TALES OF FOX TAILS
Rex Burress
Suddenly it seemed that spring was almost gone on April 6, 2017! Cool rain started falling in the morning as if the season was reverting to winter. But summer was indicated by the quick development of grass stems loaded with seeds that were waving in the wind after several days of heat as if they feared loss of surface moisture.
Suddenly the wild oats and foxtail grasses were ready to go! “Go” means to disperse to greener fields by sticking sharp spiny seedpod-barbs into animal fur or human clothing and riding along to new growing grounds!
Foxtail the plant is especially well-modified to catch onto dogs and animals passing by, and think of the fox-mammal with their long bushy tails going through a weed-patch to which they are bound! Yet, grass seeds seem to never be found stuck to the fox's lush fur. I suspect they spend a lot of time grooming their tail! Calling a prickly weed a foxtail is rather disrespectful to a fox so endowed with such a splendid tail.
Dogs are less self-reliant than wild fox, and it's up to the dog owners to extract those vicious barbed spines that are as tenacious as porcupine quills, and so cleverly designed that it humbles the human inventor. Some serious cases need a vet like Dr. Walker in Chico.
Ticks, stick-tights, and stab-seeds are the bane of the trailside. A riotous array of other non-grass plants also lurk to hitch a ride, and many feature the velco principle of attaching sticky seeds to animal legs for transportation into the future! Most obnoxious are the B-B-sized round stickers of the bur-chervil [Anthriscus caucalis] weed that hang on by the dozens. What starts out so lovely and fern-like dries up into obnoxious stems laden with hundreds of equally unobtrusive barbed pods.
If you step off the trail to check out a flamboyant poppy, you may suddenly notice a squadron of bur seeds clinging to your pant legs. If you try to brush them off with your hand, you will be impaled by invisible zingers as persistent as jumping Teddy Bear cholla cactus! The only consolation is that you aren't stabbed like being impaled with the spears of foxtail!
The stick-weeds and poison oak make a gallant stand to keep people on the trails to avoid flattening wildflowers and wild things. Stay on established trails when you can, to keep some semblance of wild in wild. Otherwise, walk softly and carry a big stick! [Helps to keep you from falling in the flowers!]
Foxtail grasses involve more than the one species, including about 100 species of foxtail millets of genus Sataria. Other grasses known as foxtail include foxtail bromes and foxtail barley, with the barley species, Hordeum murinum, being one of the main local dog agonizers. All told worldwide, there are about 12,000 species of grasses, mostly featuring dispersal by adhesiveness.
However, there are many more types of Epizoochory plant species besides the nasty bur-chervil that boosts its alien presence all along the riverside and around the Feather River Nature Center. The cocklebur also is found there, looking for a ride, and all plants scheme and plan on how to achieve dispersal success.
Of about 6,300 native plants in California, about 2,050 are found in Butte County, with about 25 per cent non-native. Included are about 630 species of grass in CA, second to Texas [681] as the most grassy state in the nation.
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”--Walt Whitman
“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.”
--Hal Borland