Spring - Beauty and Beast - Part 2 - Beast
I pull it and pull it; I roll it up like carpet; it always returns. It does make nice compost if you bury it in the center of the pile. Don't think you can cover this plant with cardboard, plastic or mulch to get rid of it. It will just grow right under anything and emerge out the other side. It loves mulch...
The Weed Is Identified! It's Duchesnea indica, the Indian strawberry who managed to hitch a ride to the US from Asia.
Another plant that likes nice woodland conditions is one that I call barren strawberry, but I think it's a form of Cinquefoil, one of the Potentilla species, although I have not been able to pin it down exactly. If you know who this is for certain, please tell me! I like to know my enemies as well as my friends.
This one also puts out long slender arms that root down where they touch soil. Don't think you can get rid of it simply by pulling up the stems. You've got t grasp the rose colored crown and get it out of the ground or it will simply come right back. The single yellow flowers are attractive, turning into a small strawberry-like fruit that has no flavor at all. I've found them with bites taken out of them, so some critter likes them. It's another plant that, were it not so bent on taking over the world, one might consider attractive. Nonetheless, it is a thug and needs to be removed when found...and that's generally everywhere.
If you miss common chickweed, Stellaria media, when it's a tiny seedling, you can't miss the huge fat clumps that seem to appear over night, flinging their long arms into surrounding plants. The stems are quite brittle and easily broken off, but if you don't find the center of the clump and work your hand under it to the single stem (which you can just about see in the center of the circular inset) and then, successfully, pull it and the roots out, it will regenerate almost as fast. For some reason, these clumps seem to hold water, so searching about under them is always a clammy occupation. Once it flowers, seeds are being spread
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