Shepherd’s Purse can complete its life cycle quickly, so can undergo several generations within one year.
Starting as a rosette, it can be hard to identify as it looks similar to Hawksbeard, although the leaf shape is slightly different.
The flower stems contain small white flowers, which form characteristic heart-shaped seed pods.
Control
It tolerates quite a few different herbicides, including selective herbicides such as dicamba, clopyralid, picloram and trifluralin. It is well controlled by MCPA (Trimec and Legend) and 2,4-D.
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