Michael came home with a strange-looking bit of plant after one of his walks. My brother had given him the twig so that I could look at it. He (my brother) was curious to find out if I knew just what the plant was! When Michael walked inside, I was on a ladder painting my soon-to-be craft room. He stuck the branch around the corner and asked.."What is this?", like I am supposed to be some sort of plant-identifying encyclopedia. Ha! From a distance, the twig looked mightily like a Chinkapin Oak but given the distance at which I was seeing it, the lighting and the poor eyesight...I could not be sure. I could tell there were some sort of burs all bunched together on the end of the twig but that was about it. Not knowing if this was from a tree or a small plant, "Go look it up on the computer." was my answer. He checked Chinkapin and found that it was a close match on the bur but the leaves were far different. He delved a bit deeper...while I painted. The true identity came when he told me that this was not from a tree but a smaller plant...ahhh! "Check burs!" I called from the other room. My hunch was right! This was a bur..not a Sandbur that we are so accustomed to seeing but a Cocklebur! He read to me about the Cocklebur. "This thing is poisonous!" he proclaimed. It seems if livestock eats the plant they will soon get sick and die. I cannot imagine any critter wanting to munch on some prickly bur but, hey, who am I to question what a cow will eat? Then he informed me that this plant is good for something! It seems that Cockleburs will repel army worms and other pests from a garden area! Well now! That is nice to know even if it means that your clothing will be covered with burs whenever you venture in that area! You see, the burs or seed pods of the Cocklebur will grab hold of your clothes, hair and even your skin in order to spread about to other likely growing spots! Any poor animal that wanders too near will become so ensnarled with the burs that they usually have to be clipped. (The animal's fur..not the bur.) The burs are impossible to remove by any other method. All I could think about was poor Sunny! If that puppy ever came in contact with a Cocklebur plant she would be covered quicker that a blink of an eye! But...Sunny is safe at home with Elizabeth and Robbie and is far away from our new-found prickly plant! Whew!
An interesting bit of lore revolves around the Cocklebur plant. It seems that one inventive dude back in 1948 was wandering about the mountainside when he and his dog came in contact with some Cocklebur plants. George de Mestral and his dog were soon covered with the burs. Later, he decided to check the bur a bit closer to see just why it was so hard to remove. When George observed the bur under the microscope, he saw that tiny hooks kept the bur attached to his clothing. Aha! A brilliant idea struck old George! "I shall make a fastener with stiff hooks like the bur and soft loops like the fabric of my pants! I shall call it 'Velcro'!" (I guess he just liked the sound of the term.) Anyway..like any good inventor, he was laughed at and humiliated for his idea. This did not deter him from his work! He stuck with it like a bur on your sock...oh..ok...sorry! Soon he came up with a satisfactory design and it was patented in 1955. Velcro was born! This all just goes to show that sometimes those little aggravations can become a billion dollar industry (or some huge number like that!). All we need is a microscope, a brilliant idea, people to scoff at us and a bit of determination! Anyway, the Cocklebur now sits on my coffee table awaiting to be tossed in the fireplace as I do not plan on reseeding any area with these things. I can say that I am sure thankful that at least he put it there and did not leave it on the sofa! Owww! hehe!
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