Weed ID Questions

[Rip_Some_Lip]

Now that I have some cooler weather I need to get some weeding done. I have a few questions on some possible weeds in my new Wildflower garden. I am new to Wildflowers and many look like weeds until they flower. Here are some pictures I took a week ago. I think they are weeds but want to know before I pull them.

[leechlake]

i think 1,2,3,6,7 photos are weeds.  Don't know what kinds but I'd kill those ones.

5 is questionable and 4 looks too cool to be a weed.

Edited September 7, 2015 by leechlake

[the nature boy]

The last one looks to me like spurge. We have it growing thru the blocks and around our paver patio and it's spreading across the lawn. I've read that nothing short of roundup will kill it so you need to pull it in the spring before it seeds.

[Dotch]

The first one appears to be American bugleweed, a perennial in the mint family. It is native. Bees and butterflies like it. The next two are smooth groundcherry, a native perennial weed in the nightshade family. Some wildlife value from the ripe berries but the immature berries are poisonous. The next one is motherwort, a perennial native to eurasia, also in the mint family. Usually an inconsequential weed that the bees like. Deer will also browse on it. My sheep like it too.   Number 5 is raspberry, wild or otherwise I can't tell. Next one most likely is a volunteer sunflower. The last one is prostrate spurge, a native species but again of little value for most critters. Nice group of weeds. Thanks for sharing them!    

[delcecchi]

A man who knows his weed.  Most of us should have gotten the raspberry anyway.  I don't know why I didn't.  The angle maybe?  My bad anyway. 

[Dotch]

Well del, I have had a lot of practice. The raspberry pricklers were apparent. 

However, looking more closely at that last pic, this is where sometimes looks can be a little deceiving as it doesn't allow you to actually examine the plant by touching it, tasting it, smelling it, and looking for other identifying characteristics you pick up with experience. A second look at the last plant's orientation to the ground surface, it isn't quite in line with prostrate spurge. It appears too erect or upright. Looking more closely too at the leaf shape, it tends to be perhaps more round than the prostrate spurge I have seen. If it is indeed prostrate spurge, the plant will contain a milky juice when you snap a stem open or pluck a leaf off. If not, I am leaning more towards leadplant or one of the false indigo species. I have some types growing in my native prairie planting. They are native legumes in the bean family and have pods on them when mature. It is difficult to find a good picture of them as seedlings and when I see them, they are usually mature with pods hanging on them. To really pin it down one would almost need an actual plant. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  

http://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/fragrantfalseindigo.html

 

[Rip_Some_Lip]

Thanks for the help. I can grow a heck of a crop of weeds! I have a couple of more pics to take of plants that have yellow flowers now. I don't know if I planted them or not. Going to have to look at my planting plan and see if they are.

 

[delcecchi]

The plants I saw along the road up north with yellow flowers turned out to be birds foot trefoil.  It is widely planted as forage or ground cover. 

MN DNR calls it "invasive"

 

Edited September 12, 2015 by delcecchi

[Powerstroke]

#4, the verigated one, looks like sand burr that grows in my brushy areas. THe good news is you can keep it and see if it develops burrs or not. If it does it has a shallow root system and is easy to remove by hand. 

[delcecchi]

Speaking of weeds, I sprayed some weed killer stuff on some weeds in my lawn.  How long should it take to see some visible sign that it is working?   It is some stuff from Bayer, I mixed it according to the directions in a tank sprayer, and sprayed some plantain and some creeping charlie.  So far I can't tell the sprayed from the unsprayed. 

[RebelSS]

For Bayer,4-5 days you should see results. Their ingredients are Dicamba and Dimethyl sodium Salts,where Ortho and most of th others still use 2,4-D. I'm not big on the old stinky 2,4-D stuff, plus the slightest bit airborne will wipe out a tomato plant in one day. Most have good luck with the Bayer.

Edited September 18, 2015 by RebelSS

[delcecchi]

Thanks.  I'll give it a few days. 

