# Thorny annual



## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Can't get pix and have hunted all over with no results. This is an annual plant that grows here in TX. I'm NE of Austin.

It has a very fragrant white flower. Small and trumpet shaped. Strongly scented. Reminds me of gardenias. Dark green stem and leaves and covered all over with white needles. Extremely sharp and the slightest touch is very painful! Leaves alternate with five lobes. After flowering it has a very large round seedpod.

Anybody know what it is?


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## Guest (May 28, 2006)

Sounds like stinging nettle.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

No, it's not that. The whole plant is rather stiff. It grows in a dry area under trees or in the sun. The spines are up to 1/2 inch long. Tallest I've seen is about 3 ft.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

How 'bout horsenettle?


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## chris30523 (Jun 11, 2005)

jimson weed??Datura


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

No, none of those. I know what those look like. The leaves are kind of like a spread hand with five fingers and the stem is really thick. The flower is much smaller than datura, about 1 1/2 inches long by about 1/4 inch wide.


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## Windy_jem (Feb 19, 2006)

Some sort of moonflower maybe?


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

What color is the seed pod? Do the leaves have five true leaves or one leaf with the fingers?

Are the leaves thick or thin, waxy, dusty looking? Do they have smooth edges or are they toothed?


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## Guest (May 29, 2006)

Do you see it here?

http://uvalde.tamu.edu/herbarium/white.htm


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Good site, but no, I didn't see it. Even went thru the list and pulled up everything I was unfamiliar with.

Seed pod is green.

Each leaf has five fingers. The fingers are all pointed. The leaves are 'crinkled' and wavy. The spines are all over the bottoms of the leaves as well as all over the stems.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

Is this it?


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Chad, no, but that is a very interesting looking plant! What is it?

The thorns on this plant look like white hairs all over it, but touch one! Ouch! The leaves are dark green


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Chad, no, but that is a very interesting looking plant! What is it?
> 
> The thorns on this plant look like white hairs all over it, but touch one! Ouch! The leaves are dark green


That was a tropical soda apple. It is supposed to be a fast spreading danger to agriculture in Texas.

Yours is like a small shrub right? Not a vine? I have looked through oodles of pics and I think I need more experience at this. lol. I probably ran across it but didn't know.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Not a vine, and not really a shrub, it is a bushy plant, but dies back every year. I think it grows from seed. The outstanding thing about it is the sweet fragrance of the flowers. When there are lots of them blooming it gets rather strong.


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## Guest (May 30, 2006)

Did you know there are more than 5000 species of flowering plants native to Texas? 

I give up for a while, can't find a good online field guide.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

ladycat said:


> Did you know there are more than 5000 species of flowering plants native to Texas?
> 
> I give up for a while, can't find a good online field guide.



5000! WOW, thanks for trying, tho.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

Ohhh. Now I got one, but my pods have bristly spines too. White, five petaled, 1 inch flowers with hairy looking spines all over it... But my leaves only have three fingers. The flowers smell kind of like night blooming jasmine. I can't find mine either.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Hairy pods, yes! Night blooming jasmine or gardenia, is the way I thought it smelled too.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Hairy pods, yes! Night blooming jasmine or gardenia, is the way I thought it smelled too.


Are the pods divided in 1/4's?

I'll take a pic of mine tomorrow. If it's the same, we'll both learn something. lol.


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## Guest (May 31, 2006)

Does it resemble this?


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

That is not it exactly, but it is probably a variant of the same plant! The leaves on mine are broader and shorter and shaped slightly different otherwise the same.

So, what is it? LOL


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## Guest (May 31, 2006)

Cyngbaeld said:


> That is not it exactly, but it is probably a variant of the same plant! The leaves on mine are broader and shorter and shaped slightly different otherwise the same.
> 
> So, what is it? LOL


It's called horse nettle and a slew of other names. It grows around here. Your description kept making me think of it, but I didn't know what it was called, so I couldn't look it up.

It does have the seed ball things you described. The old timers around here say the seeds are delicious.

Around here the natives call it stinging nettle. But when I look up stinging nettle, I find totally different plants than that.

