Tribulus terrestris

Puncture vine

Family: Zygophyllaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Puncture vine is a naturalized annual plant found in California's dry, disturbed areas including roadsides, railways, and vacant lots at elevations generally below 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to October, this plant produces small yellow flowers less than 5 millimeters wide with delicate pedicels. Growing with spreading stems that are silky or appressed-hairy and sharply bristly, it forms low-spreading ground cover. Its compound leaves have 6 to 12 leaflets with small stipules 1 to 5 millimeters long. The distinctive fruit is a flat, hairy structure about 5 millimeters wide with 4 to 7 millimeter spreading spines that easily attach to clothing or animal fur.

Habitat: Dry, disturbed areas including roadsides, railways, vacant lots

Bloom period: Apr-Oct

Elevation: generally < 1000 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Diego, Imperial, Riverside, Fresno, Siskiyou, Santa Clara, Merced, Orange, Kern, Inyo, Mariposa, Monterey, Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Modoc, Tulare, Santa Barbara, Butte, Stanislaus, Yolo, Sutter, Amador, San Joaquin, Mono, El Dorado, Nevada, Marin, Tehama, Sonoma, Sacramento, Madera, Humboldt, Solano, Alameda, Placer, Contra Costa, Lassen, Glenn, Yuba, Shasta, Plumas, San Mateo, Kings, Santa Cruz

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.