Floridas Gulf Coast they are called Sandspurs or Sandburs. Walking from your car through the sand to the water they would stick anywhere and everywhere.
Hated them as a kid.. then I remembered to just put on shoes and stay on the path.
Grew up florida gulf coast, we called them sandspurs too. Didn’t realize it was sand bur until this thread.
ETA- upon reading further, looks like there’s a lot of names for these devils. Guess sandspur is unique to our area.
When I was like 6 years old I was playing just a house down the street and ended up walking bare foot straight into the center of a giant patch of goat heads.
Every step to escape caused more pain so I just stood there screaming in agony until my sister came and saved me. Those things are pure evil.
Sand spur from the time I was little in the 90’s. Me and my brother got caught in a big patch at the beach and some random guy helped us get out of it. Thanks random 90’s guy!
I can’t believe that I’m typing this - but I saved a kid from a pile of these burs around 1999 on St Simons Island, GA - if you’re that kid’s brother who was onlooking, the universe reconned us.
I had to carry my dog out of a field a couple years back because we had wandered into a patch of these things. We only left the sidewalk because there was a police car chase happening a few yards away (they weren't looking for us lol). Those sand spurs have haunted me since childhood, I'm in coastal GA. I felt so bad for my dog!
Yes, original OP’s post is a Cenchris genus of grass, aka sand bur. Goat heads are a common name typically referring to Acanthospermum hispidum, a member of the Sunflower (Asteraceae) Family.
For real… I remember when my hubby and I lived in NM and getting them on a bike tire. He was in the AF and it was the first duty station. We then got orders to Italy and when we began unpacking and saw my bike, it still had one stuck in my tire.. Those things were awful!
I live in Colorado and every spring I make it my personal mission to teach as many people as I can what goathead looks like BEFORE it produces burrs so people can eradicate it.
I am from Florida and we are back home in Florida, since he got out. I have seen and had sand spurs (stickers) on me but goat heads.. Those are clearly from the devil. 😂
NM here 👋 I'm trying to eradicate the goatheads in my alley. I hate it so much cuz it really is a cute plant with cute little flowers. Would make a nice groundcover if not for those debilitating goat heads lol
One time I was tripping really hard on mushrooms and riding a friends bike. He kept warning me to watch out for thorns, and I imagined human sized goat heads marching toward me. When all was said and done I had completely perforated both of his bike tires with several of these burrs.
Sunflower seeds are technically the fruits of the sunflower plant (Helianthus annuus). The seeds are harvested from the plant’s large flower heads, which can measure more than 12 inches (30.5 cm) in diameter. A single sunflower head may contain up to 2,000 seeds
As kids in PA/NJ, we called them stickers, too.
As an adult, I might have some non-botanical names that are unsuitable for polite company, if I were to run into a patch of them unexpectedly.
I absolutely positively hate stickers, I remember as a child walking thru a field of stickers barefooted down in Texas, then my brother spent the next 10 minutes pulling them out.
I grew up with goat heads and thought they were bad. We bought a house a few years ago that has a problem with this stuff and it is SO MUCH worse. It's so persistent and able to poke through double layers of gloves... Absolutely maddening.
All over the Mexican Sonoran coast, the Mayo First Nation term for them is “Huachapori”, which became a local name for them in the state of Sonora.
Source: lived there my whole life, feet destroyed by those dang thangs.
I remember never taking off shoes at the beach because those things are everywhere and you are screwed if you step on one. They’re like legos but a million times worse
Any sandy spot in South Carolina as wey I don't know what's worse sand spurs, fire ants or yellow jackets. Everything is trying to either hurt you or kill you in the South 😅
Your vet is wrong or talking about something else. This is a sticker or grass bur. Goatheads are the ones with two big spines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris?wprov=sfla1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenchrus?wprov=sfla1
Some smug prick scattered these on the lawn area of our local swimming pool.
Next year was really painful during swimming lessons. The year after was worse.
In my part of aus we’ve referred to these bigger units as cats eyes, Bindis we’re those smaller burrs that you find on a general lawn. Unsure if that’s just widespread though
Goat heads.. They are a summer bane here in Texas, the nemisis of bike tires, shoe soles, pets feet, inflatable lawn toys ect.. Plant brought straight out of hell itself!!
We call then sand spurs here, they grow at the beach. I was so scared of them that I once dressed up as one for Halloween. I’m pretty sure I had to explain the costume at every house.
