Buffalo-bur

Description:

A prickly, annual, warm-season plant of the nightshade family, buffalo-bur typically can grow to 2 feet tall. This plant is considered a weed nearly everywhere it grows. The leaves, which vary in shape and size, are irregularly rounded and deeply lobed and have spiny veins. The stems are profusely thorned. The yellow flowers appear from May to October, and the fruit is enclosed by a prickly bur. Buffalo-bur provides only fair grazing for wildlife and is poisonous to livestock. Because of its spiny growth form, it is rarely consumed.

Habitat:

Miller Springs Park is a 360-acre park located below Belton Lake, on the Leon River, in Bell County, Texas. It contains diverse riparian terrain, including limestone bluffs, estuarial wetlands, mountain cedar hilltops, and riverside cottonwood stands. Numerous trails traverse prairie-like open spaces and forests of native cedar elm, live oak, and red oaks. Recent floods have created a new canyon that reveals numerous layers of sedimentary rock and fossils. Area wildlife includes white-tail deer, red foxes, coyotes, black squirrels, armadillos, and about 200 species of birds in the course of the year.