Stellaria media
"Common Chickenweed"-- cool-season annual plant !!
COMMON NAME: common chickweed, chickenwort, craches, maruns, winterweed.
BOTANICAL NAME: Stellaria media (L.) Vill. (Alsine media)
FAMILY: Carophyllaceae (pink family)
DESCRIPTION: It is a cool-season annual plant native to Europe, which is often eaten by chickens. It is sometimes called common chickweed to distinguish it from other plants called chickweed. The plant germinates in fall or late winter, then forms large mats of foliage. Flowers are small and white, followed quickly by the seed pods. This plant flowers and sets seed at the same time.
STEM: Its has weak stems mostly trail along the ground (for upto about 16inches), but the growing ends may be upright (up to 8inches high). The stems branch very frequently and take root at the leaf junctions. The stem has a single line of hairs running up the side, and this hairy line changes sides at each leaf junction.
LEAF: The leaves are opposite, smooth, and oval (with a point at the tip), and the older leaves are stalked, while the new leaves are not.
FLOWER: Chickweed is just about always flowering, except in the dead of winter. It has tiny white flowers, about a quarter inch in diameter, in the leaf axils or in terminal clusters, with five deeply notched petals that look like ten, and five green sepals that are longer than the petals. The flowers close at night and open in the morning. They also close when it's about to rain. Possibly they respond to changes in air pressure. It does seem that the flowers don't open at all when a low pressure system is lingering. Chickweed also reacts to nightfall by folding its leaves over the growing tip to protect it.
FRUIT: The flowers develop into small capsule-like fruits which contain many tiny seeds (up to 15,000 per plant).
ROOTS: It has a very slender tap root, shallow, fibrous, fragile roots.
OCCURENCE: Common chickweed, an annual or overwintering native plant, is one of the commonest weeds of cultivated land. It also occurs on roadsides, shingle riverbanks, coastal cliffs and in gardens. It is widely distributed over all soil types but is more abundant on lighter soils. It is favoured by high potassium levels and is indicative of high nitrogen and low phosphate and lime levels. It is absent from the most acidic soils. It thrives in areas of soil disturbance and declines when cultivation ceases for a long period. It is sensitive to drought and is one of the first weeds to wilt in dry conditions.
Common chickweed is a frequent weed of cereals, sugar beet and other arable crops. It grows best in cool, humid conditions and is a serious problem in overwintered vegetable and flower bulb crops.
Common chickweed can be very variable in size, habit and general appearance. Some of this may have a genetic basis and some may be due to soil and environmental effects. Summer and winter forms with different growth habits are thought to occur. In the past, common chickweed was often grouped with the closely related species S. neglecta and S. pallida. Three subspecies are recognised but only ssp. media occurs in the UK. Common chickweed populations have been found with resistance to the phenoxy-herbicide mecoprop and to certain sulfonylurea herbicides following repeated use of the chemicals.
Common chickweed is a host of several damaging virus diseases of crop plants. Some viruses can be carried in chickweed seeds that will grow into infected plants. The virus can persist for at least 5 months in seeds buried in soil. Several important nematode species can infest common chickweed.
IMPORTANCE: The weed is an important constituent in the diet of many farmland birds. It has medicinal and therapeutic uses, is rich in vitamin C and may be eaten as a salad vegetable. It can accumulate nitrate nd may become toxic to stock. In addition, it has a relatively high oxalic acid content and a low level of calcium that may have an adverse effect on dietary calcium bioavailability.
MEDICINAL PROPERTY: Medicinally, chickweed is tonic, diuretic, demulcent, expectorant, and mildly laxative. It's often recommended for asthma, bronchitis, or congestion. It's also said to help control obesity and is an ingredient in some herbal weight loss preparations. Externally, chickweed relieves itching and inflammation and is generally soothing and moisturizing. It can be used for any minor skin infections or irritations, and is an ingredient in a number of commercial skin care products. As far as I've been able to discover, this common plant has yet to be thoroughly scientifically studied.
