Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: June to September.

Seed-time: July to October.

Range: Maine to Minnesota and southward to Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas. Habitat: Gardens, lawns, fields, roadsides.

A low, widely spreading, nearly prostrate weed, the stems three to ten inches long, branching by many forkings; the whole plant finely hairy, at least when young. Leaves many and crowded, a quarter-inch to a half-inch long, narrowly lance-shape, sessile or tapering to very short petioles. Flowers greenish and so minute as to be hardly noticeable, sitting sessile in the forks in small clusters; they are without petals, but have a five-parted calyx, two stigmas, and two or three, occasionally five, stamens. Each blossom produces but one seed, the small, plump, globose utricle protruding beyond the calyx-lobes.

Means Of Control

Prevent seed development by early and frequent hoe-cutting. Forked Chickweed, like Common Chickweed, may be killed with a spray of Iron sulfate or Copper sulfate if taken just before or during its first bloom, when it is most tender and more or less hairy.