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Beholder names7/21/2023 ![]() ![]() "Burn-down" herbicides such as pelargonic acid products (e.g. Of course, if butterweed is misbehaving, this winter annual can be easily removed right now and seed production reduced by hand-pulling or cultivation. This allows winter annuals such as butterweed escape to reappear as unwelcomed harbingers of spring each year. ![]() crabgrass) do not remain effective long enough to suppress winter annual seed germination. Preemergent herbicides used to target the spring seeds of summer annuals (e.g. Winter annuals can become a serious problem for landscape and nursery managers created by an over-dependence on preemergent herbicides applied in the spring to control weeds. Normally, livestock will avoid eating butterweed however, they may accidently ingest dried plants if the plants or plant parts are harvested with hay. The resulting chronic disease is called "seneciosis" from the alternate name for the genus. The leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds of butterweed plants contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids that can cause liver damage if consumed by livestock. However, butterweed growing in hay fields is a different matter. Winter annuals aren't much of a problem for farmers who plow in the spring because entire plants are plowed under. Members of this sneaky group of weeds grow throughout the winter and flower in the spring. Seedheads look like miniature dandelion puff-balls which is no accident dandelions ( Taraxacum spp.) also belong to the aster family.īutterweed is a winter annual meaning that seeds germinate in late summer to early fall. The flowers are borne at the ends of thick, erect, deeply ridged green stems that are sometimes streaked in reddish-purple. Butterweed is actually considered to be an important early spring source of nectar for bees and other pollinators. The sticky, large pollen grains are too heavy to be moved by anything other than insects. However, if you're suffering sneezing fits, the answer, my friend, isn't blowin' in the wind. Vast expanses of yellow, daisy-like butterweed flowers may draw the misplaced ire of allergy sufferers. Indeed, "aster" comes from the Greek name for "star." Each flower has a central composite cluster of disc flowers surrounded by up to 15 florets radiating like a star. The flowers are representative of members of the aster family (Asteraceae). Its alternate common name of Cressleaf Groundsel comes leaves that resemble watercress. On the other hand, upright 2 – 3' tall plants bolting seemingly out of nowhere in Ohio landscapes presents a weed management challenge.īutterweed is so-named because of its conspicuous buttery yellow flowers. On one hand, a sea of yellow flowers carpeting farm fields flanking Ohio's interstates in the spring provides welcome relief from highway monotony. Susan Witting AlbertĪlbert's quote captures perfectly the dichotomous nature of native Butterweed ( Packera glabella syn. One person's weed is another person's wildflower. ![]()
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