Tribulus terrestris - puncturevine

or:
What do you mean by "weed"?

Yes, I too was stepping on it; I too have been screaming out loud; and I too have used really harsh words for it...

I can't remember how many holes it punctured into my feet before it finally got my full attention and curiosity instead of superficial prejudice. I kneeled down (on prepared save ground!) to take photos and discovered some serious hidden beauty, as you may have see in the animation above.

Now that I had developed some sort of "mixed feelings" about this plant, I did a search on the Internet about puncturevine, which brought up an overwhelming pool of information. Mainly negative and focusing on how to eradicate it from this planet. One website was built like a wanted poster, very closed-minded and repelling, in the sense of "I don't like it, I kill it".

But, thank God, there are also websites describing and explaining on neutral ground this plant and its benefits, e.g. being used as dietary supplement as a tonic and aphrodisiac in Indian ayurveda practice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris

Because of the heavy use of the word "weed" within this article, I'm pretty sure that Google is supplying this page with all kinds of weed control ads on the right side. You might find strong word constructions like "weed resistance" or even "weed killer", you will, however, not find the term "weed murderer"...:-)
Either way, aliens, be it from the plant realm, the animal realm or the outer space realm, are all treated in the same way: Let's shoot first and then ask questions...!

I've seen so many plants and their flowers in my life, and in most cases, when trying to share the beauty, people would wave their arms repeatedly downward in depreciative manner, "Gee, that's just weed!"
So what? It's still beautiful, isn't it?

STRANGE.

How come that I think Dandelion is not only healthy but beautiful, fun and decorative, while most other people see immediately an enemy...? It would have never occurred to me, that there are good plants and bad plants (weed), unless people would have taught me so!
Well, I would not want to cuddle with puncturevine, thistles or nettles, nor would I want to eat poisonous plants, but I also would not want to eradicate them just because they don't serve my momentarily desires!

Please search and learn all you can find about puncturevine (or other "weed" that crosses your way), instead of putting these plants immediately into the bottom drawer of prejudice.

I, for one, have the hardest time to grasp the common concept of the term "weed"... and even though I've lived long enough to perfectly understand that word, I refuse to think in those terms. Because, what it really says is: "God doesn't know what s/he doing when creating mean and purposeless plants..." gee... think again...:-)

I must go now; have some thinking to do about how I will treat in future the front and back yard! (The neighbors might have some distinct expectation, too). One thing is remarkable though: ever since I've built up adoration and unconditional love for the remarkable puncturevine, I haven't had any holes punctured into my feet...