Kansas’s fertile prairies and fluctuating climate provide sufficient conditions for the growth of various plant species. Alongside the wheat, corn, vegetables, and flowers the state is known for, are invasive and noxious weeds.
The good news is you can eliminate these weeds, but only if you know what you’re dealing with.
In this article, we’ll look at 10 of the most common weeds you’re likely to find in Kansas and the best ways to eradicate them.
1. Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)
- Local Name: Small-flower bindweed, Creeping jenny, Possession vine
- Family: Convolvulaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Field bindweed is a perennial vining plant that grows up to 2m tall. It produces simple, alternate green leaves about 5 cm wide and 10 cm long.
The slightly hairy smooth stems twine or lie prostrate on the ground, forming a dense cover.
Field bindweed produces funnel-shaped white to pink flowers about 2.5 cm wide.
It is native to:
- Europe
- Asia
Removal Methods
- Pulling: Hand-pulling is adequate for small patches of young plants.
- Natural Methods: Natural remedies like vinegar-dish soap, solarization, and boiling water can eradicate small infestations.
- Herbicides: Apply herbicides with glyphosate, picloram, 2,4-D, and quinclorac to eradicate the weed.
2. Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans)
- Local Name: Nodding Thistle
- Family: Asteraceae
- Annual or Perennial: Biennial, winter annual, or perennial
Musk Thistle is primarily a biennial plant that sometimes behaves as a winter annual or a short-lived perennial. The herbaceous flowering plant grows up to 2m tall.
During the first year, it produces basal leaves that form a rosette and can vary in diameter. The leaves are lanceolate to broadly elliptic and waxy, with whitish and spiky margins. The upper leaves are lanceolate and alternately arranged on the erect stems that emerge from the basal rosette.
Musk thistle produces solitary flowerheads made up of pink to purplish slender disk florets. The head (seemingly “nodding” at maturity) is about 3-7 cm wide and, depending on the size, can produce up to 10,000 seeds by mid-summer.
It is native to:
- Europe
- Asia
Removal Methods
- Digging: Dig up the plants (at least two inches below the ground) with a spade or shovel. Alternatively, cut the flowers and burn them to prevent resprouting.
- Mechanical Control: Repeated mowing in the late blooming stage can help reduce seed production.
- Herbicides: Apply herbicides like dicamba, 2,4-D, picloram, and metsulfuron-methyl to actively growing plants for effective control.
- Biological Control: Introducing the rosette weevil can provide a long-term approach to musk thistle control. The results are typically observed 6 to 10 years after release.
3. Sericea Lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata)
- Local Name: Chinese bush-clover
- Family: Fabaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Sericea lespedeza is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant that grows up to 1.5 m tall. It produces green to ashy green leaves about ¼ inch wide and 1 inch long.
The leaves are wedge-shaped, hairy, and alternately crowded along the woody stem. Sericea lespedeza produces bell-shaped short clusters of white to creamy flowers with purple markings in the upper axils.
It is native to:
- Asia
Removal Methods
- Mechanical Control: Mowing the plants at the flower bud stage for 2-3 consecutive years will help reduce the spread. Late spring-controlled burning followed by intensive grazing with mature cattle can also help control the weeds.
- Chemical Control: The most effective treatment for this weed is a herbicide combination of triclopyr and fluroxypyr. Other effective herbicides include pre-emergents like imazapic and aminocyclopyrachlor.
- Integrated Management: Combining two control methods, such as a summer spraying followed by controlled burn or vice versa, can provide quicker and more effective results.
4. Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense)
- Local Name: Johnsongrass
- Family: Poaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Johnsongrass is perennial clumping grass with upright stems that grow up to 2.5 m tall. It produces simple green leaves about 1-4 cm wide and 20-90 cm long.
The leaf blades are flat, drooping, and hairless (although it can be hairy near the base of the leaf) with a prominent white midrib.
The weed produces open, oval to oblong panicles containing yellow to purple paired spikelets about 1 cm long.
It is native to:
- Mediterranean Region of Europe
- Asia Minor
Removal Methods
- Pulling: For small infestations, pull out individual plants and ensure that you uproot all the rhizomes and remove them from the area.
- Mechanical Control: Repeated tillage can help prevent rhizome development. Grazing can also help minimize the spread of the grass.
- Herbicides: Apply Roundup to actively growing foliage for effective control.
5. Bur Ragweed (Ambrosia grayii)
- Local Name: Wooly Leaf bursage
- Family: Asteraceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Bur ragweed is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows 30-60 cm tall. It produces greenish-gray leaves about 5 cm long. The leaves are broadly ovate, long-petioled, and alternately arranged on the stem.
The weed produces inconspicuous flower heads with male flowers in the terminal racemes and solitary female flowers in the leaf axils. The heads mature into spiny burs about 0.3-0.6 cm long.
