This section contains a few weeds that are common in most lawns.
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We hope that this information will help you identify some of your weed problems.

Click here for information on lawn Weed Control.
LAWN WEED SEED and BROAD LEAF WEEDS

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ARCTOTHECA Calendula L. Levyns Family: ASTERACEAE (Compositae)

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Capeweed
A widespread annual herb.
Most of their leaves are radical with a few occuring floppyand the striate stems which are covered with fine, tangled, woolly down. The leaves are divided into lobes which are themselves secondarily divided with the underside of the leaves covered with downy hairs.
Golden yellow ligulate, outer florets of inflorescence are long and spreading. The underside of the ligulate florets are are marked with dark, blackish veins.
The seed when matured is covered with a pinkish tangle of wooly covering. This seed is spread by wind, animals, man and the lawn mower.

HYPOCHOERIS Glabra L. Family: ASTERACEAE (Compositae)

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Smooth Cat's Ear
An annual herb which has its leaves disposed in a basal rosette. The leaves almost, glabrous and lanced shaped blades are definitely lobed or at least are bluntly toothed. The leaves are narrow towards the base but have blunt boundaries. The florets, ligulate and yellow in colour are borne on erect, slender stems, 5 to 20 centimetres high and may be simple or scarcely branched, with a few scale leaves. Spreads across a lawn area with great speed smothering the grass underneath and when it dies leaving dead spots.

PASPALUM

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This weed can be found in the garden and in the lawn, but treatment is not the same
Paspalum is a tufted perennial grass that generally can grow up to 150 cm tall. Nevertheless, in mown situations, the plant will grow prostrate with only the flowering heads being produced just above mowing height.
Paspalum is reported as being frost sensitive, though examinations in some frost areas the plants tend to display that they are able to survive in frost-prone areas. Because Paspalum is dormant during winter month, they seem to be able to survive frosts. When Paspalum becomes well established it is comparatively drought tolerant. Nevertheless, it will only grow vigorously in areas or positions where it receives adequate moisture during summer, such as irrigated garden areas, lawns, and well watered plantations. Paspalum will also respond vigorously to high levels of soil nitrogen in these conditions.
Paspalum flowers and produces seed in late summer. The seed is sticky and is readily transported on shoes, clothing or machinery (Lawn Mowers). Paspalum can readily spread form roadsides into nearby parks and home gardens. In turf and garden areas, paspalum can provide a strong competition with lawn plants for water and soil nutrients.
See GARDEN WEEDS for Eradication or Control

PLANTAGO Lanceolata L. Family; PLANTAGINACAEA

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Ribwort or Ribgrass.
A perennial herb which has a well developed tap-root. The leaves arise from a short, broad crown with an extremely prostrate habit. They will cover the turf with multitudes of plants blotting out the sunlight and smothering the lawn grass. The leaves are usually lanceolate in shape, gradually narrowing towards the base. Each leaf has three to seven conspicuous longitudinal veins and is scattered with soft, slender hairs. Leafless flowering stalks ascend from the rosette to a height greater than the length of the leaves.

TARAXACUM Officinale Wiggers s. lat. Family; ASTERACEAE (compositae)

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Dandelion
A perrenial herb which has all its leaves in a rosette.
The leaves are sparingly hairy and divided into lobes which point back towards the leaf base. All the solitary, heads of ligulate, yellow flowers are carried on leafless, hollow stems which are as long or longer than the leaves.
The Dandelion flowers most of the year and invades lawns speading its seed by the wind, animals or man.

TRIFOLIUM Repens L. Family; FABACEAE (leguminosae)

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White Clover
This perennial clover produces prostrate, hairless stems which root at the nodes. The shape of the leaflets vary from heart to ovoid with distinct terminal indication .The markings on the leaves can vary from black to purple, white crescents or the markings could be completely absent Leaflet veins are straight and relatively unbranched.
The white small flowers form a round head and are sometimes tinged with a pinkish colour. The flower stalks are longer than the leaves and the leaf stipule is pointed but without hairs or teeth.