Buffalobur

Buffalobur nightshade is a nasty native plant of the southwest, but has spread to every state in the Lower 48. If you find one, notify your county weed superintendent and carefully pull it up and dispose of it.

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Among my wife’s green bean plants was a curiosity. As a young plant, it resembled watermelon leaves and Cathy was excited by the prospect of a volunteer watermelon. As it matured though, it became apparent that it was not a watermelon.

The stem grew and began to bristle with spines (actually called prickles, but that seems too benign. They truly are fearsome weapons). Large pretty yellow flowers, with one pollen anther longer than the others, bloomed. The flowers ripened into round spine-covered burrs suitable as medieval torture tools. No, this was not a watermelon.

As the plant matured, it looked more and more malicious and Cathy insisted that I pull it out. Before I did, she researched the internet for identification and I grabbed my camera for a couple of record shots.

Cathy’s research quickly led to one plant: buffalobur nightshade. The first thing we found about this very wicked looking plant is that, unlike many similarly armed plants, this one did not originate in Eurasia. It is native to the southwestern United States. It is very common in Texas where it is also known as Texas thistle, southern Arizona and northern Mexico. It fits in well in that region where it seems every plant has some kind of nasty armament.

It is also a very adaptable plant. While you won’t find it (yet) in Alaska and Hawaii, it is in every other state. It has made the short list of highly undesirable plants officially called noxious weeds in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. However, according to the latest map I could find, it has not been reported in Bonneville County—until now.

While Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center of Austin, Texas, claims the seeds are an important food source for quail, they state, “The prickles on this highly toxic plant help to discourage grazing by livestock.” Discourage? That seems like an amazingly mild word for it.

The toxic nature of this plant mentioned by the Wildflower Center comes from several factors. First, it is reported that the spines are coated in a substance that irritates the wound long after the spine is removed.

The second toxin relates to the fact that this plant is a member of the nightshade family. This family includes economically important plant such as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, bell and chili peppers and tobacco. Many contain alkaloids though, that may be toxic even in low doses. For instance, eating the leaves of potatoes as greens sickened the British royal family before their chef learned to throw the leaves away and eat the tubers.

How this plant ended up growing among our beans is a bit of a mystery. Buffalobur is an annual that forms a “tumbleweed” at maturity dispersing seeds as it rolls along. I am certain that no such tumbleweed has ever entered my garden. So, I must suppose that it was a stowaway among the bean seeds.

It is gone now, and we are wiser. We realize that just because it looks like a watermelon and grows where watermelons have grown in the past, looks can be deceiving. We must look past the obvious, and see if there are spines ready to poke and poison.

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Wildlife License Plates

Great news! as of 2024, there are three NEW designs for license plates. They still are bluebird, cutthroat trout and elk, but they are beautiful.

Idaho Wildlife license plates provide essential funding that benefits the great diversity of native plants and wildlife that are not hunted, fished or trapped—over 10,000 species or 98% of Idaho’s species diversity. Game species that share the same habitats (such as elk, deer, antelope, sage-grouse, salmon, trout) also benefit from these specialty plates.

No state tax dollars are provided for wildlife diversity, conservation education and recreation programs. Neither are any revenues from the sale of hunting or fishing licenses spent on nongame species. Instead, these species depend on direct donations, federal grants, fundraising initiatives—and the Idaho Wildlife license plates.

Both my vehicles have Bluebird Plates. I prefer the bluebird because the nongame program gets 70 percent of the money from bluebird plates, but only 60 percent of the money from elk and trout plates - 10 percent of the money from elk plates supports wildlife disease monitoring and testing programs (to benefit the livestock industry) and 10 percent from cutthroat plates supports non-motorized boat access.

Incidentally, in 2014, the Idaho Legislature denied the Department of Fish and Game the ability to add new plates or even to change the name of the elk and cutthroat plates (very specific) to wildlife and fish plates, a move that would have allowed for changing images occasionally and generating more revenue. It would seem that they believe that we Idahoans don't want a well funded wildlife program.

I think it is time we let the Legislature know that Idahoan support wildlife funding and that we would like to see these generic plates come to fruition.