My partner is begrudgingly letting our corner lot overgrow this spring. I’m cataloguing what’s growing, and if anyone has the time or interest, I’d love to know some insights on these “weeds”.
We are in east texas.
by ghostnomore
Native Plant Gardening
8 Comments
Do you know about the Seek app? https://apps.apple.com/us/app/seek-by-inaturalist/id1353224144
Or iNaturalist? https://apps.apple.com/us/app/inaturalist/id421397028
Picture This is good too: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/picturethis-plant-identifier/id1252497129
Picture 1 is pink evening primroses (aka pink ladies) (native to Texas). 2 is pink oxalis I think, and 9 is dead nettles.
Looks like a mix of natives and nonnatives.
Curbside bbs are Oenothera speciosa or Pinkladies, clover looking stuff with pink/purple flowers most likely Oxalis drummondii or Drummond’s woodsorrel featuring a bonus Zephyranthes chlorosolen/ Brazos Rain Lily, Veronica arvensis or common speedwell, big stalky purple friend I’m not sure of but could be Verbena halei or Texas Vervain, after that another native Geranium carolinianum or Carolina cranes-bill, yellow/white clover looking stuff is Medicago polymorpha or Bur Clover it’s not native but super common and as far as I know not invasive, then it looks like some sort of Oenothera a native variety could be O. gaura or biennial bee blossom or suffulta/Roadside gaura. Picture 8 I’m not sure but could look for the blooms and use something like Seek or iNaturalist to nail down an ID definitely a relative of Oenothera or primrose, 9 I’m thinking another variety of speedwell or Henbit and finally the last photo looks to be Nothoscordum bivalve or Crowpoison(doesn’t poison crows)This is awesome many of these minus like two are native and super beneficial.
Is it a Primrose?
Pretty flower
Based on my own experiences (and checking with photos on iNaturalist),
* the big pale pink flowers in photo 1 are probably pinkladies (Oenothera speciosa, a kind of evening primrose)
* Not sure what the purple flowers in photo 2 are, but the three-leaved plants that look like clovers with heart-shaped leaves are probably woodsorrels, and will likely have pretty yellow flowers later. If they are woodsorrel, they’re edible (leaves, flowers, and seedpods), but very sour. I’d recommend using them as a seasoning rather than a vegetable.
* The weird-looking plants in photo 2 with the long straight central stems and “wheels” of narrow leaves are some kind of bedstraw, maybe catchweed bedstraw? They can be a bit annoying, so watch out – catchweed bedstraw is covered in grabby bristles, and their fruits are little tiny burrs that also cling to things. They’re like evil velcro pompoms.
* I think the tiny white flowers in photo 3 are field madder.
* The three-leaved plants in photo 6 are some kind of trefoil (the kind I’ve seen are lesser hop trefoil)
* I think the plants in photo 9 are some kind of deadnettle. (“Dead” in this case meaning that they don’t sting like nettles.) From what I’ve read, they’re not NATIVE, but at least some of them (henbit deadnettle) seem to play nice here, i.e. don’t seem to cause ecological problems.
* The white flowers in photo 10 might be crowpoison/false garlic. Apparently small butterflies like it.
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I second the recommendation to try out iNaturalist – you can learn a lot about the plants and animals around you.
1. Native pink evening primrose. I’m actually kinda sad I have a whole section that has these but they didn’t appear yet this year. I think my neighbor might have used pre-emergent and they still have a ton of non-native weeds.
2. Native wood sorrel. Also you have cleavers along the side of the picture. You can remove those since they are invasive and have horrible seeds.
3. PlantNet says blue field-madder. Non-native, but I’m not sure how aggressive it is.
4. Unsure the picture isn’t clear enough for the identification website. Likely to be native since it doesn’t look like you have are large number of them.
5. Carolina geranium, native plant.
6. The one with the yellow flower isn’t native. It’s lesser trefoil.
7. Hard to id at this point but once it flowers it will be a lot easier.
8. Likely a type of sedge, we do have a native sedge but grass type plants are hard to id. Flowers or seed heads can make it easier.
9. Most likely henbit, a non-native but does provide early flowers. Maybe purple deadnettle.
10. This is an interesting one I have never heard about, known as crowpoison, Nothoscordum bivalve. Native flower.
Bonus: You also have Carolina Ponyfoot, the round leaves with the indent. As well as sticktight buttercup, sort of serrated leaves. Also a lot of those taller grasses are invasive species.
Photo 6: Trefoil.
It is invasive and if it’s the same I get…get rid of it. It spreads so quickly, overtakes and chokes out everything near or under it.