How to Kill Goat Head
It’s been a warm spring. Goat head, AKA puncture vine, bull thorn,
tack vine, and other descriptive names, is already growing all over the lot and
starting to bloom and crawl over the curb on the huge vacant lot on M Street, at
Milbank. That means that they are also
sprouting in front of the vacant warehouse two doors down at 1080 M, on the
vacant lot on the NW corner of M and Parkway. Within a
month, they will be puncturing passing bike tires. It is a weed of public, commercial and vacant
lots; people usually don’t tolerate it around their residences once they become
acquainted with the seeds.
Lot full of goathead, Milbank and M Streets
Goat heads make a 5-sided seed head
that falls apart when ripe into five hard, tack-shaped seeds that stick in
shoes, dogs’ feet, and tires. They have
leaves divided into 5-11 leaflets and five-petaled symmetrical yellow flowers
about ¼ inch wide. They usually lie flat
to the ground, but can pile up to several inches, and can spread out a yard
wide.
Ripening goat heads. Credit: Forrest and Kim Starr
The seeds
apparently are broken up by high-speed driving, so car and truck tires do not usually
spread them and are apparently too thick be punctured by them. But they are a good reason to have flat-free
tires on wheelbarrows, bikes and trailers.
Goat head seeds. Credit: Steve Hurst @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database
In the
mid-80’s we were able to ride bikes all over town and country without being troubled
by goat heads, which I had to go to Arizona to become acquainted with. By the time I came back in 1999, they were
already here, and I pulled them on sight.
Within 5 years, there were so many that I stopped pulling them on
properties I do not control. A few years
ago, I started pulling them on public property where I can, and agitating to
enforce our nuisance codes against this noxious weed.
Goat head flower. Credit: Forrest and Kim Starr
They apparently do not spread far or
fast, except on bike tires and riding mowers.
People pull them out of their shoes and dogs’ feet ASAP. At the Wastewater Treatment plant, they
apparently came out of the lawn and were brought there by riding mowers from
other properties. Since they have not
been weeded out, they are being spread to other properties on riding mowers by
the City’s contractor. The same has been
happening for years at Schroeder Park near their dog park.
They have a deep, strong taproot
that can be pulled when the ground is damp by gathering the foliage and pulling
the crown where the vines meet, in places like watered lawns, where they
thrive.
They also
thrive in dry soil, where they are nearly impossible to pull. But they can easily be cut off their roots
below the crown with pruning scissors, and they do not grow back.
I did just that for two months last
year, around the Wastewater Treatment Plant, in anticipation of the City
building a dog park on that property, which they have done. But I expect to be killing them there for the
next five years or more; their seeds don’t all sprout at once, and they last a
long time.
5/18/2013. Published on Yahoo Voices
Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
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