One of the weeds that won’t be easy to pull is catbriar, or smilax. It has shiny heart-shaped leaves and a twining stem with thorns.

But to botanists, there is no rose with thorns: The spiky outgrowths of a rose stem are called “prickles,” and are biologically distinct from the stiff, woody thorns of other plants.

Rather than pulling out and throwing away these plants, first check our list of edible weeds and invasive plants to see if their stems, roots, flowers, or seeds are consumable.

Thorns are defined as modified shoots. What does that mean? Basically, it’s a branch that has crossed over to the dark side. Thorns are made from the stuff of stems! According to Missouri ...

“I saw some strange-looking growth on my Knockout roses this past weekend. A few stems on three different roses were reddish and had many more thorns than normal. The branches were also disto… ...

New research has revealed the origins of thorns, the rigid extensions that a variety of plant species use to protect themselves from herbivores.

Irish and her research team first showed that, in citrus plants, thorns arise from the plants’ stem cell populations. Unlike typical stem cells in animals or plants, which continue to divide, thorn ...

A few weeks ago, I noticed a few of my roses looked funny. They had strange-looking, reddish-colored stems and many more thorns than normal. I fertilized the roses once this past year, then watered… ...

At first glance, the two plants look nearly the same, both with usually white flowers, and leaves with serrated edges sprouting along thorny stems.

Certainly, Sleeping Beauty’s narcoleptic respite was secured by this plant. It is the very image of a noxious bramble which could be conjured up by an imaginative and resolute wicked witch.

Do some local weeds have toxins that would cause this? I noticed small needle-like thorns on the stem. -- Bobby Graziano ANSWER: You likely grabbed some stinging nettle, Urtica dioica.