Use the photos and details in this guide to help identify the weeds invading your lawn. Natural Way offers effective solutions for eliminating weeds.
With its three leaflet clover like leaves, this legume is often confused with white clover. Low growing, with trailing, slightly hairy stems, it produces clusters of small, bright yellow flowers in late spring to early summer.
Broadleaf plantain has gray-green, egg-shaped, wavy-edged leaves growing in ground-hugging rosettes. Narrow seed heads appear in a long cluster on a central, upright stem.
The leaves are compound, with 3 broad leaflets (sometimes 4, if you're lucky!) 1.3 - 2.5 cm long, with tiny teeth on the edges, a pale triangular mark appears on each leaflet.
Bright, shiny green, lance-shaped leaves appear in spring. In summer and fall, the puckered wavy edges of the leaves are tinted reddish purple. Small greenish flowers appear on a tall, narrow spike coming from the center of the plant.
Look for coarse blades somewhat upright in a bunch-type growth. Rhizomes are so closely jointed that they appear almost scaly.
Everyone recognizes the bright yellow flowers of dandelions; they appear in early spring and are followed by puffy seed heads. They arise from rosettes of lance-shaped leaves.
Leaves of this perennial vary from nearly smooth to hairy, and form an extremely dense cluster. The daisy like flowers growing on 2-inch stalks have bright yellow centers highlighted with white to pinkish outer rays.
Also called creeping charlie, is a common lawn weed problem. Lawns in shaded areas and often with poorly drained fertile soil are typical sites for ground ivy to develop into a major problem.
The name of this weed offers a clue to its appearance. It has long, narrow, fleshy leaves that look fuzzy. Small, white flowers appear in late spring and early summer, followed by seed heads in mid summer.
Oxalis has bright yellow flowers and green leaves. It grows upright. Oxalis is a perennial with seeds and rootstocks so that it sometimes appears to be a creeping vine.
Purslane has sprawling, thick, fleshy stems with rubbery leaves. Tiny, yellow, five-petaled flowers open when the sun is shining brightly.
Quackgrass is characterized by light green to blue-green coarse blades that are rough on their upper surface. If not mowed, it can grow 5 feet or more in a single season
Smooth and hairy crabgrass have a prostrate growth habit with coarse, light green blades. The blades are short, pointed, and hairy.
There are several types of speedwell, all characterized by small, lobed, and numerous leaves, and by tiny white or purple flowers. The scallop-edged leaves are paired, growing opposite each other. Heart-shaped seed pods grow on the stems below the flowers.
Spurge is 6 to 36 inches in height. Erect stems support linear, alternate leaves of a bluish-green hue. The species exhibits yellow-green inflorescence on an umbel near the top of the stem.
Tall fescue does produce short rhizomes but has a bunch-type growth habit - it spreads primarily by erect tillers. Individual tillers, or stems, terminate in an inflorescence, reach 3 to 4 feet in height, and have broad, dark green basal leaves.
Wild violet is a winter perennial, growing 2 - 5 inches tall. It can have a tap root or a fibrous root system, and also can produce rooting stolons and rhizomes.
Though it resembles a grass, yellow nutsedge is actually a sedge. Its coarse, light green leaves grow upright from triangular stems. Seed heads appear from July to October.