Anybody know what this stuff is?

[TreasonousBastard]

These are small, really small-- for reference, the big long things in the pictures are blades of grass.

Dug up loads of this stuff while preparing the vegatable beds, and we're stumped.

The blue flowers are maybe a millimeter or two in diameter, and the whole plant is maybe an inch or two high. The blue flowers fold up when the sun goes down. The white flowered thing is slightly larger.

I kinda like it because it looks like a nice, no maintenance ground cover. It's taken over the grass in a huge chunk of the back lawn, and I have no complaints so far, but I am curious what it is.

[NMDemDist2]

1. Common Blue Violet?

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/violasoro.html

Viola sororia

This is the violet that often grows in lawns. White or partly-white flowers occur. Some authorities subdivide the species into broad-leaved wood violet (Viola latiuscula), common blue violet (Viola papilionacea), northern blue violet (Viola septentrionalis), and woolly blue violet (Viola sororia). Common blue violet is a variable species. Identifying marks: broad, heart-shaped leaves; flowers and leaves on separate stems that arise from the roots; flowers do not stand much above the leaves (compare to marsh blue violet); and the lowest petal does not have a spur (compare to great-spurred violet).

• Family: Violet (Violaceae)
• Habitat: woods, meadows, waste areas
• Height: 3-8 inches
• Flower size: 3/4 to 1 inch wide
• Flower color: blue-purple, occasionally white or bicolor
• Flowering time: April to June
• Origin: native

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Not unless there's a dwarf variety...

these things are so small you have to get down close to even see them, and the tallest are under two inches high and the flowers are well under 1/8 inch in diameter.

Really, really small. I didn't know flowers could be that small. Those pictures were taken from about two inches away.

[NMDemDist2]

3. wow! did you check out the website link? maybe you can spot it there?

but that's pretty darn small

must be a nice addition in the yard though :)

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Nothing there, I'm gonna have to...

dig some up and take it around to the local experts.

If it stands up to traffic, I do like it better than grass, though, whatever it is.

[LiberalEsto]

4. Looks like germander

and it's growing next to chickweed.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. You might be right about the chickweed...

but I don't think the other one is germander 'cause it's too small and not bushy. If one of them is chickweed, it's a different variety than the one I used to fight, but does look like some pictures I found.

Chickweed salad and germander potions, hmmm...

[LiberalEsto]

6. I checked on google

and it looks like germander speedwell, which is actually a type of veronica. I've got it all over the lawn, and we call it germander.

Image: http://www.fotosearch.com/AGE014/j20-257067/

Is that it?

[TreasonousBastard]

8. The flower is close, but...

mine have more prominent yellow stamens and roundish furry leaves. Very low growing. I did the google image thing, too, and found various varieties of germander, but none seem like the stuff I've got.

'Tis still a mystery.

[babylonsister]

9. The leaves remind me of an ice plant, a succulent (I think), but

that's where the similarity ends, unless there's a blue variety?

[TreasonousBastard]

10. That's a possibility...

the descriptions sounded like it, but then the pictures loaded and they look like purple daisies.

Could be that this is the wild (i.e "weed") version and the purple ice plants are a cultivar.

Or, it could be something else...

[bullimiami]

11. where are you? we have them in our yard here in miami too.

florida that is.

i looked at your profile. NY? man thats some wide ranging stuff.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. If it's the same stuff, I guess that range proves...

it's a weed. :)

[spinbaby]

12. Chickweed and Creeping Jenny

The lawncare companies will tell you they're invasive weeds. I kinda like them.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. I dunno about Creeping Jenny...

that's close, but this stuff is smaller and has tiny blue flowers with hairy leaves. All the Creeping Jenny pix I've found show larger yellow flowers.

Yeah, a lot of places tell you it's a weed 'cause it takes over the lawn. But, other places sell it. Personally,I'm not that big on grass and prefer a more interesting ground cover. Whatever this stuff is, it isn't in the way like ivy or other dense covers and seems like a sturdy replacement for the golf green look.

[spinbaby]

15. That's what the lawn guy called it

He offered to erradicate it. A yahoo image search reveals yellow, white, AND blue flowers called creeping Jenny, including some photos of what is obviously creeping Charlie.

[spinbaby]

16. Okay, now you got me really curious

I dug out our Audubon wildflower book. Creeping Jenny doesn't appear in it at all and your blue flower seems to be something called corn speedwell.

[TreasonousBastard]

17. Good Work! I think that's it! Found a bunch of references...

to corn speedwell, a figwort--Veronica something-or-other, and the descriptions and pictures fit it.

One site says it can grow to 16", but everyone else says it's 1-2 inches, and the 1/8 flowers and 1/6" hairy, succulent, leaves are right on.

As usual, it's considered an invasive weed in most places where they're trying to grow something else, but weeds are just plants you haven't figured out a use for. For me, it's an ideal groundcover and I like it better than grass.

Nothing about it being edible, though-- so much for weed salad. The chickweed and dandelions have that going for them.

Thanks.