You know when-

[Airspeed]

You know when you feel an ant or mosquito bite you on the hip bone, just above your shorts, and you whack it with the heel of your hand........
do you wish that you had checked first, to make sure it wasn't a bindi stuck to your waist band?

[Tako_Kichi]

This one has me really confused Mike as I can't understand why Steve Irwin's daughter would be biting you on the hip bone in the first place.

On the other hand I can't understand why a red painted dot would make you want to slap it!

Unless there is another meaning for 'bindi' that neither I nor Mr. Google know about.

[nigelb]

Only one solution -

Nigel²

[Airspeed]

This one has me really confused Mike as I can't understand why Steve Irwin's daughter would be biting you on the hip bone in the first place.

On the other hand I can't understand why a red painted dot would make you want to slap it!

Unless there is another meaning for 'bindi' that neither I nor Mr. Google know about.

Here you go, Larry:
OK, I just called it bindi, like people say I'm going up the "pub", not "public house"
Whether you call it bindii, bindi weed or bindi-eye, this prickly-seeded little weed is currently causing big problems ......

People are keen to control it, so they can sit or walk barefoot on their lawns. .......

Bindii, Soliva sessilis, is a common lawn weed. It’s an annual flat weed, that is, a low-growing, ground hugging plant. They germinate as seed during the start of the cool seasons, flower in late winter to spring, and set lots of small, burred seed. Most people are picking them out of their feet when they realise it’s been growing in their garden for ages…

[Tako_Kichi]

Ahh OK Mike, never heard of it before. We have a plant/weed over here that grows a couple of feet high and produces spiked burrs that get stuck in our dog's long ears whenever he walks through the flower beds. The burrs are amazingly sharp and hurt like f*%# if they stick into people. We get them stuck in our fingers when we try to pull them out of his ears!

[Airspeed]

Much shorter than yours, but we get same problems here, in the fur and hair, fortunately not the ears so much!
Here's a pic, taken today, of some from our drive way:

[FlyTexas]

I wonder if these are related to our cockleburs?
https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/plapr98.htm

Brian

[511Flyer]

As a mere Brit, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. As usual!

[Tako_Kichi]

Brian I think cockleburs are a different plant and the burs are much bigger than Mike's bindii's, at least judging from the photos I was able to Google up.

I sent my wife out into the cold this afternoon to take a couple of photos with her cell phone so that I could show you ours. I sent her because:

1) I don't own a cell phone (never have)

and

2) I don't go outside when there is snow on the ground as I can't risk a slip and fall accident due to my health problems (I am virtually housebound from the first snow to the first thaw, which can literally mean months here!) and before anyone says I'm cruel to send her out in the snow the sun was shining and it was a lot warmer than yesterday. Today was only -17°C, yesterday was -24°C with a wind chill that made it feel like -35°C!

Her phone had problems focusing on the burs but this is what we have here:



As you can see the plants are quite tall and the burs are very spiky.

For reference this is the guy with the Velcro ears who collects the burs every time he walks anywhere close to the plants. He also has Velcro feet that pick up any loose leaves which he then brings back into the house with him!

[Tako_Kichi]

As a mere Brit, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. As usual!

We're talking about plants with spiky seedpods. Bur bearing plants are found in the UK but mostly in heath or moorland areas so if you've never hiked in those areas you probably wouldn't have come across them before. I remember hiking in both the Welsh mountains and the Peak District National Park and getting my trouser legs covered in spiky burs which you have to remove one by one at the end of the hike!