Xanthium spinosum L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Asteraceae

• Scientific Name

  Xanthium spinosum L.

• Description

  Species Description - Plants 3–12 dm, the stems strigose or puberulent; lvs lanceolate, entire or with a few coarse teeth or pinnate lobes, tapering to each end, short-petiolate, 2.5–6 × 0.5–2.5 cm, sparsely strigose or glabrate above, except for the usually more hairy main veins, densely silvery- sericeous beneath, bearing a tripartite yellow spine 1–2 cm in the axil; burs mostly solitary or few in the axils, cylindric, ca 1 cm, beakless or with a single short beak, finely puberulent and provided with slender, hooked prickles; 2n=36. Waste places; now a cosmopolitan weed in the warmer parts of the world, and occasionally found in our range. July–Oct. (Acanthoxanthium s.)

• Common Names

  spiny cocklebur