NASTY

Sounds like you have an annual species of it. I thought that there was only one species. I don't know how many species we have here in the states, but it appears there are 25-26. I also don't know if we have both annual and perennial species here. No wonder the range map I found didn't make sense based on my observations. Had to be a different species.

[H1]sandbur[/H1]
plant genus
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Also known as: Cenchrus, buffelgrass, sandspur
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buffel grass

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Also called: sandspur or buffelgrass
Related Topics: Poaceae

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sandbur, (genus Cenchrus), genus of about 20 to 25 species of grasses in the family Poaceae. Sandburs are native to warm sandy areas of North America, North Africa, Asia, Europe, and the South Pacific. The plants can be used for forage when young, but they later form rounded sharp-spined burs that can catch on the coats of or scratch the faces of grazing animals.


Sandburs are weedy annuals or perennials, typically less than 100 cm (40 inches) tall. The plants are usually shallow-rooted and spread readily. The leaf blades are generally somewhat twisted and feature a fringed ligule (small appendage) at the leaf base. Sandbur flower spikelets are enclosed in sharp burs that readily detach from the plant when ripe.

 

[coachg]

I’ve always heard sand spurs . Regardless they are bad on bare feet !

 

[Katpau]

My guess is you are seeing them along the road, because the grader wasn't properly cleaned, and the seeds were transported in by the grader. This is a pet peeve of mine.

We first got Yellow Starthistle on our ranch after a fire back in 1992. It started when the neighbors burn got away from them. It came in on us and they used a Cat hauled in from another location to build a fire line and to repair the roads they damaged fighting the fire. We first saw them along the edges were the Cat had scraped back vegetation and topsoil. We were too slow in initially going after them and by about 1997 we had acres of them spread over miles of the ranch. We have been agressively fighting them ever since. They are in pretty decent control on our ranch now, as a result of an immense amount of work each year, spent spot spraying. We walk miles carrying heavy pack-back sprayers, up and down steep hills, inaccessible except on foot or horseback. Unfortunately we will never be done with them, because of infestations on neighbors. The neighboring rock quarry has a bad infestation of various thistles and Poison Hemlock, and they don't bother to do anything about it. I expect seeds are spread throughout the county, when loads of rock leave the pit. I wish there was some sort of rule that required these quarries to spray their weeds, so they wouldn't be responsible for transferring seed all over the county.

 

[GoWyo]

These sandburs are a long the road for 3 miles right along the edge. The introduction would have had to have been made some time ago. However I never saw them until this year, so was thinking there was a big seedbank and the conditions were favorable this year. We have a new blade operator who does a much better job and pulled quite a bit of material out of the ditches to rebuild the roads.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

My guess is you are seeing them along the road, because the grader wasn't properly cleaned, and the seeds were transported in by the grader. This is a pet peeve of mine.

We first got Yellow Starthistle on our ranch after a fire back in 1992. It started when the neighbors burn got away from them. It came in on us and they used a Cat hauled in from another location to build a fire line and to repair the roads they damaged fighting the fire. We first saw them along the edges were the Cat had scraped back vegetation and topsoil. We were too slow in initially going after them and by about 1997 we had acres of them spread over miles of the ranch. We have been agressively fighting them ever since. They are in pretty decent control on our ranch now, as a result of an immense amount of work each year, spent spot spraying. We walk miles carrying heavy pack-back sprayers, up and down steep hills, inaccessible except on foot or horseback. Unfortunately we will never be done with them, because of infestations on neighbors. The neighboring rock quarry has a bad infestation of various thistles and Poison Hemlock, and they don't bother to do anything about it. I expect seeds are spread throughout the county, when loads of rock leave the pit. I wish there was some sort of rule that required these quarries to spray their weeds, so they wouldn't be responsible for transferring seed all over the county.

I commend and thank you for your efforts. I am familiar with this vegetative "nasty". It got introduced to the Colville Reservation when someone cut corners and bought and 'planted' seed that had not been certified on about 2,500 acres on a rather steep slope. There were a few law suits involved, a couple agencies with marred reputations, and a couple individuals who got to put the word "former" before the word employer when they describe their employment status.

As for the quarry, I believe that yellow star thistle is on a noxious list in Oregon that REQUIRES landowners who are blessed with its presence to take aggressive measures to eliminate its presence or the state will lighten the pocketbook of the "pretty flower" owner. I hate this weed with a passion. Contact the Oregon Department of Agriculture and seek their help. I believe you might get some help on motivating your neighbors to take action.

On the flip side, I think it has some value in honey production.