It is native to:
- West-Central part of the United States including, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
Removal Methods
- Chemical Control: Repeated applications of herbicides like dicamba, 2,4-D ester, glyphosate, imazapic, and picloram are effective in bur ragweed control.
6. Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule)
- Local Name: Henbit
- Family: Lamiaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Annual and sometimes biennial
Henbit is an annual (and sometimes a biennial) broadleaf weed that grows close to 15 inches tall. It produces simple heart-shaped leaves about 1.5 cm wide and 1.5 cm long.
The upper leaves are hairy on the upper surface with scalloped edges and oppositely arranged on the square greenish-purple stems. The lower leaves are sessile or clasping, while the upper leaves have subtending flower clusters.
Henbit produces pinkish-purple tubular-shaped flowers about 2 cm long.
It is native to:
- Asia
- Europe
- Northern Africa
Removal Methods
- Pulling: Hand pulling or hoeing is adequate for removing small populations of henbit.
- Herbicides: Apply a pre-emergent herbicide containing dithiopyr or prodiamine in late summer or post-emergence herbicides containing dicamba, mecoprop-p, and 2,4-D.
7. Common Chickweed (Stellaria media)
- Local Name: Common chickweed
- Family: Caryophyllaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Annual
Common chickweed is a cool-season annual that grows 5-15 cm tall. The low-growing weed produces bright green, simple, oppositely arranged leaves about 0.3-2.5 cm wide and 3-4 cm long.
The oval-shaped leaves are slightly wide at the base, with an acute tip and toothless margin. Common chickweed blooms small white flowers with star-shaped petals about 1cm wide.
It is native to:
- Europe
- Asia
- North Africa
Removal Methods
- Natural Methods: Home remedies like vinegar, vinegar-dish soap solution, and boiling water can help control the weed.
- Mechanical control: Hand pulling and hoeing can help eradicate small infestations or young plants.
- Mulching: A 2-3 inch layer of organic mulch such as wood chips, pine bark, or rice hulls can help prevent germination.
- Herbicides: Apply a post-emergent herbicide like prodiamine to prevent germination. You can also apply post-emergence herbicides with products like dicamba, fluroxypyr, or MCPP.
8. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
- Local Name: Dandelion
- Family: Asteraceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Dandelion is a perennial weed that grows up to 30 cm tall. It produces dark green leaves about 1-7 cm wide and 5-30 cm long.
They emerge from a deep root system, forming a crowded basal rosette. The leaves are oblong and lanceolate, with lobed margins pointing towards the stem.
The weed produces solitary yellow flowers with 100-300 ray florets and grows on hollow stems about 7-30 cm tall. The flowers mature to become puffballs of parachute-like seeds.
It is native to:
- Europe
- Asia
Removal Methods
- Mechanical Control: Hand pulling can be effective in eradicating small infestations. You can also use special dandelion digging tools to remove the weeds.
- Lawn Maintenance: Regular mowing, fertilizing, and mulching can discourage weed growth.
- Natural Methods: Spray vinegar-dish soap solution or boiling water to kill the weeds.
- Herbicides: Apply a selective herbicide containing dicamba, 2,4-D or non-selective herbicides with glyphosate to eradicate dandelions.
9. Barnyardgrass (Echinochloa muricata)
- Local Name: Long Barnyard grass
- Family: Poaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Annual
Barnyardgrass is an annual grass that grows up to 1.5m tall. It produces green flat leaves about 0.5-2.5 cm wide and 10-20 cm long.
The leaves are narrow at the base with conspicuous mid-vein and have wavy-toothed margins. Barnyard grass produces green flower heads and rough seeds with tiny bristles pointing toward the plant tip.
It is native to:
- Europe
- South Asia
Removal Methods
- Cultural Control: Maintaining a healthy lawn through regular mowing and fertilizing will discourage growth.
- Herbicides: Apply a pre-emergent herbicide containing clomazone, dithiopyr, and siduron or post-emergent products with glyphosate, quinclorac, or fenoxaprop to eradicate the grass weed.
10. Green Foxtail (Setaria viridis)
- Local Name: Green bristlegrass
- Family: Poaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Annual
Green foxtail is an annual clump-forming grass that grows up to 70-120 cm tall. It produces green leaves about 4-25 mm wide and 3-30 cm long.
The leaves are flat or folded, smooth to slightly rough, and tapered to long points. The weed produces upright, cylindrical panicles about 2 cm wide and 2-3 cm long at the tip of the stem, with numerous branches bearing 5-6 spikelets.
It is native to:
- Asia
- Europe
- North Africa
Removal Methods
- Cultural Control: Early seeding and fertilizing to maintain a lush and healthy lawn will help outcompete the weeds.
- Mechanical Control: Tillage, rotary hoeing (using rotary tine to dig the soil), and flame torching can help control green foxtail.
- Herbicides: Apply a pre-emergence herbicide containing pendimethalin or post-emergence products containing quinclorac or glyphosate to eradicate green foxtail.
Lead Editor for Insight Weeds.