When I was in Florida, what they called stinging nettle was a big bush looking thing. It was very beautiful to look at, covered with big gorgeous flowers. I'd never seen one, and didn't make the connection, as the plant I knew as stinging nettle looked very different. So that first one I saw in Florida, I decided to pick a handful of those flowers. *OUCH!!!!! BIG MISTAKE!!!!*

The one in Florida stings much worse than the one here. In the region around Houston, there is yet a different plant called stinging nettle. It's a small, low growing plant. It also burns worse than the one here, but maybe not quite as bad as the Florida one.

If you look up nettle on the internet, you'll see there must be dozens of species, and many have little resemblance to each other.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

LOL, the plants I know as 'horse nettle' and 'stinging nettle' are altogether different. Tho you picture is a bit more like them than my plant.
Horse nettle:
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/pics_s/solanumcaro.jpg

Stinging nettle:
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/pics_l/laporteacana.jpg


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Dahc said:


> Are the pods divided in 1/4's?
> 
> I'll take a pic of mine tomorrow. If it's the same, we'll both learn something. lol.



Yes, they are. Do take a picture!


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

These are the pics of mine:

The flowers 

The pods 

and The leaves .

That stuff doesn't sting. lol


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## Guest (May 31, 2006)

Cyngbaeld said:


> LOL, the plants I know as 'horse nettle' and 'stinging nettle' are altogether different. Tho you picture is a bit more like them than my plant.
> Horse nettle:
> http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/pics_s/solanumcaro.jpg
> 
> ...


LOL neither one of those look like anything I've ever seen called a nettle. Although the purple flowered one does grow around here by a different name but at the moment I can't think of the name.

The Internet is great for people from around the world getting together to communicate, but I find out more and more how we have all different kinds of terms for the same things, or the same terms for different things. <--- referring to more than just plants.


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## Guest (May 31, 2006)

Dahc said:


> These are the pics of mine:
> 
> The flowers
> 
> ...


The one I posted doesn't "sting" the same way that the stinging nettles in Houston and Florida do. It's more just on the irritating side. If you pull the spines out of your skin, it stops stinging. The actual stinging nettles keep burning for a while.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Chad, that is very like except the leaves. And the spines HURT and keep on hurting for quite a long while, so I'm thinking there is something besides the physical sticking involved, maybe a toxin of some sort.

Cat, amazing the varieties of plants anyhow, and then we complicate things by using the same name for different plants. Does cause confusion. I have the horse nettles too. I haven't seen stinging nettles around, but have some seed and will plant them. I like to eat them and they are good livestock fodder.


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## patience (Dec 29, 2005)

I know the plant your talking about but can't think of the name. I use to see them all the time when I lived in Austin.I called up my dad. He knows what it is....he's pointed them out and talked to me about them...but he wasn't home. I did leave a "I have a quick question for ya" on his machine. If he calls back I'll let ya know


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## patience (Dec 29, 2005)

He called he back. He said it is bull nettle

so hopefully we're talking about the same plant.....of course I could be wrong


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## caballoviejo (Sep 6, 2004)

Jatropha?

Some species have stout spines.


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## tillandsia (Feb 2, 2006)

Is this your plant?

http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/eup/cnidoscolus_texanus.htm


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## Guest (Jun 12, 2006)

tillandsia said:


> Is this your plant?
> 
> http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/eup/cnidoscolus_texanus.htm


That looks like what they call stinging nettle around here.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

That's IT EXACTICALLLLY!!! :dance: Thanks!!!!!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

That is why common names can be so confusing. If you search on 'stinging nettle' you will first get Urtica dioica, if you search on 'bull nettle' you will get Urtica dioica Laportea canadensis. Only digging further will you find both names used for EUPHORBIACEAE Cnidoscolus texanus or 'Texas Bull Nettle'. Fun, hunh?

Thanks, everybody!!!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

HEY! the seeds are edible!

http://pages.prodigy.net/jospencer/bull-Nettle.htm


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2006)

Cyngbaeld said:


> HEY! the seeds are edible!
> 
> http://pages.prodigy.net/jospencer/bull-Nettle.htm


Yes they are. The old folks around here say they're delicious, but I've never tried them.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

There's a ton of them here. I reckon I'll try them when they ripen.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

How exactly would one prepare these things? lol. They look like miniature alien watermellons to me. I'll stand by and watch for you while you eat these things. If anything happens, I'll call 911 for you. lol.


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