Descriptive Flora 



115 



The following excerpt is taken from the September 10th, 

 1921, issue of the Scentific American: 



PUNCTURE PLANT PROTECTION 



"If you can imagine a roadside sprinkled liberally with 

 tacks and needles, all lying point-side upward, ready to spread 

 discomfort and disaster among the touring motorists and 

 bicyclists which pass that way, you will frame a good mental 

 picture of actual conditions existent in sections of Arizona and 

 California where the puncture plant has been introduced and 

 acclimated. Scientifically this weed is known as Tribulus 

 Terrestris probably because it spreads tribulation and terror 

 among all owners of inflated-tire vehicles. It is a native of 

 southern Europe and was introduced to this country in burs 

 imbedded in the fleeces of imported sheep. When mature, the 

 fruits, or burs, of the puncture plants split into 5 sections, each 

 of which is equipped with a pair of sharp spines. These sections 

 are scattered about over the ground in such a way that some 

 of the points are always directed upward ready to penetrate and 

 puncture any rubber tires which pass over them. 



When the spiny needles of the puncture plant are embedded 

 in automobile tires it is very difficult to locate and remove these 

 destructive bayonets which repeatedly prick holes through dif- 

 ferent inner tubes as they are inflated in the contaminated 

 casing. The spiny seeds effect a double dose of damage inasmuch 

 as they spread the infection to new sections which previously 

 may have been unacquainted with the obnoxious plant. The 

 seeds may be carried in automobile tires long distances and finally 

 deposited by the roadside where they germinate and produce new 

 plants. In addition, the seeds are disseminated widely by wind, 

 rain, flood, spring freshet and snow. They often work their ways 

 into the coats of market live stock or else the puncture weeds are 

 harvested with market hay. Recently, in one way or another, seeds 

 of the puncture plant have been introduced into Kansas, Arkan- 

 sas, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana and Illinois, and at present 