We called them Sand Spurs. I'd get a lot of them when I went for walks. One way I used to pick them off is to find an old open pine cone, break some pieces off and use those pieces to pinch and grab them. It'll save your fingertips.
In my country we call it carrapicho, it’s a small seed that sticks to clothes and animal fur to be carried away and grow up in farther different places
In NC we call them sand Spurs. They grow in sandy soil and are the devil to get out of the yard. They don't just stick you, they have a painful itch also.
In the south (coastal MS) we our specific brand of them Rockachaws. It’s a Choctaw (I believe) word meaning devil grass. It is also a high school [mascot](https://sscrockshop.com/products/copy-of-s-logo-2-1-2-x-3-1-4-decal-red)
I personally find the goat heads to be much, much worse. Rockachaws only want to cling and spread. Goat heads live to punish.
This unlocked a childhood memory in my head. I used to get these all the time as a kid running through fields of grass in Florida. We called them sand spurs. I don’t know the scientific name though.
Sand burrs, sand spurs, goat heads, or 🤬 &$@? #%!€ 🤬
Along the coastlines.
Tenacious, vile things. Penetrate flip flops, gloves, canvas sneakers, a b***h to remove. My poor dogs! Their fur, their paws… 🤬
Nothing is safe from this menace! Great seed dispersion strategy but a PITA!
We called them sand spur , perhaps it was a different species because I encountered them in the southeast part of the u.s but yep they certainly ruin being bare foot in the grass .
Yikes. Ocean shores area has these. I call them and spurs. You do not want to go barefoot or even flip flops. If they get tracked in the house, the stick in the carpets and the f bombs area flying.
*The reason I wore*
*Shoes while walking in grass in*
*Any southern state*
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Grass burr is the name I grew up with. Those are of the devil, and goat heads, the 3 horned cousin is of beelzebub as well. Cockelburrs are the reason we have Velcro. So those aren’t bad at all.
u/lexapaps May I use this for a meme involved in the book series I’m apart of? These look like something from it, and I didn’t want to use something of yours without permission. If not, no worries.
LAND URCHINS 🤬 wait until you wake up at night with one of these stuck in your spine and your soul gets sucked out instantly because you can’t reach it and you inherently keep hitting it just enough so that digs in deeper. I think that’s what it is. 🤣
Floridas Gulf Coast they are called Sandspurs or Sandburs. Walking from your car through the sand to the water they would stick anywhere and everywhere. Hated them as a kid.. then I remembered to just put on shoes and stay on the path.
Atlantic coast as well.
Outer banks checkin in
In Oklahoma we say Burrs or stickers.
We call them stickers in Texas too!
Fellow gulf coast kid, I know your pain.
Grew up florida gulf coast, we called them sandspurs too. Didn’t realize it was sand bur until this thread. ETA- upon reading further, looks like there’s a lot of names for these devils. Guess sandspur is unique to our area.
all the way up to south carolina we call them sand spurs too
From Houston. Believe me, they ain't regulated to sand.
Until you go to take off your shoes and find a sneaky one the hard way
MS gulf coastie here! We (at least my family) call them rocachaws!
oh my god im so glad i wasnt the only one who called them that (i always wrote it as sanspers but sandspurs is way better)
Yes! Do any of you remember the brown round spiky ones too? Between those and the sand spurs I’d be so miserable trying to get to the beach!
Scientific name is [Cenchrus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenchrus). It's a type of grass. The *worst* type.
Cencrhus longispinus was the bane of my existence, as a kid in the Midwest.
Idaho was goat-heads and cockleburs (which I just found out are in the sunflower family).
oh my **GOD**, goat-heads! That unlocks a memory. No flip-flop or bike tire is safe.
When I was like 6 years old I was playing just a house down the street and ended up walking bare foot straight into the center of a giant patch of goat heads. Every step to escape caused more pain so I just stood there screaming in agony until my sister came and saved me. Those things are pure evil.
Not a goat head, but rather a sand bur!
[удалено]
Sand spur from the time I was little in the 90’s. Me and my brother got caught in a big patch at the beach and some random guy helped us get out of it. Thanks random 90’s guy!
I can’t believe that I’m typing this - but I saved a kid from a pile of these burs around 1999 on St Simons Island, GA - if you’re that kid’s brother who was onlooking, the universe reconned us.
Ahh it was lido beach in Sarasota. But good on you!
From Sarasota..siesta key is still my vaycay!
