WSU Extension

Hortsense

Weeds
 
Annual bluegrass 
Barnyardgrass 
Bentgrass, creeping 
Bermudagrass 
Birdfoot Trefoil 
Bittercress (Shotweed, Hairy bittercress) 
Bittersweet nightshade (European bittersweet) 
Black medic 
Blackberry (Himalayan, Evergreen, Pacific) 
Blue mustard (Purple mustard, Tenella mustard) 
Brackenfern, western 
Buffalobur 
Bull thistle 
Buttercup, creeping 
Butterfly bush 
Canada thistle 
Catchweed bedstraw (Cleavers) 
Catsear, common (False dandelion) 
Chickweed, common and mouseear 
Clover 
Comfrey 
Crabgrass 
Creeping Jenny 
Dandelion 
Dock (Curly, Broadleaf) 
Dodder 
Downy brome (Cheatgrass, Downy chess) 
Dwarf mistletoes 
English daisy (Lawn daisy) 
English ivy 
Field bindweed (Wild morningglory) 
Field pennycress (Fanweed) 
Flixweed 
Foxtail (Green, Yellow, Bristly) 
Garden loosestrife 
Giant hogweed 
Goldenrods 
Ground ivy 
Groundsel, common 
Hawkweeds 
Hedge bindweed 
Henbit 
Herb Robert (Robert geranium, stinky Bob) 
Horsetails (Scouringrush) 
Horseweed (Marestail) 
Knapweeds 
Knotweeds (Bohemian, Giant, Japanese, Himalayan) 
Kochia 
Lambsquarters, common 
Lesser celandine 
Liverworts 
Mallow, common (Cheeseweed, Buttonweed) 
Nightshades 
Oxalis (Creeping woodsorrel) 
Parrotfeather and Eurasian watermilfoil 
Pineappleweed 
Plantain (Broadleaf, Buckhorn) 
Poison hemlock 
Poison ivy and Poison oak 
Pokeweed 
Prickly lettuce (China lettuce) 
Prostrate knotweed 
Puncturevine (Tackweed, Goathead) 
Purple deadnettle (Red deadnettle) 
Purple loosestrife (Purple lythrum) 
Purslane, common 
Quackgrass 
Red sorrel (Sheep sorrel) 
Redroot pigweed (Rough pigweed) 
Redstem filaree (Stork's bill, Crane's bill) 
Reed canarygrass 
Russian thistle (Tumbleweed) 
Ryegrass, annual (Italian ryegrass) 
Salsify (Goatsbeard) 
Scotch broom 
Shepherd's-purse 
Smartweeds 
Sowthistle, annual and perennial 
Speedwells 
Spurges (Prostrate spurges) 
St. Johnswort, common (Goatweed, Klamathweed) 
Stinging nettle 
Tansy ragwort 
Tumblemustard (Jim Hill mustard) 
Velvetgrass (Common velvetgrass) 
Velvetleaf 
Water primrose 
Waterhemlock, western 
Wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace) 
Yellow nutsedge 



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Caption: Lesser celandine flower
Photo by: E. Johnson
  
Weeds : Lesser celandine : Ficaria verna
(revision date: 10/28/2020)

Family: Ranunculaceae
Cycle: Perennial
Plant Type: Broadleaf
Use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for successful weed management.

Biology
Lesser celandine is a noxious weed. It is highly variable and has club-shaped, tuberous roots. The weed grows as a mounded rosette with basal and stem leaves and can be 16 inches tall. The leaves are medium to dark green, oblong, heart or triangular in shape and often with a paler underside. The leaf edges can be smooth or have rounded teeth. The flowers are typically yellow with 7-13 petals, about an inch in diameter, and solitary on stem tips.Lesser celandine can reproduce by movement of the tuberous roots or by the bulbils that form in leaf axils. SPECIAL INFORMATION: Lesser celandine can be confused with the native yellow marsh marigold (Caltha palustris). The yellow marsh marigold does not have tuberous roots, produce bulbils, and has only petal-like sepals.
Habitat
Lesser celandine can grow in woodlands, wetlands, along streambanks, in landscaped areas, and along roadsides.

Management Options


Non-Chemical Management
  • Prevent its introduction. Do not plant lesser celandine or its cultivars.
  • Hand dig making certain to remove all plant parts. Bag and dispose of plant parts. Do not compost.
  • Do not mow as it can spread the bulbils and seeds.
  • Sheet mulch with a thick layer of wood chips (6 inches) to smother plants
Select non-chemical management options as your first choice!

Chemical Management
IMPORTANT: Visit Home and Garden Fact Sheets for more information on using pesticides

Apply a systemic herbicide in late winter to spring to avoid damaging native herbaceous plants.

Landscape areas
  • glyphosate
Turf areas
    Bare ground areas
    • glyphosate
    Images

    + Show larger images

     
    Caption: Lesser celandine flower
    Photo by: E. Johnson
    Caption: Lesser celandine close-up
    Photo by: S. Campbell
    Caption: Lesser celandine plant
    Photo by: S. Campbell
    Caption: Lesser celandine patch
    Photo by: S. Campbell
    Caption: Lesser celandine
    Photo by: S. Campbell