Nature's Velcro

Oops, sorry, I seem to be backblipping a lot at the moment. So today, I catch up - although this one is a backblip for yesterday, Tuesday. I suddenly noticed that one of the main footpaths where I walk the dog is festooned with huge plants of burdock (genus Arctium), at this time of year covered in these fantastic 'sticky' seeds. I've known since I was a child, that these seeds and their little hooks were the inspiration for the invention of Velcro, the magical sticky fastening fabric of hooks and fuzz. There's a nice coincidence that the Swiss inventor, George de Mestral, first had the idea in the early 1940's when he noticed burdock seeds sticking to his clothes and his dog. He inspected the seeds under his microscope and the rest, as they say, is history!