Introducing the Good Weed Bad Weed web supplement -
more information on your favorite weeds!
This website is designed to showcase Nancy Gift's successful weed guide/cookbook - first published in February, 2011. The home page to this updated website illustrates more of the friendly weeds found in our yards.
My featured favorite weed - Blue-eyed stargrass
Although this plant would definitely fit the category of wildflower, not
weed, it is a plant which might be found in a lawn, or on the edges of a
lawn. I’ve seen this lovely little lily-cousin in old meadows and in
our own backyard woods;
it deals well with wet shade. The plant itself looks like a grass, and
if it isn’t in flower most people would pass by it without a second
glance. Flower is tiny – about a centimeter across – atop a spindly,
grass-like plant, between 1 and 2 feet high.
It won’t flower in a closely mown lawn, but if you’re lucky and you
don’t weedwhack too often, it will flower around the edges.
Young boneset in spring
Another beneficial weed - Boneset
This plant, named for its herbal quality of aiding bone regrowth, is unusually distinctive for a plant with clusters of small, white flowers: boneset’s strappy, opposite leaves actually clasp together at the stem, with their squared off bases meeting. Leaves taper to long points and are covered with fuzzy hairs. Flowers grow in clusters, with threadlike petals – a nice, bright shot of white in late summer. Plant typically grows as tall as an adult, but can flower at waist height also.
This plant, named for its herbal quality of aiding bone regrowth, is unusually distinctive for a plant with clusters of small, white flowers: boneset’s strappy, opposite leaves actually clasp together at the stem, with their squared off bases meeting. Leaves taper to long points and are covered with fuzzy hairs. Flowers grow in clusters, with threadlike petals – a nice, bright shot of white in late summer. Plant typically grows as tall as an adult, but can flower at waist height also.
A weed with good and bad qualities - burdock
Burdock in springtime
Burdock is one plant which few people notice in flower, but everyone
notices its burrs after the flowers are past. Large, broad leaves may
be confused for the ornamental elephant ear, but leaves are hairy (fuzzy
or rough to tough) rather
than shiny. Very difficult to hoe – stems and leaf bases are thick and
fibrous – and very tough going for a weedwhacker. Roots are edible
(popular in Asian cuisine) or may be used in wound healing, though as
members of the composite family should be avoided
by people with strong ragweed allergies. Flowers are like small, round
thistle flowers, purple and spiny-looking, but not nearly as sharp as
thistles. Stalks are also edible, and may be scrubbed, peeled, boiled
and fried – but may not be worth the preparation.
Biennial, meaning that plant dies at the end of the second year, after
seeds form. (often confused with cocklebur, which has smaller leaves
and comparatively little root)
Chicory - have a cup?
Beautiful chicory blossoms open early in the day
Chicory, oddly enough, is one of the few weeds
specifically outlawed in my township, but of course it grows here anyway. It is tolerant of salt and serious soil
compaction, and therefore common along roadsides, where its tough stems would
seem to have little appeal - until this gorgeous periwinkle-blue flower comes
out. Flowers don't last long - a day, or
even less if you pick them - but are lovely anyway. Roots of chicory can be ground, dried, and
used as coffee (much like dandelion root), and were used this way in the
depression.
Goldenrod - aptly named
Goldenrod in bloom
Goldenrod - Rarely considered a lawn weed, but, like
boneset, common on edges of woods and fields.
There are actually a number of goldenrod species, some endangered but
many with healthy populations. These
native perennials die back in winter and regrows from roots, resulting in
healthy stands of stalks in any goldenrod stand. One of few natives in our area which seems to
be able to grow a vigorous enough stand to discourage growth of multiflora
rose. Not palatable to deer. Sprays of tiny yellow flowers in late summer
and early fall, in many regions, suggest that it is time for the arrival of
yellow school buses and a new fall routine.
Ailanthus- free garden stakes!
This weedy tree is highly pollution tolerant,
and therefore seems to love cities: it is the original city tree, from Betty
Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, an Asian import with prolific, wind-spread
seeds and an odor (in twig, leaf, and trunk) of rotten peanut butter. Compound leaves (with multiple pairs of
opposite leaflets) drop in fall, leaving large leaf scars along a very straight
stem. Wood is soft and breaks easily,
but regrows quickly. Seems particularly
well adapted to growth in and through chain-link fence. Probably very good for carbon sequestration,
and young trees make great garden stakes, but otherwise, well worth cutting
down, because it spreads so easily and crowds out native trees.
Honeysuckle - a pretty problem
Honeysuckle in various shades of white and yellow
If, in my childhood, you'd told me I would grow
old and dislike honeysuckle, that would have been further evidence that adults
are boring and wicked. Yes, I love the
smell of the blooms, and I love that children can taste its nectar - but they
can do that from clover, which isn't nearly so invasive and hard to
remove. My own woods are mostly plagued
by the viney honeysuckle, which grows along the ground and on the bases of tree
trunks; I've seen many woodlands so thick with bush honeysuckle that young
trees had no hope of making a living there.
I know there are experiments underway (at the University of Kentucky
arboretum, my childhood wild space) to find out the most effective ways to
eliminate it, and I look forward to learning the results. For now, just keep cutting!
What's up? - Dock
Dock growing in early May
Dock is a word which is used for several plants,
but we're talking here about the genus Rumex.
Both curly dock and broadleaf dock have long, strappy leaves with
rounded ends; broadleaf is bigger and flat, while curly has ruffled
leaves. Flowers are quite nondescript,
and seeds, in clusters along the stalk, have a round or oval membrane around
the outside. Like burdock (which is unrelated), stem is tough and root is
difficult to remove - unfortunate for this perennial which *will* come up in
the same spot next year. Doesn't love
being mowed, but once established can tolerate frequent mowing for a long time
- in lawn edges especially. May be
useful as a skin treatment for ringworm and other fungal infections; just rub
leaf directly on affected area. I hoe
this out of my flower and vegetable beds, but tolerate it in wooded areas - at
least it doesn't spread quickly, like garlic mustard!
Maypop passionflower - what's not to like?
Passionfruit, the exotic, hard-to-ship delicate and delicious tropical fruit, that grows in…Kentucky. And actually, maypop passionflower grows throughout much of the southeastern US (up to Pennsylvania), in soybean fields, along fencerows, in shrubbery. The flower is wildly exotic and unmistakable as anything but a passionflower; the fruit, yellow, egg sized, smooth outside, and with interior seeds covered with the gooey sweet-sour unique to this wonderful fruit. Why don’t we hear more about them? I have no idea. Maybe the people who find them just don’t want to share. May be cultivated in the northeast.
Lambsquarters - great in your salad!
When I teach classes on weeds or give talks, I always tell
people “You *have* eaten lambsquarters, whether you know it or
not.” Lambsquarters, a lowly member of the spinach family, has a mild
flavor (even in the heat of summer), excellent nutrition, and a tendency to
grow in spinach fields. If you’ve ever eaten frozen spinach, you might
have noticed it as the odd leaf (almost kite shaped) with a slightly
silvery-grey color to it, especially on the back – don’t worry! It will be
excellent, the ultimate good weed. The only reason this plant isn’t
cultivated, as far as I can tell, is that it has a substantial stem, making it
grow differently from the average spinach plant. If you don’t want it,
look out, because it can take over your garden with its numerous seeds.
However, don’t just kill it – go ahead and make spinach pie. Free, and
tasty. Now that’s one serious Bueneza.