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Early Weeds - Part 3 - Page 4

© Marge Talt

Here, happily growing in the gravel, with my garden hat for scale, is a nice flowering clump of mouse eared chickweed (in front) and on the right rear) along with a plant that really drives me nuts.

Those Dratted, Confusing Speedwells

Speedwells are all Veronica spp., members of the family Scrophulariaceae, which includes many marvelous garden plants. There are quite a number of veronicas that are highly prized inhabitants of our borders - I grow some myself.

However, the weedy members of this family are enough to drive a saint to drink. Both for their pervasiveness and for the difficulty in pinning down their identities. I have spent untold hours searching books and the web; squinting at the many images of various species and thinking "Ah ha, I've found you" only to realize that some particular didn't match up to mine. I was getting quite discouraged when I ran across this quote from an article by Thom Nikolai of the Michigan State University Extension:

"Listen! The theme from Mission Impossible plays. Your assignment, if you wish to accept it, is to discuss the differences that exist between the different types of speedwells."

and,

"Thus, speedwell is a turfgrass weed that creeps and has a lot of small leaves and white flowers, unless of course, it is standing erect with lots of small leaves and blue flowers, unless of course, ... you get the idea. "

This made me feel a whole lot better, as I was beginning to wonder whether I was the only one in the world who couldn't tell these plants apart.

I know I have at least two species - probably more - but these two are the ones that show up in my gravel with a persistence that's not to be believed. Their seedbank must have an afterlife of centuries.

Various species have different leaf shapes; most of them have blue flowers, but some (mine) are white. The one thing they all have in common is a heart-shaped seedpod that starts life green and matures to a tan color. That's how I know both of these plants are actually speedwells.

The seedpods are about one eigth inch (3 mm) wide. The seeds are flattened ovals, glossy, translucent and orange-yellow in color, with a scar on one side.

Speedwells are found in lawns, waste places, fertile fields, and gardens - in other words, everywhere but the deepest shaded woods, and mine show up in quite a bit of shade. Some of them have relatively large, showy flowers and are considered, by many, as wildflowers instead of weeds. From the images I've found, there are a few of the "weedy" species that I might not mind having. Unfortunately my two are not among these.

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