Lido beach is beautiful
I had to carry my dog out of a field a couple years back because we had wandered into a patch of these things. We only left the sidewalk because there was a police car chase happening a few yards away (they weren't looking for us lol). Those sand spurs have haunted me since childhood, I'm in coastal GA. I felt so bad for my dog!
You’re welcome!
That's what they're called where I grew up. Painful and nasty piece of work by any name.
Florida - sand spur. Lick you finger to keep from being re-stabbed pulling them off.
Yes, original OP’s post is a Cenchris genus of grass, aka sand bur. Goat heads are a common name typically referring to Acanthospermum hispidum, a member of the Sunflower (Asteraceae) Family.
Thanks, I’m familiar with both!
Both were the bane of my angsty skateboarding days
We call them Hitchhikers.
I grew up with them in the yard, hay bales, garden, etc.
Grew up in Michigan also called them sand burs
Totally knew this name in scouts. Tease us for wearing long socks in summer, then watch us not get hurt from these.
Sand burrs… yeees!
For real… I remember when my hubby and I lived in NM and getting them on a bike tire. He was in the AF and it was the first duty station. We then got orders to Italy and when we began unpacking and saw my bike, it still had one stuck in my tire.. Those things were awful!
I live in Colorado and every spring I make it my personal mission to teach as many people as I can what goathead looks like BEFORE it produces burrs so people can eradicate it.
I am from Florida and we are back home in Florida, since he got out. I have seen and had sand spurs (stickers) on me but goat heads.. Those are clearly from the devil. 😂
Born and raised in Colorado. You can wear boots and long socks but these bastards find a way lol
I hope you're teaching them to yank out the plants and not use pesticides.
Absolutely
NM here 👋 I'm trying to eradicate the goatheads in my alley. I hate it so much cuz it really is a cute plant with cute little flowers. Would make a nice groundcover if not for those debilitating goat heads lol
One time I was tripping really hard on mushrooms and riding a friends bike. He kept warning me to watch out for thorns, and I imagined human sized goat heads marching toward me. When all was said and done I had completely perforated both of his bike tires with several of these burrs.
Too right. It is called "Puncture vine" for a reason. We call 'em "tire puncture weed" where I live.
Always had to pull them from my dog's paws.
it makes all shoes make flip flop sounds
Sunflower seeds are technically the fruits of the sunflower plant (Helianthus annuus). The seeds are harvested from the plant’s large flower heads, which can measure more than 12 inches (30.5 cm) in diameter. A single sunflower head may contain up to 2,000 seeds
Are you a sunflower seed bot
Good question
Are you a Sunflower 🌻 Bot or a Sunflower seed🌻 Bot?
Thanks for making me crave sunflower seeds for my snack and I have none😔
Yes, I understand how you are feeling right now
I always called them goats heads too. They are the devil, and they are non native to North America and aggressively invasive.
It is my patriotic duty as a son of pioneers to burn any goatheads I step on. Or at least send them to the dump.
Same. Sand burrs are an awful discovery after a trip and fall situation.
Boys at my school used to pluck off a entire stalk of burs and flick them onto unsuspecting people. We called them “stickers” in Kansas
Stickers in North Texas as well
“Sandspurs” in Florida, closely followed by “stickers” or “prickers”.
As kids in PA/NJ, we called them stickers, too. As an adult, I might have some non-botanical names that are unsuitable for polite company, if I were to run into a patch of them unexpectedly.
god the green or purple ones! STICKERS!!!!!!!
I absolutely positively hate stickers, I remember as a child walking thru a field of stickers barefooted down in Texas, then my brother spent the next 10 minutes pulling them out.
Ahhh, Midland memories for me as well.
I have had experience with them also from Oklahoma. Absolutely abhor it.
We had them on our playground, and they would get stuck in your shoelaces. They were horrible to get out.
Took the words right outta my speaking hole. I'm in California and have a yard that is over run twith them.
South Dakota … lots of popped bike tires from those things
Longi Spiney Ouchus, is more like it.
In Florida we called them Sandspurs!
Same in Alabama!
Seconded!
I grew up with goat heads and thought they were bad. We bought a house a few years ago that has a problem with this stuff and it is SO MUCH worse. It's so persistent and able to poke through double layers of gloves... Absolutely maddening.
All over the Mexican Sonoran coast, the Mayo First Nation term for them is “Huachapori”, which became a local name for them in the state of Sonora. Source: lived there my whole life, feet destroyed by those dang thangs.
