A weed can be any plant growing where you don't want it to. However, there are some particularly weedy species to keep an eye out for. These aggressive plants not only make your yard look messy, they can also choke out the garden plants you've worked so hard to grow. Whether you're trying to identify lawn weeds or garden weeds, this handy guide will help you identify more than 30 common weeds by photo, plus give you tips for how to best remove them.
Dandelion
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: 12 inches tall, 6-16 inches wide
Where It Grows: Lawns and gardens in sun or shade
Appearance: This common lawn weed has a long taproot with deeply notched leaves. Yellow flowers mature into puffballs. Dandelion seeds are like parachutes that fly away in the wind, helping them invade new spaces in lawns and garden beds.
Weed Control Tips: Mulch to prevent dandelions in gardens. Pull dandelion weeds by hand or treat lawns with a broadleaf herbicide, which won't kill grass.
Oxalis
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: Up to 20 inches tall
Where It Grows: Sunny or shady landscape, lawn or garden areas
Appearance: This garden weed has light green leaves that look somewhat like clovers and cup-shape yellow flowers in summer and fall.
Weed Control Tips: Mulch garden areas in spring to prevent weeds. Pull oxalis weeds by hand or spray weeds with a broadleaf herbicide in spring or fall.
Crabgrass
Type: Grassy annual
Size: Up to 18 inches tall and 20 inches wide
Where It Grows: Lawn, landscape, and garden areas in sun or shade
Appearance: Crabgrass is exactly what it sounds like: A grassy weed. This lawn weed grows roots anywhere the stem makes soil contact. Seed heads spread out like four fingers.
Control: Use a pre-emergent weed preventer to stop seeds from sprouting, pull crabgrass by hand, or spot-treat with a nonselective herbicide if growing in sidewalk cracks or other places where nothing else is growing.
Types of Weed Killers
A pre-emergent herbicide works on weed seeds. It won't have an effect once plants start to grow.
A post-emergent herbicide targets weeds that are already growing.
A broadleaf herbicide kills non-grass type plants.
A nonselective herbicide kills any plant it touches.
Bindweed
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: Climbs to 6 feet or more
Where It Grows: Landscape and garden areas in sun
Appearance: Identify this garden weed by its arrowhead-shape leaves on twining vines. Bindweed also produces white to pale pink morning glory-type flowers.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent bindweed. Repeatedly pull or cut down growing bindweed plants and/or spot treat with a nonselective herbicide designed to kill roots, not just above-ground growth.
White Clover
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: 8-10 inches tall, 12 inches wide
Where It Grows: Lawn, landscape, and garden areas in sun to partial shade
Appearance: White clover has three-lobe leaves and round white flower clusters. The plants quickly spread outward to form dense mats of foliage.
Control: Mulch your garden beds to prevent white clover in landscape areas. Use an iron-based herbicide to get rid of clover growing in lawns or dig out the weeds in garden beds.
Test Garden Tip: Clover adds nitrogen to the soil plus the flowers feed many pollinators so some gardeners use this plant to create a more environmentally friendly lawn.
Nutsedge
Type: Grass-like perennial
Size: 2 feet tall, 1 foot wide
Where It Grows: Lawn, landscape, or garden areas in sun or shade
Appearance: Nutsedge has slender, grassy leaves, triangular stems, and small, nutlike tubers on the root system. When these weeds pop up in lawns, they often grow faster than turf grass, so they are easy to spot.
Control: Mulch garden areas in spring to help prevent nutsedge. Plants are easy to pull up by hand, but it will take repeated weeding to get rid of an infestation. Various herbicides are labeled for use on nutsedge in lawns but it is important to use the right one for the type of turf grass you have to avoid damaging it.
Creeping Charlie
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: 4 inches tall, several feet wide
Where It Grows: Shady lawn, landscape, or garden areas
Appearance: Identify this lawn weed and groundcover by its scalloped leaves, creeping stems, and clusters of purple flowers in late spring.
Control: Mulch garden areas in spring to prevent creeping charlie. Pull plants by hand or spray with a post-emergent herbicide in spring or fall.
Lamb's-Quarter
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: Up to 4 feet tall and 18 inches wide
Where It Grows: Landscape and garden areas in sun or shade
Appearance: Lamb's-quarters has scalloped, triangular leaves with gray undersides.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent lamb's-quarter. Pull weed plants by hand or use a post-emergent herbicide.
Plantain
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: Up to 8 inches tall and 12 inches wide
Where It Grows: Moist lawn and garden areas in sun or shade
Appearance: When you're identifying weeds in your garden, if you spot broad, flat, oval-shape leaves arranged in a low rosette, you've likely found a Plantain.
Control: Mulch to prevent plantains growing in the garden. Pull these weeds by hand or use a post-emergent herbicide in lawns.
Dayflower
Type: Annual grass relative
Size: Up to 30 inches tall and wide
Where It Grows: Sunny or shady landscape areas
Appearance: Dayflowers have dark green leaves sprouting from a stem and brilliant blue flowers through the summer.
Control: Mulch the garden to prevent weeds or use a pre-emergent herbicide in spring. Pull weeds by hand or spot-treat with a nonselective herbicide.
