Noxious Weeds Within Mitchell County, KS
Photos & Descriptions  ...  Mitchell County Weed Department

Stan Deneke  |  Cyndee McCullough

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Field Bindweed

• Field bindweed is a perennial that reproduces by seeds and rhizomes.
• Vines many feet long trail over the soil and vegetation and often form dense mats.
• Leaves alternate along the stem and are attached to it by a short leaf stalk or petiole.
• Leaf size and shape may vary considerably; typically leaves are up to two inches long and ovate (egg-shaped) with a pair of basal lobes pointing down and/or outward.
• Flowers are funnel-shaped, one-inch in diameter, white to pinkish, and borne singly on the long flower stalk.
• Two small bracts (appendages) on the flower stalk, 1/2 to 2 inches below the flower, distinguish field bindweed from hedge bindweed.
  

Information referenced from “Field Bindweed: A Noxious Weed in Kansas,” published by the Kansas State Board of Agriculture Plant Health Division, June 1986.

Hoary Cress

• Hoary cress is a perennial Forb that originated in Eurasia. It flowers from April through June, and reproduces through rhizomes and seeds.
• Found in pastures, small grain fields, roadsides, ravines, meadows, and waste places, livestock will graze hoary cress, but only when better forage is unavailable. Its seed are eaten by ground-foraging birds. The foliage of hoary cress contains a substance causing irritation to mucous membranes of animals. It is only a problem when forage is in short supply.
• The plant can grow up to 2 feet tall and have many white flowers with four petals, and each flower is clustered into groups.
• Hoary cress is an aggressive weed that often forms large, dense stands which are difficult to eradicate or control.

Johnsongrass

• Johnsongrass is an upright perennial grass, reproducing by rhizomes and seeds.
  
• It is well adapted to compete with crop plants.
• Stems reach up to 6 to 8 feet high or more, from a freely branching fiberous root system, which produces extensive rhizomes within six weeks of germination.
  
• The leaves alternate, simple, relatively wide and long.
• Spikelets are 1-flowered, in groups of 3, in large open panicles.
• The fruit is a caryopsis or grain, finely striate, reddish-brown with two knobbed rachillae extending upward from the base of the seed.
• Flowers from May until frost and seeds to frost.
  

Information referenced from “Johnson Grass,” published by the Kansas State Board of Agriculture Plant Health Division.

Musk Thistle

• Musk thistle normally requires two years to complete its life cycle (i.e. biennial or winter annual).
• Occasionally, the plant completes its life cycle in one growing season (i.e. summer annual).
• The typical biennial musk thistle exhibits itself the first year in the from of a rosette, a cluster of tightly packed leaves laying flat on the ground. Rosettes vary in diameter from a few inches to three feet.
• Musk thistle overwinters as a rosette.
• During the rosette stage (either fall or spring) musk thistle is most susceptible to chemical control.
• In its second year of growth, the musk thistle plant will leave the rosette stage as its stem elongates (bolts) toward the mature, flowering plant.
• Chemical control is less effective during the bolted stage and chemical susceptibility continues to decline as the plant reaches maturity.
• The leaves of musk thistle are deeply lobed (segmented), hairless, and are dark green with a light green mid-rib.
• A silver-gray leaf margin is characteristic of each spine-tipped lobe.
• The leaf base extends down the stem to give the plant a winged appearance.
• Musk thistle is the first of the Kansas thistles to bloom in the spring.
• Flowering begins in mid-May and continues through early July.
• Each head consists of many tightly packed rose to purple colored flowers encased in a series of spine-tipped, green bracts.
• The terminal (uppermost) head is 1 1/2 - 3 inches in diameter, solitary, and generally bent over or nodding.
• The mature plant is generally branched, with lower branch producing one or more heads.
• Flowering begins with the terminal head and progresses downward.
• Musk thistle heads are distinguished by their "powder puff" shape.

Information referenced from “Musk Thistle: A Noxious Weed in Kansas,” published by the Kansas State Board of Agriculture Plant Health Division.

Bull Thistle

• The Bull Thistle is also becoming more common in Mitchell County and is a county optioned noxious weed.
• Branching, erect biennial, 2 to 6 feet tall.
• Long, sharp spines on the leaves at the midrib and the tips of the lobes.
• Leaves are deeply lobed and hairy - there are coarse hairs on leaf tops, making leaf feel rough to the touch, and woolly hairs on the underside.
• Leaf bases extend down onto stems and form spiny wings along the stems.
• The shaving-brush-like blooms are usually a purplish pink-magenta flower head atop each stem.
• Flower heads are “gumdrop” shaped and spines extend all around the base of the flower heads.
• This plant spreads rapidly in pastures if not controlled.
• This hairy, dark green perennial plant will bloom from August to September.

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