nasty

Showing 1–12 of 14 results

  • Bromus tectorum / cheatgrass

    • short bunchgrass, 2 to 30 in at floweirng
    • panicle with all florets to one side; long awns
    • early season growth, flowering, seed drop
    • florets green, turning purple as seeds mature
    • highly invasive!

  • Carduus nutans / musk thistle

    • quite large, very purple flower heads
    • spiny everything... leaves, stems, bracts
    • biennial - large rosette of nasty leaves in first year
    • dandelion-like fruit that flies away like the down of a thistle
    • disturbed lands... pastures, wastelands, roadsides, construction sites

  • Cirsium arvense / Canada thistle

    • purple or lavender clearly-thistle flower heads
    • multiple small flower heads per stem
    • deeply lobed, spiny leaves, but stems not spiny
    • clonal and perennial
    • in clumps or along roads, sometimes quite large/long

  • Cirsium vulgare / bull thistle

    • very nasty spines all over, including stems
    • purple flower head over pear/egg-shaped narrow, spiny bracts
    • fruits are thistle-downy
    • disturbed areas, but also forest gaps, stream sides and seeps

  • Cynoglossum officinale / houndstongue

    • reddish-purple flowers in upper leaf axils
    • forms basal rosette with hairy leaves in first year
    • stem leaves lance shaped, hairy, rough
    • fruit - small nutlets with barbs or hooks

  • Hackelia micrantha / Jessica sticktight

    • teeny blue flowers with yellow/white centers
    • flowers appear singly or in groups above developing fruit
    • inflorescence mostly on one side of the stem
    • lower leaves long and narrow; upper leaves fewer and sessile
    • fruit a pointy and tenacious nutlet

  • Hackelia patens / spotted stickseed

    • small (but not teeny) white, 5-petaled flowers with delicate blue stripes at bases
    • stamens arising from a "hole" in the middle of the flowers where petals are fused
    • usually around sage, in early spring
    • fruits are obnoxious - but small - burs (nutlets) that stick to everything

  • Hackelia spp. / stickseeds in general

    • very small blue flowers
    • inflorescence elongates with single flower at top
    • more and more branches through the season
    • nasty stickseed fruits mature below apex

  • Hordeum jubatum / foxtail barley

    • attractive roadside grass
    • long, silky, glistening awns; red, green, purple-ish
    • awns and bracts are sharp and barbed... potentially dangerous to dogs

  • Hyocyamus niger / black henbane

    • highly toxic! including contact dermatitis
    • 5-lobed, funnel-shaped flowers, brownish yellow with purple veins and center; 1.5" across
    • flowers in summer, e.g. warm June, July
    • elliptical leaves, pointy tips, toothed or lobed margins, prominent veins
    • highly disturbed areas: wastelands, field edges etc.

  • Lactuca serriola / prickly lettuce

    • numerous dime-sized yellow flowers in an "airy" panicle
    • buds droop or hang in a "shepherd's hook" before opening
    • seed heads are dandelion-like, but more delicate
    • highly divided, prickly leaves
    • mostly in "waste" areas

  • Opuntia fragilis / brittle pricklypear

    • smallest pricklypear cactus; potato-shaped pads
    • pads separate with lightest bump
    • seldom flowers or fruits

Showing 1–12 of 14 results