However, the benefits ascribed to chickweed may simply be the result of its high nutritional value, especially the presence of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). The medicinal effects of this fatty acid read much like the values ascribed to chickweed. GLA is recommended for a variety of skin problems, for hormone imbalances as in PMS, and for arthritis. It clears congestion, controls obesity, reduces inflammation, reduces water retention, acts as tonic for the liver, and reduces the negative effects of alcohol abuse.
Chickens and many other birds love chickweed, and eat both the plants and the seeds, which is how it gets its name. If you keep birds as pets, you can feed it to them too.
Chickweed is also one of the primary targets of various broad-leaf herbicides, but as I feel rather strongly about contributing poisons to the ecosystem, I would recommend weeding instead for those people who can't learn to like this useful little plant.
USED AS A FOOD: It has a mild, refreshing flavor. The leaves and stems can be added to salads, cooked as greens, or added to anything you might add greens to (which, to me, is just about everything).Chickweed is particularly high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and mucilage, and also provides rutin, para amino benzoic acid (PABA), gamma linolenic acid (GLA, an omega-6 fatty acid derivative), niacin, riboflavin (B2), thiamin (B1), beta carotene (A), magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, sodium, selenium, and silicon. The seeds are also edible. The plant can be dried for storage. Chickweed is a fairly safe food, however, as almost everything is somehow toxic if you use enough of it, over-consumption of this plant may give you diarrhea.
BIOLOGY: Common chickweed flowers and sets seed all through the year. It has been known to flower and ripen seed under a snow-cover 10-20 cm deep. Flowers are normally self-pollinated but there is a short period when insects can effect cross-pollination. In winter, flowers are produced that do not open making self-pollination inevitable. Stems cut off in flower do not produce viable seed but any green immature capsules present will ripen and the seeds within them can become capable of germination. Individual seed capsules contain around 10 seeds and the average seed number per plant is 2,200 to 2,700. However, plants with 25,000 seeds have been recorded. There is a good correlation between seed number and plant dry weight. Common chickweed can complete its life cycle in 5-6 weeks.
Seeds will germinate at any time of year but particularly in spring and autumn. Germination can occur between 2°C and 30°C but the optimum temperature is 15°C. Seed collected from separate plant populations may differ in size and germination characteristics. Some seeds can germinate immediately after shedding. Buried seeds develop a light requirement for germination. In the field, seedling emergence declines with increasing depth of seed burial. Most seedlings emerge from the surface 30 mm of soil. Seedlings from seeds buried deeper in the soil take longer to emerge. Chickweed is able to grow at relatively low temperatures and seedlings can survive all but the severest frosts.
PERSISTENCE AND SEEDS : Buried seeds are known to retain viability for at least 25 and probably over 40 years. Seed buried in soil for 10 years gave up to 22% germination. Seeds in dry storage for 30 months at low temperatures retained full viability. Common chickweed seeds broadcast onto the surface of clay and silty-loam soils, ploughed to 20 cm or flexible tine cultivated to 10-15 cm and followed over a 6 year period of cropping with winter or spring wheat declined at an annual rate of 35%. The estimated time to 95% decline was 7-8 years depending on the frequency of cultivation. In a series of autumn-sown crops the time to 99% decline of seed in the soil seedbank was 11.1 years. The mean annual decline rate was 30%. In other studies in cultivated soil the annual percent decline was 41%. Elsewhere, under a grass sward, common chickweed seed had a mean annual decline rate of 26%.
The seed capsule splits when mature and the seeds are shaken out onto the soil beneath the parent plant. The seed is dispersed further in mud on footwear and tyres. Ants also carry seeds away. Common chickweed seed was a common contaminant in cereal, grass, clover and other crop seeds. It remains a problem in home-saved cereal seed.
Chaffinches eat common chickweed seeds readily. A small number of seeds survive passage through the digestive system of small birds and germinate in their droppings. Seeds are also found in cattle, deer, horse and pig droppings and in worm cast soil. Apparently-viable seeds have been found in cattle manure. Ants can also transport seed. Seed has been recovered from irrigation water. The seed can withstand submergence in seawater.
chickweed in cereal
MANAGEMENT: In cool wet conditions common chickweed forms a dense mat of spreading stems that may root at the nodes making it difficult to hoe or pull up. Hoed plants will root again in moist soil. Complete burial is the most effective treatment. In root crops, control is by repeated surface tillage in hot, dry weather. In cereals, increasing the sowing rate and reducing the row width help to suppress chickweed growth. Spring-tine harrowing in July is said to give good control of the weed. After cereal harvest, stubble cultivations give good control of freshly shed seed. The soil should be worked to a depth of 5 cm at 14-day intervals. Common chickweed often emerges in winter when ploughing will destroy it.
