Common Name - Bur Ragweed Scientific Name -Ambrosia Grayii Family - Asteraceae General Description - A perennial, reproducing by underground root-stocks and seeds. Plant erect, 1 to 2 feet high, somewhat bushy, usually branching from the base and covered with fine, woolly hairs. The plant is purplish-white in appearance and grows from a well developed root system.
Leaves alternate, or opposite, broadly ovate, pinnately 3-5 parted or entire, long-petioled, dusty white in color. The end segment of the leaves much larger than the other segments.
Male flowers are in small drooping heads at the top of the plant and female flowers are in the axil of the leaves, usually one per leaf. Flowers in composite heads in short racemes. Seed cone shaped in heads 3-7 mm. long, with hooked spines or curved at tip. Seeds, September through November.
Control Practices - Control of bur ragweed shall mean preventing the production of viable seed and destroying the plant's ability to reproduce by vegetative means. Location Found - Bur Ragweed occurs in moist places of fields, rangeland, and roadsides. It often grows in saline soils. It occasionally accumulates nitrates, but it is unpalatable. This is an aggressive weed that spreads quickly, forms large colonies, and crowds out desirable plants. Interesting Fact - Tillage sometimes spreads the rhizomes.
Field Bindweed
Common Name - Field Bindweed Scientific Name - Convolvulus Arvensis Family - Asteraceae General Description - Field bindweed, a perennial, reproduces by seeds and rootstocks. The root system is extensive, extending to a depth of 20 to 30 feet. The smooth, slender stems twine or spread over the soil and vegetation. Leaves up to 2 inches long are alternate, simple, petioled, quite variable in size, and highly variable in shape. The leaf blade may be oblong to elliptical or may be rounded to pointed with spreading basal lobes. Flowers are white, pink, or white with pink. Funnel shaped, they are about 1 inch across and usually borne singly in the axils of leaves. The flower stalk has two bracts 1/2 to 2 inches below the flower; the bracts, along with leaf shape and small flower size distinguish this plant from hedge bindweed. Seeds are dark, brownish-gray, are about 1/8 inch long, and have one rounded and two flattened sides. Control Practices - Control of field bindweed shall mean preventing the production of viable seed and destroying the plant's ability to reproduce by vegetative means.
Bindweed seed is viable after remaining dormant in the soil for many years. Seeds brought near the soil surface by tillage, rodents, or other means will germinate under favorable conditions, resulting in new bindweed infestations.
Effective field bindweed control can be achieved by applying appropriate control practices. In developing a bindweed control program, one should consider the various alternative control practices and use one or more appropriate control practices for a particular cropland or noncropland area. Location Found - Plants typically inhabit roadsides, grasslands and also along streams. Its dense mats invade agricultural fields. Interesting Fact - Each fruit contains two seeds.