Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Mearns hunters want to know what the hell that sticky plant is called?

I have had years where the fur on my GWPs gets a bit tangled during mearns hunts in S. Az. Winter of 2020 didn't have much of this plant due to a dry summer. Last summer was one of the wettest on record and man did this plant thrive!

I decided to find out its true name. Most of us casually called it sticky grass or velcro grass. It really isn't a grass but a member of the Mentzelia plant family: Often called Whitestem Blazingstar nicknamed sticky leaf. Arizona has 28 species of genus Mentzelia.

When the Sky Island Alliance manager was asked about it my friend was told it was Mentzelia albicaulis. I did some reading and realized that only one Mentzelia is present in the core of the Sonoran Desert the Mentzelia Desertorum

This plant also has a mexican nickname: Pega Ropa which loosely translates into "sticks to clothing" Bird hunters with dogs could also call it Pega Pelo translating to "sticks to hair"

The problem in identifying it is hunters encounter it when it is dried up. Here is an example. The small conical seed pods have fine hair on them that adheres to all sorts of surfaces.



The living plant looks like this and when alive its leaves are supposed to be sticky hence the name sticky leaf.



Here is the result when dogs went out for first time this season. By end of season quite a bit of fur gets combed out making them look like GSPs!



close up from previous year when it wasn't too thick

That stuff sucks for sure. Lucky me I am running GSP's

Try combing it out of a well feathered English Setter from the North country some time! Or, 4 of them! Even the Pointer and wirehairs picked some up when I was down that way. The slicker wirehairs weren't too bad but I had one fuzzy dog that picked up seeds pretty bad. He looked like the Muppet called Fozzie and was called an orangatan by a neighbor.

I don't know what it is normally called but what we called it can't be printed here. The dogs would go home trimmed much shorter than they left though.

Evnin, up here in Canada we have burrs, pich forks, and some other weed similar to that. Grows around dried up beaver ponds. The very first time I took my GWP pup Diggzz out we weren't 10yds from the truck and he sees a big clump of burrs and being curious he bee lined over to it for a closer look. Took me 10-15 minutes to get his ears apart. Wondered what I'd gotten myself into??? Still miss him big time! Bill out. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

Nasty velcro tubules. Looks like your pup in donning a gillie suit.

My setters collected a lot of that nasty stuff....

I don't know your weed, but my old French Brit is a burr collector par excellence! I wenttoTractor Supply some years ago looking for dog notangles shampoo. A young lady took me to the horse stuff and gave me a bottle of Mane and Tail. I asked if it was safe for dogs. She shook out a big pony tail and said, 'I use it!' I've used it on him ever since. Sray him down at the start of the day. The few burrs that stick come out pretty easily with an extra squirt or two and a gentle brush. He's a real sissy when it comes to getting tangles out.
Bfly