 

[bird dog]

Most of them are Perennials I would think. They are very hardy and spread a bunch during drought type summers when competition is less. As mentioned they do very good in sand but they also do very good in gravel along roads, around barns and in storage yards. You can stir up a bunch of seed when you disc a field. If they added gravel to your road, they probably came from the pit.

They are a real nuisance because they do so well in Bermuda pastures which means they get baled up, sold to someone else and then are spread all over his place. Cows will eat them before the plant forms the sticker which is usually mid summer around here.

 

[Katpau]

There was a program through the Douglas County Soil and Water Conservation District back in about 1997 that provided help in controlling Starthistle. That year they provided labor and we paid for herbicide. Best deal we have ever made. We have continued to follow up spraying on our own, every year since. At one time the DCSWCD tried to push through some regulations requiring the quarries to provide clean rock. It was a voluntary program and pits that participated got a label. Something like "weed free quarry". I don't remember the exact wording. Since it was going to cost them money and there was no penalty for not doing it, I don't think any ever participated. The DCSWCD went through a number of changes in personnel since then and was mostly shut down for the two years of Covid. I think the whole program was eventually dropped, but I could be wrong.
I think the ODA has pretty much given up the fight. I do talk to the local weed specialist from the ODA from time to time. They have moved their funding to weeds they have potential to control. Since 1992 yellow Starthistle has moved up from California and become so prevalent in certain areas of Southern Oregon, that control seems out of reach.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

There was a program through the Douglas County Soil and Water Conservation District back in about 1997 that provided help in controlling Starthistle. That year they provided labor and we paid for herbicide. Best deal we have ever made. We have continued to follow up spraying on our own, every year since. At one time the DCSWCD tried to push through some regulations requiring the quarries to provide clean rock. It was a voluntary program and pits that participated got a label. Something like "weed free quarry". I don't remember the exact wording. Since it was going to cost them money and there was no penalty for not doing it, I don't think any ever participated. The DCSWCD went through a number of changes in personnel since then and was mostly shut down for the two years of Covid. I think the whole program was eventually dropped, but I could be wrong.
I think the ODA has pretty much given up the fight. I do talk to the local weed specialist from the ODA from time to time. They have moved their funding to weeds they have potential to control. Since 1992 yellow Starthistle has moved up from California and become so prevalent in certain areas of Southern Oregon, that control seems out of reach.

That has become all too common. Someone sounds the alarm about a 'few new weeds', a feeble attempt is made to control them, and then they turn into an "uncontrollable, raging forest/range fire". I haven't seen or used the term in some time, but noxious weeds really are a "silent wildfire".

It's spotted knapweed here. 16 years ago when I got here, I brought my knowledge about spotted knapweed with me. Little did I know that about a month later I would get asked "What is this? I've never seen it before" My identification of it and the awareness I raised resulted in an ongoing program (I am not actually involved with) to deal with the problem. It's easily confused with other species. About 4 years after the start of the program (by the SWCD, funded through the NRCS) they had pictures posted on a bulletin board and were illustrating the confusion between the look alikes. Their identification was wrong (they messed up what they were trying to tell others not to mess up). I let them know and they told me that I was wrong and that they knew what they were talking about and that the general public (they thought me, but didn't know who I was) made that mistake of id all the time. I didn't argue. Three weeks later they, and me, were at an area joint lunch meeting between the NRCS and SWCD. Turns out they had inspected the bulletin board after I left and figured out they had made a mistake. They also got to learn at that lunch meeting (I didn't tell them, but they were made aware) that I was responsible for the founding/establishment (awareness anyway) of the spotted knapweed program that was giving them some portion of their employment. I never said a word about what happened to either of them. I was just happy they had a passion about the weed and it's control.

 

[greybeard]

I have heard that mournful cry more than once from 4 kids (and numerous grandkids) from out on the middle of a large area of Bermuda.

STICKERS DADDY!! STICKERS!!

Seen many hundreds of those burrs matted up on cow hides and tails too. Nasty don't adequately describe them.

 

[BFE]

No burrs here, but they are plentiful just across the river in SW Indiana, lots of sandy ground there. Grandpa talked about them, he grew up there. The kids used to throw them at each other.

An old melon patch trick is to stick a few in a melon and toss it to someone. They get a nice little surprise!

 

[CharleyCap]

I am getting a bunch of stickers right now, by the house and not my main pastures just yet. Last year, it happened about this time of year. I set my blade on the shredder as low as it could go, same with the lawn mower, it seemed to knock them back. Might have to mow every 2 weeks or even more with good rain. Can't say enough about mowing