I need help identifying this groundcover. It's on a partially-wooded site in Baltimore, Maryland. It is very aggressive and difficult to eradicate. I thought at first it was a variety of purslane, but the leaf shape is different. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Stems stretch, and then snap when you try to pull it up? If so, I have it too but don't know the ID offhand. White flowers?
abgardener: thank you - I looked up chickweed on the Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide and it's an exact match. That helped a lot! Yes, white flowers and stems stretch and snap when you try and pull it up, KarenL. Many thanks again,
As it happens I just unearthed an old book, "Just Weeds" by Pamela Jones, from the attic and with the name in hand can easily look up this plant now - something I always meant to do! The book details its herbal and medicinal uses (mild laxative and diuretic, among other attributes) and for control of it in the garden, suggests that regular pulling should be sufficient as it is shallow-rooted, or consistent mowing in the case of lawn invasion to prevent it from going to seed, for which it has a prolific capacity.
In the garden, chickweed indicates good soil! Easy to weed simply by running a knife horizontally through the soil beneath the plant and plucking it, root and all, from the loosened earth. The sooner it's removed, the better, for it produces scads of seeds.
Great info! That was going to be my next question - how best to keep it from taking over. Thanks to all of you for the responses - I'm very impressed with the member participation and knowledge on this forum, and very glad I joined!
I leave them alone in the winter. I find them to be ideal for protecting the soil against the rigours of the winter rain. They are easy to weed outin the spring. (My favourite for this job is the Katate Sankaku). You can't really eradicate it completely. I just stay on top of it by pulling them out before it has a chance to produce seeds.