Posts Tagged "burdock"

Burdock: Wicked Hooks

Posted by on Apr 25, 2020 in Unmowed Blog | 0 comments

Burdock: Wicked Hooks

Velcro was invented by a scientist whose dog blundered into the tall prickly plant called burdock. And nothing adheres to fuzzy surfaces more effectively than the wickedly curved hooks of burdock.

Read More

Burdock: Hooked Like Velcro

Posted by on Mar 23, 2013 in adaptations, birds, edible, great ideas, plant parts, seeds, Uncategorized, Unmowed Blog, wildlife | 3 comments

One day in 1941, a Swiss scientist was walking his dog, and noticed with annoyance, like so many other dog-walkers before and since, that his pet had blundered into the tall prickly plant called burdock. And as he was picking the infernal little hooked seeds out of the dog’s fur, he had a bright idea. What if this idea–sharp curved hooks binding two things–was used by people? It took him years to get anyone to take the idea seriously, and even longer to develop a model that would work–not surprisingly, since he made his first attempts out of cotton. But finally he...

Read More