You may miss the inconspicuous flowers of this 1–7-foot tall plant, but not the clusters of green to brown, bristly seed pods covered with hooked burs. Note the large, triangular, rough leaves. The hooked burs reportedly inspired the invention of Velcro.

FLOWER: April–October. Separate male and female flower heads have inconspicuous creamy to greenish flowers; spherical male flower clusters have 20–60 tiny disk florets at the top on the stem; female flowers in the leaf axils only have 2 exposed stigma lobes. Showy oval seed pods are 3/4–1 1/2 inches long (2–4 cm), green turning brown, and covered with stout, hooked burs.

LEAVES: Alternate, long-stalked. Blades 1 1/2–7 inches long (4–18 cm), triangular to oval with shallow lobes; edges coarsely toothed, surfaces rough-hairy.

HABITAT: Seasonally moist sandy, gravelly soils of floodplains, washes, arroyos, riversides, fields, agricultural areas, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, sagebrush, pinyon pine, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,600–8,000 feet.

RANGE: In every state; widespread in North America.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Spiny Cocklebur, X. spinosum, has 2–3 long spines in the leaf nodes, and narrow lance-shaped, linear, or oval leaves, often with pinnate lobes.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide in NM in low- to medium-elevation, seasonally moist habitats.