In Seattle our cool season annual weeds are popping up their tenacious little heads again this autumn. Among them — Shotweed. It loves our mild temps and gentle, if persistent, autumn rains. Despite being a weed, it can be quite lovely carpeting flower beds in a lovely brilliant spring green. But as lovely as it can be, it is still a weed. So, after introducing a client to it in her own garden earlier this week, I realized it was time to remind all of you gardening readers that this weed is a multi-season menace. As in February when I first posted this article, now’s yet another time to work on clearing it out of your beds. Read more in the original post that follows:
Original Post from February 2009:
One of the many things I do as a garden coach is teach individuals about the weeds in their gardens. Knowing what a weed is and how it grows helps us understand the best ways to deal with the plant. Today, I begin a garden weed blog series, Weeds in Seattle, with a tenacious little plant – Shotweed (Cardamine oligosperma).
Shotweed Rosette Flowering
I decided to start with Shotweed because it is already showing up in tight little flowering clusters all over the greater Seattle area. It seems innocuous until it takes over the garden. I recall in years past telling a neighbor, “As far as weeds go, this one isn’t too horrible. See it has pretty little white flowers.”
Well, shame on me. Letting those pretty little white flowers form and go to seed just meant I was letting this weed get the best of my garden spaces. Sure, we all have to pick our battles in the garden, and we do what we can to stay on top of everything, but knowing that this is a fairly simple weed to remove means I’m going to encourage you to work at keeping it at bay.
Shotweed Seeds Ripening
Shotweed goes by a variety of common names. Shotweed, spitweed, Pop-in-the-eye Weed, Wild cress, Western Bittercress, and Little Bittercress are just a few of the names you’ll hear. The “shot/spit/pop” names come from from poor souls who try to pull it as it has gone to seed. Once those seed pods ripen, the slightest breeze or touch will send tiny seeds flying all over the garden — and right into your eye. The “cress” terms come from those who harvest it as a food crop. Personally, I haven’t eaten it. However, Seattle Tilth’s Maritime Garden Guide (available here) indicates that the stem tips and flowers are slightly peppery. The USDA site says its not palatable to humans. Many other sources discuss it as a good addition to salads. Again, I haven’t eaten it. If you’re going to try it, be sure to properly identify your plant first and try only a very small amount to start and taste at your own risk. Just because one person can eat something doesn’t mean everyone can!
So, what if you just want to get rid of it? Well, you now know that the seeds fire off in all directions if the plant gets a chance to go to seed. So, ideally, you want to remove it from the garden before it sets seed. Unfortunately, for those of us not growing it as an edible crop, this can mean it appears in our cool-weather gardens multiple times a year. This plant likes cool weather. Seeds germinate even in winter, and start appearing in the garden throughout winter. Right now, I can see several of the tight little rosette forms of the plant in my own garden. And, some of them are even putting on flowers. And this has been going on all winter, even though we’ve had cold and freezes. Fortunately, it takes slightly warmer weather for the flowers to transform into seed pods, so we can get out there now get it before this year’s seeds form. Seed formation will be happening easily by March, if not sooner.
Tiny Shotweed
So, I’m starting to pull the shotweed plants from the garden as I see them. As a self-seeding annual weed, these plants germinate from seed, form a plant that forms flowers and then seeds. When the seeds are spent, the original plant dies. (There are some perennial forms of Cardamine as well, fyi). And, the plant doesn’t form a deep taproot like you’ll find with Dandelions and Dockweeds, which I’ll cover later in this series. Instead, it is fairly shallow-rooted, with wide tiny roots that are easy to pull. It does have a slight taproot, but nothing difficult to remove. Plus, unlike the taproot weeds, if you don’t get all of the root from a shotweed plant, it isn’t likely to grow back (or multiply) from the roots.
It is important to dispose of the pulled plants and not just set them back on the soil. If you pull them and set them down, even root side up, these buggers often have the ability to reroot themselves. Probably this is because they grow in cool, moist weather that can give exposed roots a fighting chance even will removed from the ground.
