St. Augustine Weed in Baton Rouge, La- with pic

HannahsDad – posted 22 November 2005 18:18

http://tinypic.com/fz6a9h.jpg

This weed has pretty much already killed my entire front yard and is now encroaching into the backyard. The grass around here is St. Augustine. There are thousands of these tiny weeds taking over, they seem to enter an area, kill the grass and sprout in its place. Any help identifying this weed and help killing it and restoring my yard would be greatly appreciated!!

Robert

HannahsDad – posted 22 November 2005 19:16

A better pic: http://tinypic.com/fz7kab.jpg

seed – posted 23 November 2005 10:15

Robert, can you take another photo, by flattening out this weed and getting in a little closer? Or use a scanner? If it is Spermacoce verticillata or another member of the Rubiaceae (including species of Diodia) then it will have opposite leaves and an interpetiolar stipule which looks like a little cup at the base of each pair of leaves. With a scanner you should actually be able to image the flowers and fruits; it is good to include a ruler so we can know the scale, although the penny is pretty helpful.

Phil

hankhill – posted 23 November 2005 17:30

Does that weed have little stickers on itthat hurt your hand when you try to pull it?

HannahsDad – posted 23 November 2005 23:30

There are no stickers or hair on the stems. Actually, the stems are almost “woody”, if that makes any sense, definitely brown and not green. The individual plants are quite small, the plant in the picture (which is actually three of the plants intertwined, which is how they grow) fits in the palm of my hand. The leaves are a few millimeters at best and I’d describe them as oval, with palmeate veins, and fold in half, if that’s helpful. The full grown plants never get more than an inch or two of the ground and are interlaced throughout the grass.

It doesn’t really look like the pictures of Spermacoce verticillata or Rubiaceae that I can find. This weed is much smaller.

I’ll try to get another pic, put my digital camera doesn’t get close up very well.