Thicket stickseed, a fairly tall, leafy, biennial or perennial weed, 

 with burlike fruits, is a moderately common and fairly widely dis- 

 tributed species, ranging from western Ontario to British Columbia, 

 California, New Mexico, and Minnesota. It is distributed from the 

 plains and foothills to the spruce zone, although more common at 

 the lower elevations and in the ponderosa pine zone. It grows in 

 from moderately moist to rather dry soils, and generally occurs 

 most abundantly in thickets and among bushes and in such waste 

 places as roadsides and neglected dooryards. However, although gen- 

 erally scattered, it is common on the range and occurs in grass- 

 weed, sagebrush, aspen and, to some extent, open conifer types. 



This species, probably because of the rough-hairy character of 

 its stems and leaves and on account of the prickly fruits, is generally 

 poor forage for cattle and only fair for sheep. In a few localities, 

 it ranks as fair cattle forage and fairly good sheep forage. On 

 the range it is often most abundant where more palatable vegeta- 

 tion has been depleted as a result of overgrazing. 



The flowers, which are blue or white, have usually formed fruit 

 at the base of the cluster, while those at the top are still in bloom. 

 The flowers are numerous, a fact to which the specific name flori- 

 bimda (literally, abounding in flowers) refers, and the plant in 

 bloom is rather showy. This species ordinarily flowers from June to 

 August. 



STICKSEEDS (Lap'pula spp.) 



Stickseeds, also known as burseeds, sticktights, and beggarticks, 

 thus named because the burlike nutlets cling to clothing and the 

 fur of animals, compose a genus of about 40 species of annuals, 

 biennials, or perennials mostly native in the North Temperate Zone. 

 This genus is a member of the borage family (Boraginaceae) and 

 gets its name Lappwla, meaning a little bur, from the Latin, lappa, a 

 bur. The stickseeds are widely distributed in the West, but usually 

 are abundant only in such waste places as along roads and fences 

 and in abandoned fields. They are of common occurrence on the 

 range, however, and often increase on overgrazed areas. 



Generally, the stickseeds are practically worthless to poor forage 

 for cattle and horses and poor to fair for sheep and goats, although 

 occasionally they may rate somewhat higher in palatability. As a 

 rule, stickseeds are not abundant and are of secondary importance. 



Stickseeds are often pest weeds in fields and pastures. Their seeds, 

 which cling tightly to clothing and become entangled in the manes 

 and tails of cattle and horses and in the wool of sheep, are annoying 

 to both men and animals. 



The seed-producing organ (ovary) of this genus is deeply four- 

 lobed and develops into four nutlets with barbed prickles on the 

 margins or back. The plants are usually rough-hairy; the leaves 

 are alternate, narrow, and entire; and the small, regular flowers 

 are blue or white. The five-lobed corollas have a very short tube, 

 closed at the throat by five scales. The five stamens are short and 

 included within the corolla tube. 



