Innocent weed

Once long-spined sandbur is in flower (or headed) it cannot be confused with any other annual grass as there is a group of sharp, spiny burs at the end of each stem. At the seedling stage, this weed could be confused with one of the foxtails since it has a hairy ligule. However, its leaf sheath is split with membraneous margins, a characteristic that distinguishes it from the foxtail species. One trick to identifying sandbur seedlings is to dig around, or dig up the emerged seedlings. If the population is in fact long-spined sandbur you will more than likely see a number of burs either in the soil, or at the base of the seedling.