¶ CALTROP weed has been removed from outside Coles supermarket following a recent report to Collie Shire.
Resident Peter Daniels told the Bulletin he reported the presence of the summer-growing weed to the shire upon recently identifying it.
The shire in turn reached out to the owner of the property next to the Coles carpark, who arranged for its removal.
Mr Daniels was responsible for removing and reporting the weed during his time as a station master in Kulin.
Caltrop is not a declared plant, however it is a prescribed pest plant in some South West shires.
It can grow rapidly, flowering and forming wedge-shaped burrs with long, sharp spines.
Its trailing stems, which lie on the ground, are long and wiry and covered with fine hairs, and its fern-like leaves are greyish-green.
Caltrop’s yellow flowers are less than a centimetre in diameter.
“This is the first time I’ve seen it in Collie,” Mr Daniels told the Bulletin. “As they get transported around, one of these seeds could stay in the ground for up to seven or eight years before it germinates.
“You could get a seed on your shoes, go over to the parks or up to the footy ground and that could lay in the ground and then germinate.”
A seed is sharp and strong enough to hurt livestock or puncture a bicycle tyre, Mr Daniels added.
“It’s important to make people aware of caltrop,” he said.
“So if they see it they can let the shire know.”