The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Tribulus terrestris
Also called Goathead, Tackweed, Mexican sandbur, Texas sandbur, Small Caltrops, Devil's Thorn, Puncture Vine
Puncturevine (Tribulus terrestris) is a low-growing summer annual weed in the caltrop family, native to warm regions of Eurasia and Africa and now widespread worldwide. It thrives in hot, dry, sandy ground, and its spiny burs are the main problem for people and animals.
Tribulus terrestris is an annual plant in the caltrop family (Zygophyllaceae) widely distributed around the world. It is adapted to thrive in dry climate locations in which few other plants can survive, and is a highly invasive species.
Native to warm temperate and tropical regions in southern Eurasia and Africa, it has been unintentionally introduced to North America and Australia. T. terrestris is widely known as a noxious weed because of its small woody fruit – the bur – having long sharp and strong spines which easily penetrate surfaces, such as bare feet or thin shoes of crop workers and other pedestrians, the rubber of bicycle tires, and the mouths and skin of grazing animals.
The plant is widely naturalized in the Americas and also in Australia south of its native range. In some states in the United States, it is considered a noxious weed and an invasive species. It is a "declared plant" in South Australia: its transportation and sale are prohibited, and landowners may be required to control it.
Toxic compounds in the plant are known to cause liver damage when ingested at harmful dosages. When ingested, phylloerythrin accumulates in the blood as a byproduct of chlorophyll degradation; however, adverse reactions have not been confirmed in humans. In sheep, consumption of T. terrestris causes tribulosis, also known as 'geeldikkop', which is a type of photodermatitis. Two alkaloids that seem to cause limb paresis (staggers) in sheep that eat T. terrestris are the beta-carboline alkaloids harman (harmane) and norharman (norharmane). The alkaloid content of dried foliage is about 44 mg/kg.
T. terrestris is currently widespread throughout the world from latitudes 35°S to 47°N. It is distributed across warm temperate and tropical regions of southern Europe, southern Asia, throughout Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. It is also present across southern North America and in Central and South America. Over the 20th century, it appeared in California and became distributed northward, eventually appearing in British Columbia, Canada where it is classified as a noxious weed.
The leaves and shoots are eaten in East Asia. The stems have been used as a thickener, added to diluted buttermilk to give it the appearance of undiluted buttermilk.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tribulus terrestris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