So, if you get out there now, before the spring growth surge, and remove your shotweed, you’ll have a better chance of reducing its numbers. Keep in mind that this plant can germinate many times in our growing seasons. It only really stops when we hit the dry heat of summer — except that the dying plants will be spitting out new seeds that will germinate when the weather turns cool and moist again. And, of course, those seeds will come to life even sooner if they land in a shady spot that your irrigation reaches.
In Seattle, you’re likely to see plants in the garden starting in January – June and again September-November. Sometimes shotweed will appear in other months as well. The plants can range from the size of a penny to the size of a geranium depending on time of year and its growing environment. And, yes, regardless of size, every plant has the potential to form flowers and seeds!
It may sound like shotweed eradication is an impossible battle to win, but because shotweed is so easy to pull, it’s one weed that doesn’t require a lot of tools. You just need a sharp eye during your daily strolls through the garden and the willingness to pull a few weeds along the way. Of course, if you’ve decided at one time or other that it looks pretty and is no big deal, like I did foolishly years ago, you may need to go after it more seriously the first (and possibly second and third) time around.
Tags: cardamine oligosperma, popweed, shotweed, Weeding, weeds
I hate this one with a passion! I am super vigilant about getting rid of it before it flowers/seeds but still it’s there again every year, seemingly in greater quantities. My mom calls it “popping weed” and it is the bane of her Eastside garden too. Ugh!
After a walk through my garden over the weekend, I was so disappointed to see shotweek popping up everywhere. I thought I had been so thorough last year removing the week before it went to seed. I wonder if there was latent seed in my soil, just waiting for the opportune moment to germinate and grow. I know I will steal 30 minutes here and there to hand weed it out before it goes to seed. As a contact lens wearer, I can attest that the seeds can go right into the eye and pop out a contact! Lens wearers, beware! Get it out of your garden now before seeds form!
PS Do you know that the Google ad running next to this post is one for herbicide?
It doesn’t surprise me that’s the case. If I use the keyword, they will come. Unfortunately, there’s only so much screening I can do. Hopefully folks will read the post and not just buy a random chemical!
Great post! I never knew what this weed was called. I have it too; frankly, it’s the least of my worries. It’s better than bindweed (morning glory)! And hey, it’s edible. I’ll give it a try in my next salad.
Thank you for this post and for the photos that helped me identify this weed. This is the first time I noticed this weed in the seedling state because it shot seeds when I tried to pull it out. Lucky for me it’s edible because I got several in my mouth! Ever since we stopped using chemicals on our lawn several years ago, we have more and more ‘herbs’ I never knew existed. I hate to think how far this one is going to spread.
This is perfect timing! I was planning on weeding today and now I know that in addition to bind weed, thistle, and chickweed, I have shotweed in my garden! Thanks, Robin!
Glad to help Willi. Bindweed and thistle — yuck. Those are tough ones to eradicate. Chickweed and Shotweed are easier to manage, but they never seem to stop coming up.
Good luck out there today!
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Just a comment on the pictures. “Shotweed” refers to nearly all the bittercresses and all of these are hard to differentiate. I believe that these pictures are of Cardamine hirusta, “Hairy Bittercress”. I am not sure how to distinguish C. hirusta from C. oligosperma, but they are quite similar I believe, as are all the bittercresses. The Only way to tell C. hirusta from the others (excepting oligosperma, of which I do not know) is that C. hirusta has an unstraightened petiole.
It’s great in soup and salads, and pairs well with something bland, like potatoes. It’s a little fussy to clean in it’s small stages, and it gets a bit stringy as it sends up it’s flower stalk, though it can still be used in stock at that stage. There’s plenty of it when there’s hardly anything else fresh that’s edible in the garden, a little goes a goodly way, and it eating it seems like a perfect revenge.
[...] mulch, so not too many weed seedlings are showing up yet. Still, I did see quite a few rosettes of shotweed popping up here and there. Soon, if this weather keeps up, I won’t be able to continue to [...]