A common weed with large leaves and purple flowers that produces prickly burrs, found throughout temperate regions.
From 'burr' (a prickly seed case) plus 'dock' (a plant), literally 'burr plant.' The name describes how the plant's seeds cling to clothing and animal fur.
Burdock's burrs inspired the invention of Velcro!—A Swiss engineer named George de Mestral got burdock burrs stuck to his pants, examined them under a microscope, and invented the hook-and-loop fastener that changed textiles forever!
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