Turfgrass Weeds - AggieTurf

Weeds of Texas Turf

Casey Reynolds, PhD and Matt Elmore, PhD

Not seeing what you are looking for? Use this document when preparing samples or photographing weeds for identification purposes.

Weed Identification

Weeds, like all plants, are classified based on morphological characteristics of their vegetative and reproductive structures. A basic understanding of the types of weeds commonly found in turf is very helpful in identification and herbicide selection.

Weeds are often grouped by morphological characteristics into the categories: broadleaf weeds, grassy weeds, and sedges (Table 1).

Table 1. General Characteristics of Weed Species When Grouped as Broadleaf weeds, Grassy Weeds, or Sedges.
	Broadleaf Weeds	Grasses and Grass-like Weeds	Sedges
Embryo	Dicot	Monocot	Monocot
Stem	Usually solid, variable in shape	Hollow, round or flattened	Solid, usually triangular
Leaf Shape	Variable	Simple, entire	Simple, entire
Leaf Arrangement	Variable	Alternate, 2-ranked	Alternate, 3-ranked
Leaf Veins	Netted	Parallel	Parallel
Inflorescence	Highly variable, often colored and showy	Spike, Raceme, or Panicle.	Head-like with flattened spikelets
Secondary Growth	None, Tubers, Bulbs, Rhizomes, Stolons, etc.	None, Rhizomes, and/or Stolons	None, Rhizomes, and/or Tubers
Family Classification	Many	Poaceae, Iridaceae, Commelinaceae, Liliaceae, others	Cyperaceae
Examples	Henbit, Chickweed, Prostrate Spurge, Slender aster, etc.	Crabgrass, Dallisgrass, Annual bluegrass, Smutgrass, etc.	Purple nutsedge, Yellow nutsedge, Green Kyllinga, etc.

Identifying weeds based on these features is helpful because herbicides are often particularly effective on one or more of these groups. However, it is important to be able to identify specific weeds within a group (down to the genus and species level), because many herbicides only control certain species. This is also important because there are several species of weeds with vegetative characteristics (leaves, stems, sheaths, etc.) that appear to be grasses, but when left un-mowed their floral characteristics reveal that they are actually quite different. These species are sometimes referred to as “grass-like” weeds and for the purposes of organization they are classified in the image gallery below as Grassy Weeds.

Broadleaf Weeds

Annual Sow-thistle	Arrowleaf Clover	Asiatic Hawksbeard	Bitterweed
Black Medick	Bristly Mallow	Buckhorn Plantain	Burclover
Carolina Dichondra	Carolina Geranium	Carpetweed	Catchweed Bedstraw
Common Chickweed	Common Groundsel	Common Mallow	Cudweed sp.
Curly Dock	Dandelion	Dogfennel	Dollarweed
Field Bindweed	Field Madder	Filaree	Frogfruit
Ground Ivy	Hairy Bittercress	Hairy Buttercup	Hedge Parsley
Henbit	Horrible Thistle	Horse Purslane	Horseweed
India Mock Strawberry	Japanese Mazus	Khakiweed	Lawn Burweed
Lespedeza	Mouse-ear chickweed	Paleseed Plantain	Pepperweed
Pigweed	Pillpod Sandmat	Powderpuff	Prostrate Knotweed
Purple Deadnettle	Purslane	Ragweed	Reversed Clover
Scarlet Pimpernel	Shepherd’s-purse	Showy Evening Primrose	Silverleaf Nightshade
Slender Aster	Slender Fumewort	Slim-lobe Celery	Spiny Sowthistle
Spotted Burclover	Spotted Spurge	Sprawling Horseweed	Sticktight Buttercup
Sweet Clover	Swine Wartcress	Texas Dandelion	Texas Ragwort
Texas Thistle	Toothed Spurge	Trampweed	Tropic Croton
Vetch	Violet Woodsorrel	Virginia Buttonweed	Virginia Copperleaf
Water Hyssop	Western Horsenettle	White Clover	Wild Carrot
Winecup	Yellow Woodsorrel

Grasses and Grass-like Weeds

Annual Blue-eyed Grass	Annual Bluegrass	Annual Ryegrass	Bahiagrass
Bermudagrass	Blue-eyed Grass	Common Dayflower	Crowfootgrass
Crow-Poison	Dallisgrass	Doveweed	Goosegrass
Johnsongrass	Jungle Rice	King Ranch Bluestem	Large Crabgrass
Ohio Spiderwort	Prairie Nymph	Prairie Spiderwort	Red Sprangletop
Rescuegrass	Sandbur	Smooth Crabgrass	Smutgrass
Spring Starflower	Wild Onion

Sedges