Mowing is not effective with this procumbent plant and may help the weed by removing the shading effect of taller species. On newly sown leys grazing by sheep may to help to suppress common chickweed. It is grazed by many wild and domestic animals. Geese are said to eat common chickweed selectively in certain crops.
A layer of compost or cover crop residue spread over the soil will reduce common chickweed emergence. Leachate from composted household waste inhibits seed germination. There are indications that shallowly incorporating chopped straw after cereal harvest reduces seedling emergence. This may be due to the release of toxins as the straw decomposes. Seedling numbers increase, however, following applications of organic manure.
Seed numbers in soil were reduced by 85% following a 1 year fallow and by almost 90% if this was extended to 2 years. The land was ploughed, disked and harrowed during each fallow each year. Weed numbers were reduced but to a lesser extent by cropping with winter wheat for the same period and carrying out normal control measures. Fallowing at 5-year intervals over a 15-year period did not reduce seed numbers in soil further because during the intervening cropped years the weed was able to ripen seed during cropping, after harvest and before ploughing took place. Seed that remained dormant in the soil during the fallow period allowed the weed to survive through to the next crop year and increase again. Even a 4-year fallow did not eliminate all the common chickweed seeds in the soil.
Common chickweed seedlings with 2-6 leaves are relatively susceptible to flame weeding and the seeds are killed by soil solarization. Seedlings are very sensitive to UV-B radiation.
The seeds of common chickweed are consumed by several species of ground beetle. The fungus Peronospora media may be an important agent in the natural control of common chickweed.
SOURCES:
(1) http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=16
(2) http://www.kingdomplantae.net/chickweed.php
(3) http://www.arkive.org/common-chickweed/stellaria-media/
COMMON NAME: common chickweed, chickenwort, craches, maruns, winterweed.
BOTANICAL NAME: Stellaria media (L.) Vill. (Alsine media)
FAMILY: Carophyllaceae (pink family)
DESCRIPTION: It is a cool-season annual plant native to Europe, which is often eaten by chickens. It is sometimes called common chickweed to distinguish it from other plants called chickweed. The plant germinates in fall or late winter, then forms large mats of foliage. Flowers are small and white, followed quickly by the seed pods. This plant flowers and sets seed at the same time.
STEM: Its has weak stems mostly trail along the ground (for upto about 16inches), but the growing ends may be upright (up to 8inches high). The stems branch very frequently and take root at the leaf junctions. The stem has a single line of hairs running up the side, and this hairy line changes sides at each leaf junction.
LEAF: The leaves are opposite, smooth, and oval (with a point at the tip), and the older leaves are stalked, while the new leaves are not.
FLOWER: Chickweed is just about always flowering, except in the dead of winter. It has tiny white flowers, about a quarter inch in diameter, in the leaf axils or in terminal clusters, with five deeply notched petals that look like ten, and five green sepals that are longer than the petals. The flowers close at night and open in the morning. They also close when it's about to rain. Possibly they respond to changes in air pressure. It does seem that the flowers don't open at all when a low pressure system is lingering. Chickweed also reacts to nightfall by folding its leaves over the growing tip to protect it.
FRUIT: The flowers develop into small capsule-like fruits which contain many tiny seeds (up to 15,000 per plant).
ROOTS: It has a very slender tap root, shallow, fibrous, fragile roots.
OCCURENCE: Common chickweed, an annual or overwintering native plant, is one of the commonest weeds of cultivated land. It also occurs on roadsides, shingle riverbanks, coastal cliffs and in gardens. It is widely distributed over all soil types but is more abundant on lighter soils. It is favoured by high potassium levels and is indicative of high nitrogen and low phosphate and lime levels. It is absent from the most acidic soils. It thrives in areas of soil disturbance and declines when cultivation ceases for a long period. It is sensitive to drought and is one of the first weeds to wilt in dry conditions.
