...for discerning weeders November, 2013
An Okaloosa County Master Gardener Publication
WEED OF THE MONTH Carolina Geranium Geranium carolinianum
Inside this issue:
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Turkey Time!
3
Walk on the
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Wild Side Member Sub-
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missions Food for
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Thought Birthdays!
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Challenge!
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News & Notes
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Book Review
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I have to admit: the name of this weed makes me feel just a little bit tender-hearted about it. I mean, come on! It’s a geranium, right? Um, not quite. This little plant is a rather aggressive coolseason weed. It’s also very widespread and can be found throughout the United States, and parts of Canada and Mexico. You can find it in gardens, fields, pastures, disturbed places and anywhere else the soil has been disturbed. It’s easy to recognize, having a pinkish stem and finely divided leaves. It’s also rather easy to remove. Although it has a taproot, it’s a shallow one. Wait until the soil is moist and just pull the entire clump out of the ground. If you are diligent about pulling Carolina Geranium out before it flowers in spring, you shouldn’t have too much trouble removing this weed without herbicides. Moreover, this geranium is rather mildmannered and can’t usually compete with a vigorous, well-maintained lawn. Proper watering, fertilizing and mowing will usually crowd out Carolina Geraniums.
By Jenny G. Carolina Geranium is sometimes called Wild Geranium, Carolina Cranesbill, Cranesbill or Crane’s Bill. It is normally a biennial but can also be a winter or summer annual broadleaf weed. It prefers dry, open areas, but Carolina Geranium can be found growing in woodlands, prairies, limestone glades, abandoned fields, pastures, lawns, and roadsides. Actually, it grows just about anywhere! Carolina Geranium seedlings are first seen as basal rosettes. As the plant matures, multiple stems arise from the base in an overall circular growth pattern from the center. The elongating, ascending stems are usually pink to red in color. They are densely hairy and can grow 6 to 28 inches from a large tap root.
The leaves, which are ¾ to 2 ½ inches wide, are rounded and deeply divided into 5-9 lobes and each lobe is lobed again and is bluntly toothed. If your lawn or flowerbed is completely overrun Its flower is often white or pink to lavender and with Carolina Geranium and you simply cannot grows two to several together on reddish stems remove it by hand, you can use a selective herbi- from the upper nodes. Each flower has 5 petals. cide for broad-leaf weeds in the lawn. In the Flowers are less than ¼ inch wide and form in flowerbed, the safest thing is to hand-weed. clusters. Flowering typically occurs most often There is no selective herbicide for this weed that in April and May and each flower usually prowon’t also damage most ornamental bedding duces 5 seeds enclosed in a 5-lobed capsule with plants. Because Carolina Geranium reproduces a long central beak, similar to a stork’s beak or mainly by seed, apply a pre-emergent herbicide crane’s bill. Hence the name! in the late summer or early fall. The seeds emerge in fall and winter here and the plants When mature, the capsule springs open from are only really noticeable when our warmthe base and the five divisions curve upward season grasses are dormant.” http:// dispersing seeds a considerable distance. thepapershell.com/winter-weeds-carolina(continued page 2) geranium/ 1