# Odd mystery weed



## Monocot Master

Hey folks. I am striking out with Google Lens and on the web for identifying my weed. I am in Zone 8, and this thing is persistent throughout most, if not all of the year. I tried to get a complete specimen but only got part. But there appears to be some tubers, or some sort of root structures. Thanks in advance for any input


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## Grizzly Adam

Looks like a friggin green onion. I am wrong.


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## Monocot Master

That is true. The leaf tissue is soft like onion also. So, it may be related to onion. We'll see


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## Grizzly Adam

Does it smell like onion or garlic at all?


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## Monocot Master

No smell


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## Spammage

I would like to name it "Billy". Thanks!

jk - I would have guessed onion or something similar as well...


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## Monocot Master

The closest looking plant I can find is Beijing grass, Murdannia loriformis, a species related to doveweed. Except my weed appears to be hanging on pretty well through some cold weather. And like doveweed, Beijing grass is not cold tolerant according to the internet.

I did get a small foaming dispenser for gly apps for spot control. I have a small enough amount of this weed so that is how I am going to deal with it. But I am still interested in an id on the weed if there are any ideas out there.

_Edit_ - Definitely not Beijing grass


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## ruscar

I was hoping someone had a answer to your question about what that "weed" is. I have about two dozen + throughout my yard. Have applied Roundup, almost full strength, several times and it had zero effect. Will continue to follow this and good luck.


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## Monocot Master

Thanks for the post. I am still working on a positive id. I probably need to reach out to NCSU or my local Extension.

We finally got extended cold weather and frosts. That yellowed it a bit but it is still hanging on. I have not tried the glyphosate yet, but I can mix it heavy in the foam applicator that I bought. Hopefully that will work.

https://www.greenshootsonline.com/products/small-foam-herbicide-dispenser


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## Grizzly Adam

Monocot Master said:


> I have not tried the glyphosate yet, but I can mix it heavy in the foam applicator that I bought. Hopefully that will work.


If it's as resistant as ruscar states, you may need to brush the concentrate directly on the foliage of the plant.


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## ruscar

I took my posthole digger to make sure I got deep enough to lift out the "bulb" I just knew this thing had! WRONG! Not what I figured was down below. Big fat tuberous roots. The root in the picture are the complete roots. Not broken or cut off. I have no idea how this plant spreads. Never seen it bloom.


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## Grizzly Adam

Looks alien! Run away!


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## Monocot Master

Wow! Never knew it had roots like that. As soon as we get a warm stretch I am going to try the glyphosate in my foam dispenser. I will add a kicker if that does not work.


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## Monocot Master

Thanks again for the pic. Those roots should be helpful in a positive id


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## Monocot Master

It may be colicroot, also known by stargrass, and true unicorn root. All the photos I found on the web are the plant in it's natural habitat. So, leaves are not as dark green as they are when in the lawn. And also a pretty long flowering stem that would not be seen in a typical lawn.

It could also be one of the native orchids, maybe Spiranthes sp. Especially seeing the roots in that photo makes me think orchid.

@ruscar If it is colicroot It has medicinal properties, so why don't you chew on a few of those roots and let us know what happens :thumbup:


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## ruscar

This morning I took the two plants shown above over to my UGA county extension office and left them. The lady said she would e-mail pic's to several people to try to find a answer for me.

This afternoon I saw your reply from last night. Sure thought you had found the answer. But when I was looking at all the pic from Google I came across https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/455322/#b that shows the plant with root structure. Also https://eol.org/media/7301 So now I don't know.

Received a e-mail


> It appears that the weed is a spiderwort species that does not finish seeding out based on the temps (this is common).
> 
> ID by Dr. Patrick McCullough


Not so sure this is it either. Can't find a pic that shows the roots. I think the roots is key to id. :dunno:


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## Monocot Master

Since the weed appears to be obscure, whatever it is I do not think it will be listed on any of the herbicide labels. But I have a hunch it may take a good sedge and broadleaf control herbicide like sulfentrazone.


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## Spammage

Nothing referenced (including the spiderwort) show roots like what this plant has.