Common chickweed is a frequent weed of cereals, sugar beet and other arable crops. It grows best in cool, humid conditions and is a serious problem in overwintered vegetable and flower bulb crops.
Common chickweed can be very variable in size, habit and general appearance. Some of this may have a genetic basis and some may be due to soil and environmental effects. Summer and winter forms with different growth habits are thought to occur. In the past, common chickweed was often grouped with the closely related species S. neglecta and S. pallida. Three subspecies are recognised but only ssp. media occurs in the UK. Common chickweed populations have been found with resistance to the phenoxy-herbicide mecoprop and to certain sulfonylurea herbicides following repeated use of the chemicals.
Common chickweed is a host of several damaging virus diseases of crop plants. Some viruses can be carried in chickweed seeds that will grow into infected plants. The virus can persist for at least 5 months in seeds buried in soil. Several important nematode species can infest common chickweed.
IMPORTANCE: The weed is an important constituent in the diet of many farmland birds. It has medicinal and therapeutic uses, is rich in vitamin C and may be eaten as a salad vegetable. It can accumulate nitrate nd may become toxic to stock. In addition, it has a relatively high oxalic acid content and a low level of calcium that may have an adverse effect on dietary calcium bioavailability.
MEDICINAL PROPERTY: Medicinally, chickweed is tonic, diuretic, demulcent, expectorant, and mildly laxative. It's often recommended for asthma, bronchitis, or congestion. It's also said to help control obesity and is an ingredient in some herbal weight loss preparations. Externally, chickweed relieves itching and inflammation and is generally soothing and moisturizing. It can be used for any minor skin infections or irritations, and is an ingredient in a number of commercial skin care products. As far as I've been able to discover, this common plant has yet to be thoroughly scientifically studied.
However, the benefits ascribed to chickweed may simply be the result of its high nutritional value, especially the presence of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). The medicinal effects of this fatty acid read much like the values ascribed to chickweed. GLA is recommended for a variety of skin problems, for hormone imbalances as in PMS, and for arthritis. It clears congestion, controls obesity, reduces inflammation, reduces water retention, acts as tonic for the liver, and reduces the negative effects of alcohol abuse.
Chickens and many other birds love chickweed, and eat both the plants and the seeds, which is how it gets its name. If you keep birds as pets, you can feed it to them too.
Chickweed is also one of the primary targets of various broad-leaf herbicides, but as I feel rather strongly about contributing poisons to the ecosystem, I would recommend weeding instead for those people who can't learn to like this useful little plant.
USED AS A FOOD: It has a mild, refreshing flavor. The leaves and stems can be added to salads, cooked as greens, or added to anything you might add greens to (which, to me, is just about everything).Chickweed is particularly high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and mucilage, and also provides rutin, para amino benzoic acid (PABA), gamma linolenic acid (GLA, an omega-6 fatty acid derivative), niacin, riboflavin (B2), thiamin (B1), beta carotene (A), magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, sodium, selenium, and silicon. The seeds are also edible. The plant can be dried for storage. Chickweed is a fairly safe food, however, as almost everything is somehow toxic if you use enough of it, over-consumption of this plant may give you diarrhea.
BIOLOGY: Common chickweed flowers and sets seed all through the year. It has been known to flower and ripen seed under a snow-cover 10-20 cm deep. Flowers are normally self-pollinated but there is a short period when insects can effect cross-pollination. In winter, flowers are produced that do not open making self-pollination inevitable. Stems cut off in flower do not produce viable seed but any green immature capsules present will ripen and the seeds within them can become capable of germination. Individual seed capsules contain around 10 seeds and the average seed number per plant is 2,200 to 2,700. However, plants with 25,000 seeds have been recorded. There is a good correlation between seed number and plant dry weight. Common chickweed can complete its life cycle in 5-6 weeks.
