The sandbur, says one scientist, is a plant “no one loves” because its membrane is covered with sharp spines with hooks. But discovering the plant at Second Beach in Middletown is one reason Peter Lockwood of Coventry is being honored by the New England Wild Flower Society. The society recently gave him the Rhode State Award for Conserving Native Plants and Their Habitats. Lockwood, a field scientist who flags wetlands for Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Providence, also was cited for finding obscure grasses and endangered foxtail club moss.