What is this weed called?

[Terri Louise]

is an absolute nightmare in my garden, it's everywhere! I think it's chickweed, but can anyone confirm this, and state what type it is?

[Billy]

Is it an ornamental garden, or a nutritional garden? Chickweed is very nutritious, they can be added to salads whilst the cooked leaves can scarcely be distinguished from spring spinach.

Would you like it better if it was wrapped in plastic, and came from the frozen food section of your local supermarket at $2.50/package?

Chickweed was reportedly used at times for food. Chickweed enjoys a reputation as treating a wide spectrum of conditions in folk medicine, ranging from asthma and indigestion to skin diseases. Traditional Chinese herbalists used a tea made from chickweed to treat nosebleeds.

I have some in germinating as I type, along with some purslane. I am envious of your luck.

Congratulations! Don't screw it up.

[Stewart Robert Hinsley]

In message , Terri Louise writes

It's Euphorbia peplus (petty spurge). I suspect that it is less toxic than many Euphorbias, but it is still poisonous. Furthermore, the latex from broken stems and leaves can get transferred from your hands to your mouth and eyes, so unlike many plants, you can be effected without actually eating the plants.

[kate]

I agree on chickweed. It doesn't like the heat and will be gone soon here in middle TN. I'm hoping a mowed patch comes back enough before then so I can harvest some - it's great for the skin.

[Frank L]

It looks like chickweed.

Frank Lardino

[Don Wiss]

It doesn't look like chickweed to me. Chickweed leaves are pointed. Chickweed leaves are always in twos. But then UK chickweed may be different than US chickweed. And it may bloom later over there. Here it would have bloomed by now and the flowers look like:

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Stewart Robert Hinsley]

In the UK chickweed applies to Stellaria media (common chickweed), Stellaria pallida (lesser chickweed) and Stellaria neglecta (greater chickweed), Holosteum umbellatum (jagged chickweed), Myosoton aquaticum (water chickweed) and Moenchia erecta (upright chickweed).

There is also a chickweed wintergreen (Trientalis europaeus).

Stellaria media is the common one.

Wikipedia adds Cerastium and Paronychia to the mix, so that might be part of US usage (I just call Cerastium mouse-ear, rather than mouse-ear chickweed, and Paronychia is not native to the UK.) Wikipedia also gives star chickweed for Stellaria pubera (an eastern American plant).

I don't see any reason to think that the identification of this plant as chickweed is correct, even with the vagaries of vernacular names.

[Wallace]

I concur with you. The simple test of petty spurge vs. chickweed is if it has milky sap (spurge yes; chickweed no).

[Pat Kiewicz]

message

I'll concur with Stewart and Wallace in that this is NOT chickweed and that you should (carefully) check it for a milky sap as it may be a spurge. The sap can be very irritating to the skin (in med. talk, "escharotic").