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## Monocot Master

@Spammage True. That is why I am thinking orchid (Spiranthes). But I cannot really get a perfect match on the leaf structure. Roots, yes. And I have seen the flower stalk on this weed before, and it is similar to the pre-bloom stage of Spiranthes.

https://scnps.org/plant-id/spiranthes-orchid-from-kelley-in-sc


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## ruscar

Terrestrial native orchid? I am going to transplant several from my lawn to a different location to see what happens. Stay tuned.

Part 2. This is mostly a FYI! In one of my earlier post I said I have applied Round-up several times with zero effect. I am old, been around a long time, over the hill, nearing the bottom. When I referred to Round-up, that is Glyphosate 41%. That is what Round-up use to mean. Today it has become a "Brand Name". Anyway I applied at the rate 8 oz. gly. to 8 oz. water. 50-50 mix, app. spaced 5 days apart. No results.
 In this pic look close and you can see a skinny, longer, light colored grass like plant. That is my MAGOR problem weed. Green Kyllinga. Never noticed it before late year before last. So early last year I set out to get ride of it. I bought

 at great $$$$ expense. After everything greened up and started growing I did a blanket spray with Tenacity. It did knock it down for a short while. Next came a blanket spray with Dismiss. It too did knock it down for about two weeks I followed up with spot spray with Dismiss. By now it is above 90 degrees every day, which is the cutoff for Dismiss. It continues to reemerge. Now spot spraying with Certainty. It too knocked it down for a while. Next was Certainty with Sedgehammer mix. It is now late summer, still into the 90's but I did another spot wit Dismiss as it seemed to work the best. But with it still so hot it did burn some of my Centipede down. Have now added Celero to this years battle.

The reason I am telling all the above is....... look closely at the pic above with the Kyllinga. I had a couple of hard frost mid December and it sent the grass semi-dormant. Late December, early January the grass started to green up and even grow a little. The Kyllinga was coming out quite well and growing pretty good. I mixed up my 50-50 glyphosate and carefully applied a stream to all the Kyllinga and the mystery weed mid January. In the pic above you can see the Kyllinga may have died but the other weed is still green. And all that Kyllinga treatment through out the summer/fall did nothing to the mystery weed. The sedge control did nothing to the mystery weed.

As I said just a little info on what I have done. I do so hope my January attack on the Kyllinga has killed some of it!


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## Monocot Master

Thank you, that is all good info. I've had pretty good success physically removing individual plants using my soil sampler, taking a core right through the center of the plant. But not sure what happens from there. Does it re-sprout from anything left in the soil. So far I have not noticed that happening. But, this weed was always an afterthought, as I only had a few stray ones here and there and I did not pay much attention. I have more now, but manual removal is still an option because I only have 6K sqft of turf.


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## ruscar

> using my soil sampler, taking a core right through the center of the plant.


Genius!!


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## Monocot Master

Expensive sampling tools for what they are. May as well find another use for it, right?!


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## Monocot Master

Yesterday I treated said weed and a few others with gly + the recommended dye that I ordered with the applicator from Green Shoots. It was sunny and warm, so should there should have been good uptake. Will update with results.


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## Monocot Master

Spoke with someone today that knows our native orchids pretty well. After talking with him I feel quite confident about the weed being one of the orchids mentioned in one of my earlier posts.


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## Monocot Master

After repeat applications with the Green Shoots applicator, I think I finally have done in the original weed I posted about. Have also been using it on the winter annual weeds with good success. Such as blue-eyed grass, annual bluegrass, trampweed, and a few other broadleafs. My current mix is around 10% gly. Going to cut that to 5% and see how effective it is at that rate.


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## ruscar

Just to close this out. My plant is Orchid "Spiranthes vernalis" without a doubt. The one I dug and planted in a bed is now blooming just before going dormant. East to see how it got its name. Notice the corkscrew flower arrangement.



Thanks for your help!


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## Monocot Master

Thanks for the update! They are blooming in my area right now as well. You probably saw this in your research, but common name for that orchid is Ladies Tresses. Mine are mostly gone now. If or when they come back I am going to do the manual removal with the soil probe. It took too many glyphosate apps to knock them back.


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## NJlawnguy

Those roots are tubular


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