Click on image to enlarge
|
DESCRIPTION:
Ladysthumb is an annual broadleaf weed that grows in moist soil.
It has erect or spreading stems, usually 1 to 3-feet (30 - 90 cm) long. Stems
can initiate roots at lower nodes (joints on the stem). Leaves
of ladysthumb are alternate, narrow, lance-shaped and have a
characteristic
purplish blotch near the middle. Leaf sheaths are tipped with short
bristles. Flowers are small, pink, and borne in dense erect
terminal
spikes about 1-inch (2.5 cm) long. Seedlings have dull green, oval
seed leaves that are 1-1/2 to 2 times longer than wide.
Pale smartweed (P. lapathifolium),
and ladysthumb are similar in appearance but pale smartweed lacks
the purple blotch on its leaves and the short bristles on the leaf
sheaths, and its flower spikes are more drooping and paler in color
than those of ladysthumb. Individual flowers in a ladysthumb spike
open, whereas those of pale smartweed do not.
Broadleaf ID illustration.
|
