Early Season Weed ID Samples: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
This page was adapted from the article, "Early Season Weed ID Samples: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" which appeared in Crop & Pest Report on May 19, 2022.
One sure sign that spring has finally sprung is an abundance of weed pictures submitted for proper identification. The pictures have been flowing in this week, so I wanted to highlight some of the most frequent offenders being found across the state. I decided to break these down into 3 categories: The Good (or rather, the weeds you shouldn’t worry about), The Bad (weeds that should be dealt with, but are manageable in most systems), and The Ugly (difficult to control weeds that become more problematic if not dealt with).
The Good
While we don’t often refer to weeds as good, I wanted to fit this group of weeds into my theme. Many folks would classify the following weeds as native/naturalized wildflowers, and I can’t say they’re wrong. These weeds often flower and complete their life cycle before we plant our crops. They are all currently flowering, or about to flower, and should have mature seed present before we apply burndown herbicides or till our fields. They are often found in abundance, as they seem to be filling a niche of utilizing soil resources in between annual crop life cycles. Most field prep activities will control the following plants:
Fairy candelabra (Androsace occidentalis)
Fairy candelabra is a small winter or spring annual plant in the primrose family. It is often found at high densities in fields in April and May. However, this plant will stay relatively small and will die off as the temperatures warm up. Typical seedbed preparation in both conventional and no-till will control this plant. Even if no control measures are taken, fairy candelabra will not be competitive with crops since these plants are currently nearing the end of their life cycle.
Yellow whitlow-grass (Draba nemorosa)
This weed is sometimes called yellow whitlow-wort. It is a native winter or spring annual plant in the mustard family. Yellow whitlow-grass germinates in the fall or early spring like many winter annuals and rarely grows more than 4 to 5 inches tall. It will produce clusters of small, yellow, 4-petal flowers that form into small seed pods at maturity in the late spring/early summer. There is a similar species, simply known as whitlow-grass (Draba verna), which has white flowers instead of yellow flowers. Both whitlow-grasses are most often confused with fairy candelabra because of the similar small appearance and unique life cycle. In some cases, whitlow-grasses are confused with horseweed, but