TheEasyGarden - Gardening Forum

Ugh... Ann, you are correct and it looks like it is all the same plant. 

Well, there is some good news in this because we know what it is and that we need to get rid of it.  The bad news is it is now ALL OVER parts of the yard. 

I'm going after it with a vengeance now... sprays, pulling, whatever!  An all out attack to make sure our poor kids aren't stuck with these all over their clothes like last summer / fall!

This plant is bad news.   We've never seen it before a couple years ago, so I'm wondering if it caught a ride with a bunch of free mulch we got from someone on craigslist. 

What's odd is that we don't remember the leaves being stickery when dry... just the seeds / "fruit".

Here are some more links for my reference and for my friends and family that I'm going to send to look at this!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goosegrass

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=GAAP2

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=GAAP2

http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/gaap2.htm

Oh yea, that's a nasty one, too, what did you do, corner the market on noxious weeds?   It could be Cirsium vulgare, can't really tell without seeing the flowers.  Bees love them, but they hurt if you step on them.  Don't let them go to seed, you'll have a million more!  I actually like the flowers, but I chop them down long before they even think of setting seed and dig them out by the roots.  I never use chemicals here, hand digging is the preferred weed remove method here, and it can get tough when you're dealing with weeds like that!

Last year I let a burdock grow in the backyard.  It was very pretty, actually, before it bloomed, almost architectural.  Once it bloomed I cut it down to the ground.  Never got around to digging it last year, I'm going to try to get it out this year - I hear the root is delish if harvested in early spring.

Even though they're weeds, I still find them fascinating!

Yes, Roundup will kill it.  Make sure you get each rosette.  Be careful with that stuff, they try to make it out to be so benign, but it isn't.

Nifty wrote:

Ya, we'd rather pull where possible, but there are some situations where we need to pull in the big guns and take our chances.

Pulling works great for some weeds but, I like you prefer to get the "big gun" out when it something nasty. DH's family let the nettles and thistles go around here. I have them under control but, I'm not sure they will ever be gone. Some of that stuff the seeds can remain dormant for decades or more.