[Powerstroke]

AS far as the plantain, you should see results for sure. The creeping charlie is another story and you may or may not see the effects. Its a very hard weed to manage. Feel free to hit the charlie again in 2-3 weeks. 

[delcecchi]

It still doesn't show much sign of working.  Does that stuff have a shelf life limit? It's probably from last year.

[RebelSS]

It still doesn't show much sign of working.  Does that stuff have a shelf life limit? It's probably from last year.

Not really..but to tell you the truth, the other year, I had to do some spot spraying for the neighbor, she was having issues with her yard. She went and bought The Bayer stuff.....and I used it twice on her yard of some low-grade assorted weeds (dandies, plantain, thistle) I didn't see much of any effects at all from the Bayer....Later that year, hit it with Spectracide, which I like, and THEN you saw results.That's just my opinion....I very rarely use any weed killer, but when I've had to do spot stuff, the Spectracide has worked great for me. Others say they like Bayer, but I have my doubts about the stuff. Just my .02.

Edited September 21, 2015 by RebelSS

[delcecchi]

Isn't doing much for me for sure. 

[Dotch]

#4, the verigated one, looks like sand burr that grows in my brushy areas. THe good news is you can keep it and see if it develops burrs or not. If it does it has a shallow root system and is easy to remove by hand. 

The sand burr name must be local term as it's not the same sandbur that's in the grass family. I've cursed those many times after getting them stuck in my pants, then in my finger trying to remove them. Motherwort has lavender flowers on the stem which are borne on the upper side of where the leaf petiole attaches to it. They produce some spines on the flowers and you will get poked if you grab them without leather gloves on. We may be talking about the same thing.  Also, if it is motherwort, it will have a square stem since it's in the mint family. It's not a particularly deep rooted perennial and reproduces by seeds and rhizomes. Particularly under lighter soil conditions it isn't that hard to remove.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Dotch

[Rip_Some_Lip]

Here are a few more pics. The first 2 are in my flower garden. I was hoping one would be Coreopsis - Lance-Leaf but the leaves don't match the pics I found on the web. The third is in my veggie garden and has come back for the last few years. Someone told me what it was but I cant remember.

I think next spring I will buy plants from Prairie Moon Nursery and flag them until the are established...lol. Thanks again for the ID help.

 

Edited September 23, 2015 by Rip_Some_Lip

[delcecchi]

Bottom one looks love morning glory, heavenly blue.  Don't eat the seeds. 

[Dotch]

Now del, how would you know that?  Just funnin' ya. The last one definitely is morningglory, perhaps tall morningglory or a domesticated version thereof. They are native to Tropical America. I recall the wife telling me the kids were coming in and buying the seed packets and reputedly getting some kind of buzz off of them so they discontinued carrying morningglory seed for a few years. A weed problem to the south and an ornamental here. Go figure. We have a trellis made from busted up pieces of hog panels that they climb on every year, this year attaining a height of about 12'. They reseed themselves so I don't have to plant them. Good bumble bee plant although I have seen hummingbirds taste testing them if nothing else. Very invasive and aggressive, capable of taking over a flower bed if enough seed is produced  the year before.

The first one is oxeye, a native prairie perennial. This one showed up in one of our beds at home, probably came out of our CRP. I left it along with the milkweed that had invaded. Great butterfly habitat. Once they're done with the oxeye flowers the achenes or seeds are favorites for the goldfinches.

The 2nd one is blackeyed-susan. It is an erect native prairie biennial or short lived perennial, rarely annual. Another good butterfly and bird plant in our experience, common in our wildflower mix in the CRP most years. Looking more closely at your photo I see more evidence of what appears to be leadplant or false indigo relatives to the right of the blackeyed-susan's. Way cool!  

Edited September 23, 2015 by Dotch
I can't count or spell

[delcecchi]

I was around in the 60's man.  Electric Banana going to be the very next craze.  

Morning glories do have some sort of psycho-active substance in the seeds.  I think now they coat them with some sort of chemical, so only buy organic morning glory seeds. 

[Dotch]

...singing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long. Oh wait, that was the '70's. Never mind...