Strictly speaking, there are actually no weeds at all. Rather, these plants are wild-growing plants that spread undesirably just where the gardener would like to cultivate vegetables and ornamental plants. This article will help you to clearly identify the most common weeds.
Ground elder is not only a weed, but also a delicious vegetable
Will be described in more detail:
- nettle
- thistle
- goutweed
- Jacob's Ragwort
- clover
- dandelion
- moss
- Persian speedwell
- Datura
- Meadow bittercress
- bindweed
nettle
The large nettle can reach a height of up to 1.50 meters. You can recognize them by the coarsely serrated leaves that taper to a point at the front. The stinging hairs are on the stem and leaves, which leave burning pain and red wheals on the skin when touched. The flowers are quite inconspicuous. They are yellowish in color and hang down in small panicles from the uppermost leaf stands.
Nettle leaves are edible and when dried make an aromatic, diuretic tea. The plant is also important in organic horticulture as the basis for liquid fertilizers and sprays.
thistle
In the garden, the scratching thistle is the primary cause of displeasure. It first forms a rosette directly on the ground, which partially shows bays and is reinforced with spines on the edge. A rather thick stalk grows out of this. The flower is hemispherical and consists of many purple individual flowers.
Once established in the garden, the prickly weeds spread by sprouts growing from the main root. Thistles are true survivors; a new shoot can even sprout from a root section that is only half a centimeter long.
goutweed
This large-leaved foliage plant drives many gardeners to despair. It grows so persistently that it is difficult to get rid of. Ground elder is a white flowering ground cover herb with large leaves that are double tridentate. It can reach heights of growth of up to one meter.
Giersch must have been on the menu as early as the Stone Age. It can be cooked like spinach or eaten raw.
Ragwort
Ragwort first sprouts a rosette of leaves in spring, from which the pinnate leaves unfold. The yellow flowers on tall stems appear between June and August. The plant grows between 30 and 100 centimeters high.
Ragwort is highly toxic to the liver and is therefore one of the poisonous weeds. The poisoning cannot be treated to this day. You should dig up the ragwort in an ecologically friendly way and dispose of it in the household waste.
clover
Probably everyone has already started looking for the lucky four-leaf clover. Meadow clover is even cultivated as a valuable fodder plant. However, it also spreads unintentionally on lawns. For this reason, clover is one of the weeds for many garden owners.
Typically, the leaves are tripartite. The clover bears white or pink flowers between May and September. Clover blossoms contain a lot of nectar and are valuable bee pasture.
dandelion
As a yellow-flowering weed that likes to spread in the lawn and is very robust, the dandelion delights children at best. As soon as the snow has melted, it stretches its jagged, elongated leaves out of the ground in the form of a rosette. From this, the bright yellow flower develops, which within a few weeks turns into a "dandelion", from which numerous small umbrellas are carried away by the wind.
mosses
Mosses are among the oldest plants on earth. They can live for thousands of years. The green carpets are flowerless spore plants that reproduce through the so-called alternation of generations. One searches in vain for roots in mosses. They cling to the ground with rhizoids (cell threads).
Mosses can be divided into three different types:
- Hornworts
- liverworts
- mosses
They prefer locations in the garden that are hardly reached by sunlight. Moss can therefore be combated most effectively by thinning out large plants. Also make sure that the soil is aerated, this takes away the livelihood of the green pillows.
Persian speedwell
Initially cultivated in botanical gardens, the plant has become wild and is now one of the weeds that are spreading more and more in gardens. Pronounced offshoots, it is adorned with blue flowers that show a white throat. It has small, toothed, rounded leaves that grow opposite. The Persian speedwell forms strong cushions in the lawn and reaches a height of ten to forty centimeters. The Persian speedwell is a reliable clay pointer.
Datura
Datura has only become an increasingly common weed in recent decades. Like goutweed, it is one of the two-leaved weeds. It has large leaves that are long-stalked and pointedly lobed. The trumpet flowers stand upright in the branch forks. They form densely prickly capsules, about the size of a walnut, which contain the almost black seeds.
Warning: the entire plant is poisonous!
meadowfoam
This wild plant grows up to sixty centimeters tall. It has strongly pinnate leaves that have three to four pairs of leaves and makes numerous pale purple flowers with four petals.
winds
The shoots of these plants grow up to three meters long. They always wind their way clockwise up anything that offers support. If the bindweed cannot find a climbing aid, it thrives like a ground-covering herb. The leaves are arrow-shaped and grow alternately. Bindweed blooms with large, white, odorless funnel-shaped flowers from June.
Large pink flowers are the hallmark of the bindweed, which is increasingly spreading as a weed in gardens. Both species can become a real nuisance as they are very vigorous and tend to strangle other plants.
tips
If you destroy weeds, please consider that these plants enjoy a high status in the natural cycle and insects serve as valuable food. In addition, weeds are bioindicators that show the nutrient content and even the pH of the soil. Therefore, it is preferable to take action against the unwanted plants by hand and avoid the chemical club, as this almost always affects the sensitive ecosystem.