Seeds will germinate at any time of year but particularly in spring and autumn. Germination can occur between 2°C and 30°C but the optimum temperature is 15°C. Seed collected from separate plant populations may differ in size and germination characteristics. Some seeds can germinate immediately after shedding. Buried seeds develop a light requirement for germination. In the field, seedling emergence declines with increasing depth of seed burial. Most seedlings emerge from the surface 30 mm of soil. Seedlings from seeds buried deeper in the soil take longer to emerge. Chickweed is able to grow at relatively low temperatures and seedlings can survive all but the severest frosts.
PERSISTENCE AND SEEDS : Buried seeds are known to retain viability for at least 25 and probably over 40 years. Seed buried in soil for 10 years gave up to 22% germination. Seeds in dry storage for 30 months at low temperatures retained full viability. Common chickweed seeds broadcast onto the surface of clay and silty-loam soils, ploughed to 20 cm or flexible tine cultivated to 10-15 cm and followed over a 6 year period of cropping with winter or spring wheat declined at an annual rate of 35%. The estimated time to 95% decline was 7-8 years depending on the frequency of cultivation. In a series of autumn-sown crops the time to 99% decline of seed in the soil seedbank was 11.1 years. The mean annual decline rate was 30%. In other studies in cultivated soil the annual percent decline was 41%. Elsewhere, under a grass sward, common chickweed seed had a mean annual decline rate of 26%.
The seed capsule splits when mature and the seeds are shaken out onto the soil beneath the parent plant. The seed is dispersed further in mud on footwear and tyres. Ants also carry seeds away. Common chickweed seed was a common contaminant in cereal, grass, clover and other crop seeds. It remains a problem in home-saved cereal seed.
Chaffinches eat common chickweed seeds readily. A small number of seeds survive passage through the digestive system of small birds and germinate in their droppings. Seeds are also found in cattle, deer, horse and pig droppings and in worm cast soil. Apparently-viable seeds have been found in cattle manure. Ants can also transport seed. Seed has been recovered from irrigation water. The seed can withstand submergence in seawater.
chickweed in cereal
MANAGEMENT: In cool wet conditions common chickweed forms a dense mat of spreading stems that may root at the nodes making it difficult to hoe or pull up. Hoed plants will root again in moist soil. Complete burial is the most effective treatment. In root crops, control is by repeated surface tillage in hot, dry weather. In cereals, increasing the sowing rate and reducing the row width help to suppress chickweed growth. Spring-tine harrowing in July is said to give good control of the weed. After cereal harvest, stubble cultivations give good control of freshly shed seed. The soil should be worked to a depth of 5 cm at 14-day intervals. Common chickweed often emerges in winter when ploughing will destroy it.
Mowing is not effective with this procumbent plant and may help the weed by removing the shading effect of taller species. On newly sown leys grazing by sheep may to help to suppress common chickweed. It is grazed by many wild and domestic animals. Geese are said to eat common chickweed selectively in certain crops.
A layer of compost or cover crop residue spread over the soil will reduce common chickweed emergence. Leachate from composted household waste inhibits seed germination. There are indications that shallowly incorporating chopped straw after cereal harvest reduces seedling emergence. This may be due to the release of toxins as the straw decomposes. Seedling numbers increase, however, following applications of organic manure.
Seed numbers in soil were reduced by 85% following a 1 year fallow and by almost 90% if this was extended to 2 years. The land was ploughed, disked and harrowed during each fallow each year. Weed numbers were reduced but to a lesser extent by cropping with winter wheat for the same period and carrying out normal control measures. Fallowing at 5-year intervals over a 15-year period did not reduce seed numbers in soil further because during the intervening cropped years the weed was able to ripen seed during cropping, after harvest and before ploughing took place. Seed that remained dormant in the soil during the fallow period allowed the weed to survive through to the next crop year and increase again. Even a 4-year fallow did not eliminate all the common chickweed seeds in the soil.
Common chickweed seedlings with 2-6 leaves are relatively susceptible to flame weeding and the seeds are killed by soil solarization. Seedlings are very sensitive to UV-B radiation.
The seeds of common chickweed are consumed by several species of ground beetle. The fungus Peronospora media may be an important agent in the natural control of common chickweed.
SOURCES:
(1) http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=16
(2) http://www.kingdomplantae.net/chickweed.php
(3) http://www.arkive.org/common-chickweed/stellaria-media/
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