Cocklebur

Description:

plant is about 4 feet tall; these football-shaped spiny burs are about 2 cm long and stick to everything that passes by; annual in the aster family; leaves alternate, triangular irregularly lobed in outline, have stiff hairs, and are approximately 2-6 in. long.

Habitat:

found in open field on urban school campus

Notes:

A cocklebur was the inspiration for a Swiss engineer, George deMastral, in 1948, for the invention of Velcro. He examined the burs that stuck to his socks and discovered that they consisted of hundreds of tiny hooks, which attached themselves to anything loopy.