Xanthium orientale

Common cocklebur, Cocklebur

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Common cocklebur is a California native annual found in disturbed, seasonally wet sites including grasslands, marshes, and watercourses at elevations generally below 1,400 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces small, inconspicuous flowers in heads with distinctive burred fruits. Growing 10 to 80 centimeters tall with finely puberulent to scabrous herbage, it develops an upright, branching form. Its leaves are palmately veined, often three to five-lobed, with blades 4 to 12 centimeters long and margins ranging from crenate to coarsely dentate. The plant produces hard, spiny burs 10 to 30 millimeters long that readily attach to clothing and animal fur.

Habitat: Disturbed, seasonally wet, often alkaline sites, in grassland, marshes, watercourses

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: generally < 1400 m

Bioregions: CA

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