Kill Heron’s Bill and Cheat Grass
Heron’s Bill has been blooming for months,
and is ripening its seed, poking its heron bills at the sky. It has ¼-3/8 inch pink-purple flowers,
filigree leaves, and seed pods up to 3 inches long.
Heron's bill on city property. Two years ago, this was one plant, next to the sign, then a few; and now...
It can grow up to 18 inches high and
twice as wide, creating a fire hazard as it dries out. But its seeds are its worst problem. As they dry out, they pop off the plant,
twisting up into a corkscrew shape except for the sticker seed at one end, and
a straight tail at the other. When it
gets wet, it unwinds, and the tail holds it still while the seed screws itself
into the ground—or into your pet’s skin, ear, or eye.
Mowed heron's bill, seeds growing beneath the mower blades, city property.
It has a tap root, but it can easily
be pulled from damp soil by grabbing the entire plant at the crown. In dry soil, it can be cut off its tap root below
the crown with pruning scissors when seeded and the root will die, being an
annual gone to seed.
A lone heron's bill, growing in Red Death on city property
Cheat grass has just begun to bloom, showing itself as it stretches out 2-3 feet
high. It also has sticker seeds when
ripe, merely sharp enough to penetrate clothing, particularly socks, and your
pet’s fur, of course. It is a major
source of fire danger in this area, along with other dry, annual weeds.
Cheat, city property on Spruce at Brownell, and neighbor's road side
Fortunately, this annual grass, like
most other annual weeds, is easy to pull in bloom, even in dry soil; the roots
shrink greatly as the seed stalk grows.
A single cheat plant in old nugget bark on weed barrier cloth, City property on Brownell.
But few grasses are easy to pull if
one cuts them as or before they bloom, but before they ripen seed. Annuals grow more root and seed stalks every
time they are cut, until they ripen seed below cutting height. The same goes for heron’s bill and most other
annual broadleaf weeds. Weed control is
seed control. Cutting is not seed
control unless you scalp the ground, cutting at or below the crown.
This especially applies to fox tails, another fire hazard sticker; they grow full-sized heads even at
two inches tall in a lawn, and their seeds are large and totally annoying as
they drop off and stick in stuff. The only way to get rid of them is to
pull the plants before the heads fall apart.
Dock is also flowering and can be pulled.
It is a broadleaf weed that puts up a stalk of green incomplete flowers
3-5 feet tall; its leaves are lanceolate with wavy edges. Before it flowers, it is impossible to pull
it without sinking a shovel beside it; the leaves just break off the crown, and
they keep growing back every time you tear them off the large root. But once its flowers are showing, the stalk
is strongly attached to the root, and it pulls out.
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