Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: June to September.

Seed-time: August to November.

Range: New England and Ontario to Minnesota and Nebraska, southward to Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Habitat: Rich, moist soil; borders of fields and woods, roadsides, and waste places.

To the wool-grower this is one of the most vexatious weeds that grow, for its "ticks" are glutinous as well as bristly-hooked, clinging to anything they touch, even a bare hand, and in fleeces they are very adhesive, carrying strands of wool with them when removed. Ticky wool is therefore sharply "cut" in the market.

Fig. 173. - Wild Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota). X 1/3.

Stem erect, slightly ridged and grooved, sometimes attaining five feet in height but more often two or three feet tall, smooth below but the growing branches densely set with two kinds of hairs, some very short, fine, and hooked, others longer, spreading, and glutinous. Leaves large, trifoliolate, the leaflets broadly ovate, two to four inches long, the terminal one with a footstalk and larger than the lateral pair, rough-hairy on the upper surface, white-hairy and net-veined beneath; petioles hairy and about as long as the leaves; stipules heart-shaped, acute, persistent. Flowers in terminal compound racemes, very small, less than a quarter-inch in length, purple, the standard obovate and the wings attached to the short, blunt keel by a small transverse appendage. Pods four- to seven-seeded, constricted between the seeds above and below but most so on the under side, the joints longer than broad, net-veined, sticky, hairy, readily separating and adhering to anything at a touch.

Means Of Control

Close cutting while in early bloom, repeating the treatment as new shoots appear. Cultivation of the ground destroys the perennial roots.