Weeds are unrelenting and annoyingly everywhere; for all gardeners, it’s an unavoidable nuisance.
With over 8000 varieties, they also occupy every type of landscape, they grow in sidewalk cracks, and they can root themselves as high as 9 stories, up the side of a building.
They compete with cultivated plants as gardeners and weeds are in constant battle.
They seed and spring into action then tether the roots and stems of other plants and invade flower beds, lawns, and just about anywhere the want to grow.
Weeds are so difficult to manage and control that in 2018 alone, the weed-killing industry was valued at over 28 billion and is expected to increase continuously.
What To Expect: New England has many commonly observed weeds. We will run through the seven most observed weeds found in New England gardens.
1. Poison Ivy (Anacardiaceae)
As the name suggests, Poison ivy is a member of the Sumac family. It produces a poisonous phenol, named Urushiol.
If you said it grows in many types of habitats, like woods, hedges, road sides, around lakes, and at river banks, you would be correct. It can grow in shade or sunny situations.
So you can now conclude that it is found across New England and especially common in gardens.
Not only is it found in New England, but it is indigenous to that area and is very adaptable as a species and can survive if the soil is poor, no nutrients, and very little mineral based richness.
It has survived by fitting into its environment and adapting to survive late into the growing season. In fact, Poison ivy, is an annual, and can grow in the Fall.
A classic and popular food source for wildlife, Poison ivy produces off-white berries, and many species of wildlife do not eat the seeds, so they defecate the seeds, helping the plant survive.
I mentioned berries, but that is not the only unique feature of Poison ivy.
Poison ivy also has unique trios of leaflets, along the leafy and fuzzy rope like vine.
All glossy green, leaflets can vary in size, 4 to 8 centimeters, and in the Spring new leaflets emerge in small clusters, and yellowy green flowers emerge.
The leaflets emerge iridescent, with a mixture of redness and greenness, and at the end of their cycle, in the Fall, the leaflets go from their glossy green to a burnt orange shade.
So although Poison ivy is easily identified, it is great to know that 80% of people will react upon contact with an itchy, red, rash of fiery blisters.
Do not forget, if you do come in contact with Poison ivy, protect yourself and then you can relax with the comfort of knowing that you have done what is necessary to mitigate any effective or painful consequences.
2. Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria)
Also known as Goutweed, or Bishop’s Weed, Ground Elder is another commonly seen weed in New England and, like grasses, they create rhizomes -under ground stems- to help with the plants spread and self reproduction.
This perennial plant is a member of the same plant family as the carrot (Apiacae), but, different than the carrot, these are often dubbed the Farmers’ Plague because they are notoriously difficult to kill.
The spent foliage is mostly triangular, they consist of 3 sets of 3 leaflets – each is jagged around the edge.
Colouring is variable and leaflets can be individually polychromatic: with shades of lighter greens to blueish with whitish spike edging.
The stems can grow to about 100cm high even while receiving dappled indirect light.
In full sun, they produce many compound umbrella-shapped clusters of small white flowers that have 5 petals.
They are found in most gardens, and spread rapidly, in all directions.
Things To Consider: Considered significantly invasive – they are botanical bullies – push cultivated plants out and take over patches of land. The roots can even be more than 25ft underneath the ground!
3. Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica)
Japanese Knotweed is another rhizome-producing, self-replicating menace. And it is the most commonly sourced example in the western world.
The root system grows quickly and can impact buildings, water drainage, and enter people’s homes.
The stems, very much like bamboo canes, come from deep, subterranean rhizomes and can grow to 2m, or more! The circumference at its largest point is around 2 inches, and have small purple, spotted specks.
As a suffocating plant, Japanese Knotweed will grow over all nearby plants in a new habitat and drown them out; it can overtake a garden completely, causing havoc!
Due to its potential for catastrophic consequences, Andrew Palmer points out that a landowner in the UK (for example) who allows the spread of this plant will have statutory obligations to prevent, and control this botanical beast’s spread. Its leaves are heart-shaped, and its dimensions are approximately 14 cm long.
