Sandspurs are one of the worst things about Florida. If you get them in your garden or lawn you will have to fight them for years.

The plants name pretty well describes it - it lives in sandy soil and is composed of lots of little spurs.

When the spurs emerge from the leaf they are green, but will still pierce bare feet and stick to clothes and animal fur. If you have a dog in Florida you have to learn how to pull a sandspur from between it's toes - it's only a matter of time until they encounter one.

When the spurs are green kids have battles, flinging stems full of spurs at each other. It's cool enough when the whole stem sticks to the back of someone's shirt and breaks apart when he tries to pull it off, but sometimes you score a good hit on an arm or leg and then the kid has to pull them out of his skin. Fun.

When the spurs dry out they separate and fall off the stem. This makes it even easier for a single spur to be caught up by wind or beast and transfered to a new location. Since the spur is the seed, this means the plant spreads something terrible.

Launches