Common Noxious Weeds

Canada Thistle

Canada Thistle is a colony-forming perennial. It is most often found in cultivated fields, pastures, and waste places. A mature plant is 2 to 5 feet tall, branching at the top. The leaves are 4 to 8 inches long, usually dark green with spiny serrated edges. Buds are pea size, flowers are 3/4 of an inch or less in diameter, and purple to rose in color.

Bur Ragweed

Bur Ragweed is a deep-rooted native perennial especially adapted to low places where moisture collects but will spread to other areas. Stems are erect and branched reaching two feet in height. The stem and leaves are covered with a dense mat of fine white hairs, which give it a greenish-gray appearance. Roots have been knowing to go down 15 feet or more.

Sericea Lespedeza

Sericea Lespedeza is a perennial with erect stems up to 5 ft. tall and small hairs laying flat along the ridges on the stem. The leaves, with 3 leaflets, are less than 1 inch to 1-1/2 inches long and 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide with the larger leaflets on the lower portion of the stem. The leaves are flattened on the outer end with small flat hairs on the lower surface. Flowering occurs from mid or late July to October and maybe tinged with purple but always dry to yellow.

Musk Thistle

The leaves of the musk thistle are deeply lobed (segmented), hairless, and are dark green with a light green mid-rib. A silver-gray leaf margin is characteristic of each spine-tipped lobe. The leaf base extends down the stem to give the plant a winged appearance. Flowering begins in mid-May and continues through early July. Each head consists of many tightly packed rose to purple colored flowers encased in a series of spine-tipped, green bracts.

Johnson Grass

Johnson Grass is an upright perennial grass, reproduced by rhizomes and seeds. It is well adapted to compete with crop plants. Stems reach up to six to eight feet high or more, from a freely branching fibrous root system, which produces extensive rhizomes within six weeks of germination. Leaves alternate and are simple, relatively wide, and long.

Field Bindweed

Field Bindweed is a perennial broad-leaved plant that spreads over the soil and other structures and often forms mats. Leaves alternate along the stem. Leaf size and shape vary; typically leaves are up to two inches long and egg to arrow-shaped. Flowers are typically white but maybe light pink. The flowering stage is when most field bindweed is noticed.