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Common weeds

Identify common weeds

Knowing about a weed’s habit, biology, persistence & spread will help you to keep on top of it. Here is detailed information on more than 100 individual weeds, from dandelion to creeping buttercup, bindweed and ground elder.

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Type
  1. Ground ivy viewed from above
    • Weed datasheets

    Ground-ivy

    Ground-ivy is a perennial common in hedge banks and found at times as a weed in arable crops and on the margins of arable fields. Ground-ivy is typically a plant of shaded areas and is native in woods, grassland and waste places usually in damper, heavier soils.

  2. Japanese knotweed stems
    • Weed datasheets

    Japanese knotweed

    Japanese knotweed is an invasive rhizomatous perennial introduced to the UK from Japan between 1825 and 1841 as an ornamental plant and as cattle fodder. It forms tall thickets with a dense leaf canopy that exclude other plants even bracken.

    • Weed datasheets

    Hoary cress

    Hoary cress is an introduced, erect rhizomatous perennial found on waste ground, roadsides, railways, arable land, pasture and on sandy soil by the sea. It is often limited to hedgerows and field margins but can invade agricultural land.

  3. Lesser celandine viewed from above
    • Weed datasheets

    Lesser celandine

    Lesser celandine is a native perennial common throughout the UK in damp meadows, woods, lawns, hedgebanks and beside streams and ditches. It thrives in nutrient rich soil and is a troublesome garden weed.

  4. Meadow buttercup in flower
    • Weed datasheets

    Meadow buttercup

    Meadow buttercup is an erect perennial, native in grassland especially on damp and calcareous soils.

    • Weed datasheets

    Mouse-ear-hawkweed

    Mouse-ear-hawkweed is a stoloniferous perennial, native in short grassland on well-drained soils. It occurs on calcareous pastures, heaths, banks, rocky places and walls, and is locally common throughout the British Isles.

    • Weed datasheets

    Perennial sow-thistle

    Perennial sow-thistle occurs widely on arable land and waste ground throughout the UK. It is native by stream sides, waysides on banks, dunes and shingle.

    • Weed datasheets

    Common toadflax

    Common toadflax is a native herbaceous perennial with an extensive spreading root system. Common toadflax occurs in hedgebanks, waysides, woodland clearings and waste grassy places on dry, well-drained gravelly, sandy or chalky soils.

    • Weed datasheets

    Perforate St John

    Perforate St John’s-wort is an erect, rhizomatous perennial native in dry grassland, hedgebanks and open woodland. It is a garden rather than an arable weed but can be a problem in lightly grazed or poorly managed pasture.

    • Weed datasheets

    Procumbent pearlwort

    Procumbent pearlwort is a matted native perennial frequent on paths, ditch sides, in lawns and occasionally in short turf in pasture throughout the UK. It occurs occasionally as a summer or winter annual.