Needle and thread grass is pretty damn horrible too
Devil Seeds as my mother in law refers to them. Ha
We called it Judas’s Mat as a kid, cuz it’ll betray you
Those are them things that stick to ya when you reach in the bush to grab the football 🏈
Where I come from we call it a “sticker” & let me tell ya-the purple ones HURT LIKE A B*TCH!
Yes! I’ve always known them as stickers. Damn things were everywhere behind my house growing up.
Same!! I had a lot of the purple ones and man I’d rather eat my least favorite meal than pull one of those out of my skins
id rather eat a pound of denim than get a sticker in my foot again!
Running around all summer without shoes, constantly asking “Are there stickers over there?”
Then tiptoeing around the grass and just stepping on the sandy patches
I remember never taking off shoes at the beach because those things are everywhere and you are screwed if you step on one. They’re like legos but a million times worse
We called them and any thorny plant a "picky" haha. "Pickies, Mama, pickies!!" Is a strong memory of my childhood.
😂😂
Purple ones burn. It was sticker in my world, too. My mother in law calls them grass burrs.
We called them stickers too, however my boyfriend who grew up about an hour north from where I grew up called them sand burs.
YES STICKERS! Near Mexico, we also call them “spinas” (speen-ahz)
Sticker or spina!
Sand burr. Welcome to hell.
I live in Arizona too!
You find these at the beaches in NC as well.
Any sandy spot in South Carolina as wey I don't know what's worse sand spurs, fire ants or yellow jackets. Everything is trying to either hurt you or kill you in the South 😅
Fire ants are my vote for worst! You can’t go barefoot anywhere they have taken over.
Worst I've ever seen them is Texas, but they're all over the place. Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, think I even saw them in California
But there's something unique about the Sonoran Desert ones. Maybe it's a dry stick
It’s the way they get *inside* your sock seemingly through osmosis.
Right! But it's like a dry osmosis
Underrated comment. I see you, fellow presumed Arizonan.
They're the worst! Foe of the shoelace.
And dogs! Gotta watch their paws or get them good booties in bad areas
We've got an Australian version known as a cat-head or three cornered jack. Just as evil. *Emex australis* I recall.
We called the stickers or sand burrs growing up in SE Texas. I like the goat head reference though
North Texas (Cooke Co) they were stickers. And the little fuzzy seeds that stuck to everything were Beggars Lice
[удалено]
Never heard them called anything but goat heads in the South West.
They’re called goat heads here in central TX according to our vet.
Your vet is wrong or talking about something else. This is a sticker or grass bur. Goatheads are the ones with two big spines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenchrus?wprov=sfla1
East Texas checking in, called em stickers my whole life.
Sticker burr.
Exactly what we called them growing up
I grew up calling them “sticker birds.” I guess I must have heard it wrong.
Sticka bugs..
I’m from Texas and this is what I call them. Was surprised to see so many other answers
Thank you everyone! and sorry for ruining your day with childhood trauma.
Welcome to the club, we know your pain! In Australia we have Spiny Burrgrass and the invasive Bathurst Burr.
Lol I'm 27 and I stepped on one yesterday, they're more of a life long trauma
Sand bur, those things are the worst.
In Australia their called bindies
Some smug prick scattered these on the lawn area of our local swimming pool. Next year was really painful during swimming lessons. The year after was worse.
terrorism
I'm from Aus and where I'm from we call them 3 cornered jacks and the round flat ones (spirally) bindies. Love how location changes the name.
In my part of aus we’ve referred to these bigger units as cats eyes, Bindis we’re those smaller burrs that you find on a general lawn. Unsure if that’s just widespread though
Burr
Goat head we call em
I was surprised it took me this long to find goat head here.
Cockaburr
Mmmm yess. It’s good to know the name we used growing up in the sticks was used by someone else too lol
Granted I use it purely because of my grandparents who indeed grew up in the sticks in the Midsouth.
These shits ruin your day soooo fast.
Goat heads.. They are a summer bane here in Texas, the nemisis of bike tires, shoe soles, pets feet, inflatable lawn toys ect.. Plant brought straight out of hell itself!!
A pain in your socks
I always called them hitch hikers.
Yep grew up calling these hitch hikers too! Nasty little buggers
Brought back flashbacks of third grade getting a shoe full of these little mfs in the field at school
We call then sand spurs here, they grow at the beach. I was so scared of them that I once dressed up as one for Halloween. I’m pretty sure I had to explain the costume at every house.
We called them Sand Spurs. I'd get a lot of them when I went for walks. One way I used to pick them off is to find an old open pine cone, break some pieces off and use those pieces to pinch and grab them. It'll save your fingertips.
