On our daily walks with Chester, our dog, we often let him off the leash to run along the roads which border the large irrigation ditch which threads through our semi-rural neighborhood. It’s great place to walk with only a few other people and dogs and lots of things for Chester to sniff, explore and an opportunity for him to have occasional bursts of the zoomies.
The downside is that the ditch roads are prime breeding grounds for the dreaded Tribulus terrestris, commonly known as goathead weed. And of course, Chester always seems to find one of those nasty stickers from the weed in his paw. When he does, he immediately stops while he’s yards away from us, pitifully holds up the injured paw and waits for us to walk to where he is to remove it. Then he darts off again, only to find another goathead sticker. The cycle repeats.
There are two really really obnoxious weeds in New Mexico, Russian thistle, known as the common tumbleweed, and goatheads. Russian thistle somehow ended up in North America shortly after the Americas became colonized by Europeans, while the goathead weed apparently originated in South America and probably got here by a thorn being stuck in some migrating animal’s hoof or paw.
Goatheads are more prominent in the Southwest, where poor soil conditions and dry climate seem to make them thrive. However, after unsuspectingly landing my balloon one day years ago in what I believed to be the world’s largest goathead patch, a young woman passenger from North Carolina said they have something similar they call “sand spurs.” I’m not sure the two plants are genetically related, but they both are pretty painful when you or your dog gets one or several stuck in their feet.
(After we landed the balloon, my crew and I spent what seemed like an hour getting rid of goatheads in the balloon fabric, in the leather on the bottom of the basket and of course in the soles of our shoes. Had I been able to see what awaited me from the air, I would have picked another place to land.)
What generated my interest in goatheads was an article in last weekend’s Albuquerque Journal that said a new minor league hockey team in that city has decided to be called the “New Mexico Goatheads.” I thought that was pretty clever marketing — naming a team for an almost unique state plant that sticks it to everyone. The hockey team is apparently the equivalent of a Double A baseball farm team and is aligned with the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL in Denver.
The team mascot is “Billy the Billy Goat,” shown below.
We hope the Goatheads will be sticking it to the competition when the season starts.
And by the way, the “Tarantula Wasps” — the official New Mexico State Insect — would be a great name for a sports team in the state. Talk about “sticking it” to the opposing team.
(Read my earlier post on Tarantula Wasps at: https://aerocordero.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=10099&action=edit )
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