bur cucumber flower buds HURT

I spent about half an hour today on the back door steps, slowly pulling prickly spines out of a t-shirt that I wore a few days ago when I went on a gardening spree, cutting down some vines that were choking off some trees. It seemed like everywhere those vines touched me, I ended up with painful tiny spines sticking in my skin and shirt. I think I salvaged it well enough that I won't have to throw away an otherwise good t-shirt.

According to the Pl@ntNet app, the only likely candidate for it is Sicyos angulatus. A common name for it is "oneseed bur cucumber". I agree that "bur" is the right word to use here.

Next year, I'll try to cull them a lot sooner, before they choke the small apple or weeping mulberry tree, before they grow flower buds that are dangerous to mammals like me. Here's a picture from my back yard today. As always, click to embiggen. Zoom in close enough on that cluster of buds, and you can feel the hurt. Their one saving grace is that they don't have hooks that I can tell. They are mostly just straight spines, but those spines break off very easily from the plant, embedding in skin and clothes at the slightest touch.