Bur Grass: What Every Gardener Should Know About This Persistent Visitor
If you’ve ever taken a walk through a disturbed area or vacant lot and found tiny, spiky seed heads clinging to your socks, you’ve likely made the acquaintance of bur grass (Tragus). This small annual grass might not win any beauty contests, but it’s certainly made itself at home across much of the United States.
Getting to Know Bur Grass
Bur grass is exactly what its name suggests – a grass that produces small, burr-like seed heads that have an annoying talent for hitchhiking on clothing, pet fur, and anything else that brushes against them. As an annual grass, it completes its entire life cycle in one growing season, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a pushover.
Where You’ll Find It
Originally from Africa, Asia, and Australia, bur grass has established itself as a non-native species across many U.S. states and territories. You can currently find it growing wild in Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It reproduces spontaneously in the wild and has shown a remarkable ability to persist once established.
Should You Plant Bur Grass?
Here’s the short answer: you probably shouldn’t – and likely won’t need to anyway. Bur grass has a way of finding its way into gardens and landscapes all on its own. As a non-native species that readily self-seeds, it’s not typically something gardeners plant intentionally.
Instead of bur grass, consider these native grass alternatives that provide similar drought tolerance but offer more benefits to local ecosystems:
- Buffalo grass (Bouteloua dactyloides) for western regions
- Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) for prairie-style gardens
- Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) for naturalized areas
If Bur Grass Shows Up Anyway
Given its non-native status and tendency to spread, you might find bur grass appearing in your garden uninvited. It particularly loves disturbed soils, sandy areas, and spots with full sun exposure. The plant is quite drought tolerant, which explains why it thrives in areas where other plants might struggle.
If you decide to manage or remove bur grass from your property, the best approach is to pull it before it sets seed. Since it’s an annual, preventing seed production is key to reducing future populations.
The Bottom Line
While bur grass isn’t necessarily harmful, it doesn’t offer the ecological benefits that native grasses provide to local wildlife and pollinators. As a wind-pollinated grass, it doesn’t support pollinators, and its non-native status means it doesn’t fit into the natural food webs that sustain local ecosystems.
For gardeners looking to create sustainable, wildlife-friendly landscapes, focusing on native grass species will provide better long-term benefits for both your garden and the environment. Save your gardening efforts for plants that truly belong in your local ecosystem – your native birds, butterflies, and other wildlife will thank you for it.
