{"id":265,"date":"2024-08-18T16:48:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T23:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/?p=265"},"modified":"2025-05-01T11:50:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T18:50:04","slug":"cocklebur-xanthium-strumarium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/2024\/08\/18\/cocklebur-xanthium-strumarium\/","title":{"rendered":"Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Late summer and fall is a time when hikers become painfully aware of the great number of plant species that produce fruits with spines, hooks, or other prickly protuberances designed to catch a ride on our pant legs, socks, and shoe laces. Nature originally developed these structures to aid in the dispersal of seeds and fruits to new sites for germination. It is only recently that a new use has been derived for these devilish devices: the modeling of small, poodle-like dogs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp;According to Dr. Wayne Armstrong, retired professor of botany at Palomar College and his blog \u201cWayne\u2019s Word\u201d (which to quote Wayne Campbell of Aurora, Illinois, is \u201cexcellent!\u201d), the fruits of cocklebur (<em>Xanthium strumarium<\/em>) of the sunflower family can be fashioned into a reasonable facsimile of a standard poodle (<em>Canis familiaris<\/em>). Sixteen fruits are required: one each for the face and topknot, two for the ears, one for the neck, two for the body, one for the tail, and eight for the legs. The slender, hooked bristles on the fruit (technically a modified involucre) help secure the parts together, although I have found a little white glue also helps if you wish to keep your poodle for posterity, or for a gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp;Other bristly fruits may be substituted with varying degrees of success. I have found that the fruits of licorice-root (<em>Glycyrrhiza lepidota<\/em>) will also yield a poodle. However, the fruits of burdock (<em>Arctium minor<\/em>) produce an animal that looks more like a cross between a woolly bear caterpillar and an irritable grizzly bear (<em>Ursus arctos horribilis<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp;Cockleburs are native to North America, though they have likely expanded their range in the last 500 years to take advantage of disturbed habitats created by humans, such as agricultural fields and roadsides. Native Americans used the plant for making yellow dyes, ate the seeds, and drank tea derived from its leaves for various maladies. Whether they fashioned the burs into animals is, sadly, unknown. &#8211; Walter Fertig, 18 August 2024<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-row wsu-row--halves\" >\r\n    \n<div class=\"wsu-column\"  style=\"\">\r\n\t\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-strumarium_orig.jpg\" alt=\"Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium)\" class=\"wp-image-266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-strumarium_orig.jpg 533w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-strumarium_orig-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-strumarium_orig-100x150.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-column\"  style=\"\">\r\n\t\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"789\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-poodle_orig-1024x789.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration of a poodle with caption reading, &quot;Above: Sixteen fruits of Xanthium or Glycyrrhiza can be fashioned into a poodle-like dog. Ill. by W. Fertig.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-poodle_orig-1024x789.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-poodle_orig-300x231.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-poodle_orig-768x592.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-poodle_orig-150x116.jpg 150w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3476\/2025\/04\/xanthium-poodle_orig.jpg 1038w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Late summer and fall is a time when hikers become painfully aware of the great number of plant species that produce fruits with spines, hooks, or other prickly protuberances designed to catch a ride on our pant legs, socks, and shoe laces. Nature originally developed these structures to aid in the dispersal of seeds and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/ownbeyherbarium\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}