In the period between late summer and autumn, short stems of small, off-white flowers are produced, however, in the winter the plant recoils and becomes part of the ground.
4. Crabgrass (Digitaria)
Crabgrass is also native to New England lawns, it is an annual weed that dies in Winter after producing well over 100K seeds for the following Spring season. If you catch them and pull out clumps, before this, you might stop them from coming back the next year!
There are sources stating this plant is dangerous, but there are far more sources to say the complete opposite. It is more of an eyesore, than an enemy, nevertheless lawn-proud gardeners battle this weed, seasonally.
When fully mature, they produce tall, forked seed pockets – if you disturb them you might spread seeds! They are easy to identify and if you get them early, when the seed pockets are closed, you can even pull them from the ground safely!
Clumps are identifiable, they will grow beyond your lawn, be a darker shade of green and have a circular shape that resembles a crab, hence the name.
They also produce elongated flower clusters and are hairy or smooth!
5. Giant Foxtail (Setaria faberi Herrm.)
A poisonous weed, and related to Poison Ivy, this noxious weed is dangerous and produces high amounts of a compound called Calcium Oxalate.
But that’s not the real danger with this plant – no, it’s seeds are dangerously bad. They can actually burrow under the skin, and with the bared structure of the seed, they seem to burrow in deeper.
If swallowed, they can penetrate deep into the body through the vital organs, creating punctures, infections, and all the complications that can follow up to that point!
More prominent potentially in the experience of pets, this would be one more reason to keep an eye out for this invasive plant.
Widely spread out in many areas across the USA, this clumping annual weed can produce leaf blades longer than 40cm (16 inches) and wide over 3cm (1 inch)!
The name derived because of their high stems tipped with a seed head that looks just like the tail on a fox.
Have you seen: At times these can be over 4ft tall and make the Giant Foxtail easily distinguishable from other pant life nearby or in the distance, with the seed head being a hairy imitation of Barley.
6. Common & Giant Ragweed (Asteraceae artemisiifolia)
Another common allergen and native North American plant that’s common in New England is Ragweed, even if the symptoms felt are similar to those of the common cold:
- bunged sinuses
- dripping nasal cavities
- itching eyelids
- and sneezes
As a flowering plant, Ragweed produces pollen starting in July, but in plenty of places in the nation where it is found, pollen doesn’t really begin until August.
The plant is at its best around the middle of September and depending on environmental conditions, it can even be detected as late as mid-winter.
Ragweed is found in 49 states of the USA largely because of the distinctiveness of its pollein and the efficiency of its pollination, by wind.
Each of the plant’s small green flowers releases billions of particles of pollein to be carried by the wind. The lobing of the leaves are widely spread apart, hairy stems can reach roughly 100cm tall.
In fact Giant Ragweed (Asteraceae trifida) can approach 20 feet tall!
7. Curly Dock (Rumex Crispus)
Curly Dock, a perennial weed, is a good source of edible forage for humans, with edible, green leaves that sometimes have some red and taste best in their initial growth.
When fully grown, it has long, narrow (12 inches by 2.5 inches) narrow and pale green on the stem and deep green flesh.
With long rippled leaves that are distinctly curly or at least wavy, Curly Dock is aptly named based on these longer leaves that become smaller the higher they grow with the stem.
This weed is little known apparently and yet has a variety of uses that are beneficial.
In addition to being a common garden weed, it is edible from seed to plant, and fairly medicinally useful.
It produces stalks that can grow to be 5 ft tall and produce flowers in color from yellow to pink. There are grouped clusters of flowers sometimes greater than 20 flowers growing close to and around the main stem.
Final Thougths
There’s obviously a bunch of weeds that are native to New England, but most of these are also found in other parts of the USA, not unique to New England.
Some are worse than others, and will require specialty treatments that you need to carefully identify before you start treating.