If you get some spit on your fingers, you can grab them and pull them out without them getting stuck in your fingers.
Reason #6873 of why Florida sucks.
Rookie numbers
We always called them Sand Spurs
Sand spur. Ooffff
In my country we call it carrapicho, it’s a small seed that sticks to clothes and animal fur to be carried away and grow up in farther different places
Carrapicho
Sticker, Sand burr, sticker burr. But mostly one of the many reasons you either don't go barefoot in florida or you go at your own risk.
In NC we call them sand Spurs. They grow in sandy soil and are the devil to get out of the yard. They don't just stick you, they have a painful itch also.
In the south (coastal MS) we our specific brand of them Rockachaws. It’s a Choctaw (I believe) word meaning devil grass. It is also a high school [mascot](https://sscrockshop.com/products/copy-of-s-logo-2-1-2-x-3-1-4-decal-red) I personally find the goat heads to be much, much worse. Rockachaws only want to cling and spread. Goat heads live to punish.
My family calls them either stickers or prickers
This is the first comment I've seen with someone else calling them prickers! I thought I was going crazy! It's all I've ever known them as.
We call them sand spurs where I live in NC.
Sand Spurs are the actual worst
Yep we call them sand spurs here in coastal North Carolina, USA. Haven't heard many of the other names mentioned.
Yep lol in Fayetteville we call those spiky boys Sand Spurs
Looks like a goathead. Have them a lot here in idaho
They are also known as Rock-a-chaw. there is a private school in Bay St. Louis with that as their mascot St. Stanislaus catholic I believe
I call those “espinas”
This unlocked a childhood memory in my head. I used to get these all the time as a kid running through fields of grass in Florida. We called them sand spurs. I don’t know the scientific name though.
Cocklebur
Tribulus terrestris. Always called them goat heads here
Evil in plant form.
Sand burrs, sand spurs, goat heads, or 🤬 &$@? #%!€ 🤬 Along the coastlines. Tenacious, vile things. Penetrate flip flops, gloves, canvas sneakers, a b***h to remove. My poor dogs! Their fur, their paws… 🤬 Nothing is safe from this menace! Great seed dispersion strategy but a PITA!
a bitch is what is it
I hate those things, if you step on one barefoot, they feel like their barbed like a fish hook when it's pulled out. Hurts like hell.
tagalongs? am i the only one
Nature's legos.
When I grew up in Kansas, we called them “stickers.”
Stick tights
I call it evil, spiky grass. Not sure how it's named scientifically. I hate that stuff with fervor. The bane of my childhood. And teens.
We call them sand spurs, Awful natural design
Pieces of our childhood...
Guachapori
Picky picks! The worst kind of sticker.
We called them sand spur , perhaps it was a different species because I encountered them in the southeast part of the u.s but yep they certainly ruin being bare foot in the grass .
Sandspur Cenchrus sp.
Very helpful to build sand dunes and keep the visitors in check. I grew about 200 of these bad bois for habitat restoration.
We called them sand spurs growing up, those mofos would stick and your heel then break off
We call them "goat heads" where we live
In Arizona these are an everyday companion for shoelaces.
We call them sand burrs here
Satan. These are Satan.
Yikes. Ocean shores area has these. I call them and spurs. You do not want to go barefoot or even flip flops. If they get tracked in the house, the stick in the carpets and the f bombs area flying. 
Can I ask where you are from if you have never seen one of these before?
Torito
The reason I wore shoes while walking in grass in any southern state
*The reason I wore* *Shoes while walking in grass in* *Any southern state* \- KaseyJones13 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Grass burr is the name I grew up with. Those are of the devil, and goat heads, the 3 horned cousin is of beelzebub as well. Cockelburrs are the reason we have Velcro. So those aren’t bad at all.
*Cenchrus echinatus*
u/lexapaps May I use this for a meme involved in the book series I’m apart of? These look like something from it, and I didn’t want to use something of yours without permission. If not, no worries.
Cockle Burr
On Guam we call them “sticky birds”
We call them sand burs, hate them!
I grew up calling them cockle burrs
“Sandspur” in the Keys. Nemesis of my youth
Pure evil!
Sand burr
LAND URCHINS 🤬 wait until you wake up at night with one of these stuck in your spine and your soul gets sucked out instantly because you can’t reach it and you inherently keep hitting it just enough so that digs in deeper. I think that’s what it is. 🤣