Chickweed & Spring Growth

Common Chickweed

• Common chickweed (Stellaria media) is tough enough to often survive intact under winter's storms, only to perk up again when the snow recedes. Found in moist soils and climates, common chickweed grows to about 2 inches tall in sun and 4 inches tall in the shade. It forms dense mats across broad areas, looking deceptively fragile with its petite, fleshy round leaves and tiny white flowers. The flowers each have five petals, but they look like 10 slender petals because they are divided at their base.

Additional Varieties

• Hundreds of other chickweed varieties exist, many with the similar-looking divided-petal white flowers. Among the most common is sticky chickweed (Cerastium glomeratum), which grows upright rather than sprawling, as common chickweed does. The leaves and stems bristle with tiny hairs that secrete sap when grasped, explaining the plant's "sticky" name. Mouse-eared chickweed (Cerastium fontanum ssp. vulgare) also has hairy leaves, but virtually no stems. Star chickweed (Stellaria pubera) looks the most like common chickweed, especially in that its leaves are hairless. Unlike common chickweed, however, star chickweed's stalkless leaves and flowers grow closer to the ground.

Spring Emergence

• The nuisance of all chickweed varieties stem from their tendency to gain a foothold for the season before the earliest of spring crops can be planted. A single plant can distribute 800 seeds a year for several years running, which germinate around the parent plant in late winter or early spring. Rainfall or watering have a tendency to flush out new germination. Successfully germinated plants, in turn, can spread new seeds when they are only five weeks old. Moreover, older chickweed plants are one of the first "greens" of the year to emerge from dormancy and continue spreading. Finally, chickweed earns its reputation for toughness by not only spreading from seed, but by spreading when the nodes of the stems touch soil, resulting in new roots.

Control

• Late winter and early spring is the best time to make headway against spreading chickweed. If you can get to the plants before they flower, you'll be pulling both the parent plant and preventing the formation of countless baby chickweeds. Hand-pull or hoe up as many of the plants as possible. For larger plants, dig underneath to get the root system, which has a tendency to re-root when disturbed. Keep your cultivated garden beds well-mulched, which cuts down on seed germination. Giving lawns the fertilization and irrigation they need will give grass blades their best chance at crowding out chickweed. To cut down on next spring's chickweed crop, lay sheets of clear plastic over problematic areas in late summer while temperatures are still high. This solarization method can "cook" the seeds of chickweed and other annual weed seeds, preventing them from germination the following spring.

Foraging

• Some wild food enthusiasts delight in the sight of chickweed, either while on foraging expeditions or when caring for their own gardens. Chickweed is high in vitamins and minerals, and also has therapeutic properties as both a tea ingredient and an external application. To harvest chickweed from the wild or from a patch you are purposefully cultivating, cut off the top several inches with garden scissors. When weeding, pull out the entire plant and cut off the top portion for salads, spring soups or for herbal remedies.