---
title: Bindii
canonical: https://gardensuperstore.com.au/problem-solver/bindii/
dateModified: 2026-08-07 09:37:27
summary: "Bindii (Soliva sessilis) is a winter-growing annual lawn weed that forms sharp, prickly burrs in spring. Learn to identify its flat rosettes and manage young plants before seed heads develop."
type: article
keywords: [Bindii, Soliva sessilis]
---

# Bindii

> Bindii (Soliva sessilis) is a winter-growing annual lawn weed that forms sharp, prickly burrs in spring. Learn to identify its flat rosettes and manage young plants before seed heads develop.

*Soliva sessilis*

Bindii is a small, mat-forming winter annual weed that grows flat against the ground, making it easy to miss until its seed heads mature. It has finely divided, fern-like leaves that are bright green and soft-looking, arranged in a low rosette that spreads outwards from a central point. The real problem comes later in the season when it produces small, spiky seed pods low down among the foliage, often hidden from view until you feel them underfoot.

The plant germinates from seed in autumn as temperatures cool, then grows slowly through winter. It forms a low rosette that can be hard to spot in dormant or slow-growing lawn, especially in couch, kikuyu and buffalo lawns that have thinned out over winter.

Bindii is widespread across southern and eastern Australia, particularly in home lawns, parks and sports turf. It thrives in thin, open turf where there's bare soil or gaps in the sward for seed to germinate, and is far less competitive in dense, healthy, well-maintained lawn.

By spring the rosettes bolt upward slightly and set seed, and it's at this point the hard, spiny burrs form. Each burr contains several sharp-pointed seed segments that detach easily and lodge in feet, paws or mower tyres, spreading the weed further. Management relies on controlling it while young and actively growing in late autumn to winter, before seed set, combined with maintaining dense turf cover through correct mowing height, regular feeding and overseeding bare patches so bindii has less opportunity to establish.

## How to identify

- **Painful, spiky seed heads:** the most obvious symptom is sharp, prickly burrs at ground level in the lawn from spring onwards, causing discomfort when walked on barefoot.
- **Low, ferny rosettes:** look for flat, spreading clumps of finely divided, bright green leaves lying close to the soil surface, most noticeable in fine-leafed lawns like buffalo or in areas where turf is thin.
- **Bare or thinning turf:** bindii establishes readily in gaps, worn patches and areas with poor turf density, so check these spots first.
- **Field check:** part the grass and run your hand flat across the soil surface — if you feel small hard, spiky burrs or see the ferny rosette foliage beneath the grass canopy, it's bindii.
- **Lookalikes:** young bindii rosettes can be confused with *onehunga weed* (also spiny) or with young *clover* or *cudweed* seedlings, which have rounder, non-fern-like leaves and don't produce sharp burrs. Checking for the spiny seed heads later in the season is the easiest way to confirm bindii specifically.

## Registered products we stock

- [Dicamba M | Selective Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/dicamba-m-selective-herbicide/) — PCT SureFire
- [Multi Turf | Selective Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/multi-turf-selective-herbicide/) — PCT SureFire
- [Monument Liquid | Turf Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/monument-liquid-turf-herbicide/) — Syngenta
- [Amicide Advance 700 | Selective Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/amicide-advance-700-selective-herbicide/) — Nufarm
- [Casper | Turf Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/casper-turf-herbicide/) — Syngenta
- [Crab Grass & Clover Killer | Selective Weedkiller](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/crab-grass-clover-killer-selective-weedkiller/) — David Grays
- [Specticle | Pre-emergent Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/specticle-pre-emergent-herbicide/) — Envu
- [Destiny Selective Turf Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/destiny-selective-turf-herbicide/) — Envu
- [Fairway | Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/fairway-herbicide/) — Adama
- [Lonhro 100WG | Turf Herbicide](https://gardensuperstore.com.au/lonhro-100wg-turf-herbicide/) — Colin Campbell Chemicals

## Image credits

- [Photo: Harry Rose from South West Rocks, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soliva_sessilis_fruit2_(16004372219).jpg)