A to Z Challenge: Beggar's Lice

[livingdeb]

I really enjoy spring. It's by far our best season even though our winters are mild, and so there's only a moderate amount of relief involved. That's because our land can make all kinds of beautiful flowers. And not only can it, it actually does, in large part because state taxpayer money goes toward seeding the edges of highways with wildflowers.

Even if you plant only native plants because those are the kinds of plants that know how to deal with our weather and the kinds of plants the native wildlife is used to, you still have a functionally infinite number of flowers to choose from. (Northerners have to learn a whole new repertoire, but it's really not that painful. You probably only really mourn a few varieties for which you cannot find suitable replacements.)

All the early-blooming plants are now in bloom including our state flower, the bluebonnet, and including my favorite local tree (which blooms for only a week or two each year), the Texas mountain laurel [which is sort of like wisteria in that it has bunches flowers hanging and smelling like grapes (or grape bubble gum), only it's a slow-growing gnarly tree instead of a vine].

Ah, but it's also the time of year when the evil tries to take over the lawn. In movies, evil is dark, but in my yard it is green.

One form of evil is a beautiful bright green plant. The entire plant is sticky, and if I pull it with my bare hands, I get what feels like a mild rash. (I don't know what it's called.)

The other early springtime favorite of my yard is a beautiful dark green feathery plant with dainty white flowers. The millions of tiny white flowers turn into millions of tiny burs that stick to everything and replant themselves everywhere. These flowers are called beggar's lice. They are just about to flower right now. RUN! I mean, PULL!

These are both super-fast growing and super easy to pull, at least if it has rained recently as it often has in spring. But if you leave one plant this year, you will get twenty next year. If you leave two hundred, well, let's say there are reasons that I don't like gardening.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Ha! I don't think we have that particular weed here, but the thistles, dandelions, bindweed... oh yeah! :-)
-Cat

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

I don't even consider dandelions to be weeds--except the ones with the sharp pointy leaves. I especially like the ones that appear to have evolved to handle lawn mowers. They have beautiful sunny yellow flowers very close to the ground and then shoot up the stalks when the flowers turn white and fluffy at the last second.

[(Anonymous)]

Nothing makes me feel homesick for Austin like the thought of the spring wildflowers. (Sticky rash-inducing weeds I can do without.)
-Sally

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

I missed them when I lived in Boston, even thought they do at least have the prettiest color of dandelion. And, especially, Atlanta, where they have only three wildflowers: some small white ones, some tiny blue ones, and some cool fluffy-tail-like maroon ones.