(Sida, acuta, Burm.) (Sida stipulata, Cav.)

Native. Annual or perennial. Propagates by seed.

Time of bloom: June to November.

Seed-time: July to December.

Range: The Gulf States from Florida westward.

Habitat: Cultivated crops, pastures, roadsides, and waste places.

Sheep are grown in the South more for mutton than for fleece, but the value of the latter is annually damaged to a large amount by the hooked carpels of this weed, the distribution of which is almost entirely due to animal transportation.

Fig. 195. - Prickly Sida (Sida spinosa). X 1/4.

Stem erect, smooth or nearly so, and one to three feet tall. Leaves one to four inches in length, oblong to lance-shape, irregularly toothed, and narrowed quite abruptly to the slender petioles, which are about half as long as the blades; stipules conspicuous, narrowly lance-shape to linear, and longer than the petioles. Flowers axillary, growing singly or in small clusters, yellow, about an inch broad, with five unequal petals and a strongly ridged, five-lobed calyx. Carpels several to ten, arranged about a central axis, netted and wrinkled and with two incurving beaks at the top. (Fig. 196.)

Means Of Control

Prevent seed development. In cultivated ground tillage should be continued longer than usual, in order to hinder the maturing of a late crop of seeds. In other places the weed should be frequently and closely cut throughout the growing season.