• Red Sorrel

    Red sorrel is a perennial weed of low-maintenance sites characterized by dry, infertile and often low pH soils. Red sorrel will survive at neutral pH but is usually not as prevalent because the turf will be more competitive under these conditions.

  • Wild Violet

    Wild violet is a low-growing clumping (simple) perennial with a dense, fibrous root system and heart-shaped leaves that often cup toward the petiole to form a funnel shape. Wild violet is often considered difficult-to-control due to its aggressive growth, waxy leaves and resistance to most common herbicides.

  • Field Horsetail

    Field horsetail is most often a weed of landscape beds and low-lying areas. Horsetail can survive in turf, but often will not persist with routine mowing.

  • Chicory

    Chicory is a simple (unbranched) perennial with a jagged fleshy taproot. The coarsely-toothed basal leaves are 6-8" long and form a rosette.

  • Silvery Thread Moss

    Silvery thread moss is the most common species found in turfgrass, usually appearing on putting greens and in shaded back yards.

  • Creeping Woodsorrel

    Creeping woodsorrel is a spreading perennial weed with a reddish-purple color that frequently roots at the nodes.

  • Large Crabgrass

    Large crabgrass is a common invader of manicured turf. Large crabgrass has hairs on all surfaces. It can be identified by its light green appearance and swollen, zig-zag nodes.

  • Shepherd's Purse

    Shepherd's purse is a winter annual with a basal rosette of lobed leaves and a long flowering stalk. Leaves become more deeply lobed as they mature. Due to extremely long-lived seeds and an affinity for disturbed soil, it is most often a weed of new seedings established between mid-August and the end of September.

  • Bacterial Wilt

    Bacterial wilt is characterized by tiny red-copper-colored spots first appearing about the size of a dime. As more plants die, spots become larger. Small, yellow leaf spots, streaked tan to dark brown spots, dark green, water soaked lesions, shriveled blue to dark green leaves, and yellow elongated leaves are all symptoms that have been associated with bacterial wilt.

  • Field Bindweed

    Field bindweed is a common weed in subdivisions that were converted from agricultural land. Bindweed has an aggressive rhizomatous root system with trailing stems that spread quickly and can overtake mulched beds, bushes and fence rows. It is common to see bindweed smothering junipers and other bushes. The white and pink flowers are distinctly from the morningglory family. The veins are conspicuous on the arrowhead shaped leaves (sagitate or hastate).

  • Melting Out

    Symptoms of melting-out resemble leaf spot symptoms and these two diseases are often grouped together. Melting out however is a cool-weather disease where leaf spot is a warm-weather disease.

  • Pythium Blight

    Pythium first appears as circular reddish brown spots in the turf, ranging in diameter from 1 to 6 in. In the morning dew, infected leaf blades appear water soaked and dark and may feel slimy.

  • Crown Rot Anthracnose

    Anthracnose can occur as both a foliar infecting and crown infecting disease.

  • Brown Patch

    Brown patch appears as circular patches, ranging from a few inches to several feet in diameter.

  • Prostrate Spurge

    Prostrate spurge is a late-germinating, low growing, mat-producing summer annual. Spurge is very often found in un-irrigated bark mulch common to parking lot tree islands, crevices and boulevards.

  • Necrotic Ring Spot

    The pathogen attacks root systems in the spring and fall, and in the summer, infected plants begin to wilt in patches.

  • Common Mallow

    Common mallow most often establishes along culverts, fencelines and near foundations. Common mallow forms a clump whorled branches that do not root where they touch the ground.

  • Annual Bluegrass

    Annual bluegrass is unique among weeds. There is probably no other weed that is so widely adapted to variations in mowing height, site conditions and cultural practices.

  • Green Foxtail

    Green foxtail is a clumping annual grass that commonly invades Michigan turfs. Young plants can be difficult to distinguish from other grasses like crabgrass. Green foxtail produces a characteristic 'foxtail'-like seedhead.

  • Perennial Sowthistle

    Perennial sowthistle is common in roadside and low maintenance turf and somewhat less common in landscapes. It prefers slightly alkaline or neutral soils, fine-textured, rich soils. Perennial sowthistle will not thrive on coarse sandy soils.