description
Tribulus terestris is a flowering plant in the Zygophyllaceae family.
The plant is a taprooted herbaceous perennial. In colder climes it grows as a summer annual.
Its stems radiate from the crown to a diameter of about
10 cm reaching to over 1 m, and are often branching. They often form flat
patches due to growing prostrate, though in shade or among taller plants they may grow more upwards.
The small pinnately compound leaves have leaflets less than 6 mm (a
quarter-inch) long. The lemon-yellow flowers are 4–10 mm wide, each with five
petals. The plant bears fruit a week after each flower blooms. The fruit that
falls apart easily into four or five single-seeded nutlets. These nutlets or
"seeds" are hard and have two to three sharp spines, 10 mm long and 4–6 mm
broad point-to-point.
common names & nomenclature
The nutlets (seeds) resemble goats' or bulls' heads. The plant's common names stem from horns or puncture since the "horns" are sharp
and can cause painful injury if one is poked, or can puncture thin tires such as on bicycles or lawn mowers.
The gerenic name is from the Greek word meaning "water-chestnut", and is translated
into Latin as tribulos. The Latin name tribulus originally referred to the "caltrop", which is a spiky weapon.
Also known as:
puncture vine, caltrop, yellow vine, goathead, bindy eye, bindii, bullhead,
burnut, cat's head, devil's thorn, doublegee, dubbeltje, gokshura, ground
bur-nut, mexican sandbur, puncture weed, gokshur
