Buzzy burr

Description

Acaena magellanica, commonly called buzzy burr or greater burnet, is a species of flowering plant whose range includes the southern tip of South America and many subantarctic islands. Acaena magellanica is a perennial, mat-forming plant with creeping stems, up to 14 cm (6 in) high. The leaves are oblong to linear-lanceolate, with 5 to 10 pairs of ovate leaflets. The flower heads are globular and grow on wiry stems well clear of the foliage. They are followed by brown, prickly seed heads; the seeds have small hooks which enables them to adhere to clothing, feathers or fur. The species is native to the southern part of South America. Its range includes Argentina, Chile and various sub-Antarctic islands including the Falkland Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, the Prince Edward Islands, Crozet Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the Heard Island and McDonald Islands. Its typical habitat is damp places such as the edge of bogs, the banks of streams, waterlogged places, meadows and forest margins. It grows from sea level to an altitude of about 4,200 m (13,800 ft). Acaena is a genus of about 60 species of mainly evergreen, creeping herbaceous perennial plants and subshrubs in the family Rosaceae, native mainly to the Southern Hemisphere, notably New Zealand, Australia and South America, but with a few species extending into the Northern Hemisphere, north to Hawaii (A. exigua) and California (A. pinnatifida). The leaves are alternate, 4-15 centimetres (1.6-5.9 in) long, and pinnate or nearly so, with 7-21 leaflets. The flowers are produced in a tight globose 1-2 centimetres (0.39-0.79 in) in diameter, with no petals. The fruit is also a dense ball of many seeds; in many (but not all) species the seeds bear a barbed arrowhead point, the seedhead forming a burr which attaches itself to animal fur or feathers for dispersal. Several Acaena species in New Zealand are known by the common name bidibid. The word is written variously bidi-bidi, biddy-biddy, biddi-biddi, biddi-bid and a number of other variations. These names are the English rendition of the original Māori name of piripiri. The plant is also called the New Zealand burr. The species Acaena microphylla has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.