The Associated Press | Posted: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 12:00 am
SALT LAKE CITY - One person's weed can be another's lovely plant, but everybody hates this one.
Authorities say a Mediterranean import called puncturevine has spread aggressively across Utah.
The plant throws out seed pods with spiky horns called goat heads. And those sharp points burrow themselves into bicycle and ATV tires. They can attach themselves to the bottom of shoes, hitchhiking their way along.
"It's bad news," said Steve Dewey, a weed scientist at Utah State University's extension service. "And it's still in the expanding mode. Where vehicles go, it goes. That's got to be the number one vector."
The annual yellow-flowering plant needs few nutrients and little water to survive and grows rapidly, germinating with each new rain.
Salt Lake County weed supervisor Phil McCraley said the weed thrives on rocky road shoulders, sidewalk medians and gravel driveways.
Puncturevine is native to tropical southern Europe. It's thought to have reached the United States in sheep's wool imported to the midwest, said Janet Clark, a scientist and weed expert at the Center for Invasive Plant Management at Montana State University. It was first identified in California in 1903 and has spread to all but a handful of states.
Fourteen of Utah's 19 counties have the weed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, puncturevine is not on Utah's official list of 27 noxious weeds prioritized for control or possible eradication.
Both Cache and Weber counties have puncturevine on their weed lists, which allows them to enforce removal. After complaints from citizens, weed-control officials in Salt Lake county say they're considering adding puncturevine to the county's removal list.