Tribulus terrestris, Caltrop Family ( Zygophyllaceae ), Puncture Vine. Also called Bull Head, Bull's Head, Goat's Head, Torito, or Toboso.
Annual, mat forming, prostrate vine - generally less than 1" high, spreading to about 5' long. On the Arizona Department Of Agriculture is classified as a Regulated and Restricted Noxious Weed that Arizona wants to keep out.
This is an obnoxious weed whose seeds are incredibly painful to step on, they easilly puncture your bicycle tires, and sometimes have to be pulled out of your pets' paws.
George can often remember when as a barefoot child, growing up in Arizona, he would accidentally run into a patch of these aweful bullheads. Ouch!
On the good side the plant may have some medicinal purposes.
The plant has been used in folk medicine throughout history, treating such wide-ranging conditions as headache, nervous disorders, constipation, and sexual dysfunction. In China, it has been touted for use in liver, kidney, urinary, and cardiovascular remedies. We have noticed that it is now showing up in health food stores and drug stores in Arizona.
Look at the flowers of the bottom two photos and compare them with the top two photos. A defense mechanism against drought is that when it is near the middle hot time of the day or if the soil becomes dry, the flowers do not open their petals. The bottom two photos were taken during a hot time of the day.
Height: Up To About 1 inch. Spreading out to about 5 foot wide.
Flowers: Yellow tiny solitary flowers, on short stalks in leaf axils. About 1/4 inch wide; sepals 5, ovate, pubescent; petals 5, to 1/8 inch long, yellow, drying whitish; tips rounded or lobed; stamens 10.Blooming Time: May to October.
Leaves: Opposite, short-stalked, ?-2 inches long, even-pinnately compound; leaflets 6-14, oblong to narrowly ovate, up to ? inch long, less than 1/6 inch wide, sparsely silky-hairy; margins entire; tips pointed or blunt.
Fruit: 5-segmented, 1/4 inch in diameter, hard, dry, each segment with 2-4 stout spines to 1/3 inch long; seeds 2-5 per segment, small. At maturity, the fruit is dry and split into five segments, called nutlets. Viable seeds can also lie dormant in soil for up to 20 years.
Shape: Prostrate, branched, radiating to 5 feet from top of taproot, hairy, becoming nearly glabrous.Elevation: 0 - 6500 Feet.
Habitat: On cultivated, waste and fallow land, roadsides, yards. It also can be found in perennial fields and on cultivated land.
Miscellaneous: Flowering Photos Taken June 5, 2005 In Glendale.
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