Purslane
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: Up to 6 inches tall and 2 feet wide
Where it grows: Dry, sunny landscape and garden areas
Appearance: Identify this weed groundcover by its fleshy, dark green leaves and small yellow flowers at the ends of the stems.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent purslane or use a pre-emergent herbicide in the spring. Pull plants by hand or spot-treat with a nonselective herbicide.
Velvetleaf
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: Up to 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide
Where It Grows: Fertile, sunny landscape and garden areas
Appearance: Velvetleaf gets its name because of its large, velvety heart-shape leaves up to 10 inches across. The weed blooms with yellow flowers in summer.
Weed Control: Mulch your garden to prevent velvetleaf or use a pre-emergent herbicide in spring. Pull existing plants by hand or use a post-emergent herbicide.
Wild Violet
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: 6 inches tall, 6 inches wide
Where It Grows: Shady lawn, landscape, or garden areas
Appearance: Wild violet is a groundcover with heart-shape leaves and purple flowers in late spring.
Control: Mulch garden beds in spring to prevent wild violet. Pull weeds by hand or spray with a broadleaf herbicide in spring or fall.
Test Garden Tip: This plant is sometimes grown as an ornamental in shade gardens.
Smartweed
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: Up to 42 inches tall and 30 inches wide
Where It Grows: Sunny landscape and garden areas
Appearance: Identify garden weeds like smartweed by its lance-shape leaves often marked with purple chevrons. It's an upright plant with pink or white flowers in summer and fall.
Control: To prevent this weed, mulch garden beds in spring. Pull plants by hand or apply an herbicide.
Test Garden Tip: This weed is native to areas of North America. Unlike many exotic weeds, it supports local wildlife.
Quickweed
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: Up to 2 feet tall and wide
Where It Grows: Sunny landscape and garden areas
Appearance: Quickweed has jagged, hairy leaves and small white daisy-shape flowers in summer.
Control: Use mulch or a pre-emergent herbicide in spring to prevent quickweed. If plants do grow, pull them by hand.
Pigweed
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: 6 feet tall, 2 feet wide
Where it grows: Sunny landscape or garden areas
Appearance: Pigweeds are tall plants with a taproot. Identify weeds by their hairy-looking clusters of green flowers (though some varieties are grown as annuals).
Control: Mulch garden areas in spring to prevent pigweed or use a pre-emergent herbicide in spring. Pull weeds by hand or spray with an herbicide.
Canada Thistle
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: Up to 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide
Where It Grows: Sunny lawn, landscape, or garden areas
Appearance: Canada thistle has spiny, gray-green leaves, and purple flowers.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent it in landscape areas. Use a broadleaf herbicide in lawns in spring or fall, or dig the weed out by hand (wear thick gloves to avoid the sharp spines.)
Test Garden Tip: Thistle has an extensive root system that can grow several feet out from the main plant.
Knotweed
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: Up to 8 inches tall and 2 feet wide
Where It Grows: Sunny or partly shaded lawn, landscape, or garden areas
Appearance: Knotweed is an invasive groundcover with blue-green leaves sparsely appearing on long stems.
Control: Prevent knotweed with a deep layer of mulch or apply a pre-emergent herbicide in spring. Once the plant grows, hand-pull or spot-treat it with a nonselective weed killer.
Pokeweed
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: Up to 10 feet tall and 2 feet wide
Where It Grows: Sunny landscape or garden areas
Appearance: Identify this garden weed by its light green leaves, clusters of white flowers, and dark purple berries.
Control: Prevent pokeweed seeds from germinating with a deep layer of mulch. Once the plant grows, hand-pull or spot-treat it with an herbicide.
Poison Ivy
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: Up to 15 feet tall and wide
Where It Grows: Sunny or shady landscape or garden areas
Appearance: Poison ivy can be a vine, shrub, or groundcover. The weed has leaves divided into three leaflets and can sprout clusters of green berries.
Control: Prevent poison ivy with a deep layer of mulch. If the weed starts to grow in your yard, spot-treat it with an herbicide or wrap your hand in a plastic bag, pull the plant up, roots and all, and carefully invert the plastic bag around the plant, seal, and throw away.
Test Garden Tip: The plant contains oils that cause a severe allergic skin reaction in many people when touched. These oils are present even on dead leaves and can become airborne and inhaled if the plant is burned.
Black Nightshade
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: 2 feet tall, 2 feet wide
Where It Grows: Landscape or garden areas with rich soil in sun or shade
Appearance: Black nightshade can be a bushy or climbing plant with white or purple flowers and purple or red fruits.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent black nightshade. Pull the weed by hand or treat with an herbicide.
Test Garden Tip: All parts of this plant are poisonous (including the fruits) if swallowed.
Black Medic
Type: Broadleaf annual or short-lived perennial
Size: 1-2 feet tall, 1 foot wide
Where It Grows: Poor, dry, soil in full sun
Appearance: Identify this garden weed by its clover-type leaves and small, yellow flowers. It grows as a dense mat, thanks to its creeping stems.
Control: Mulch to prevent black medic in gardens. Pull or dig out weeds by hand or use an herbicide. Discourage it by keeping the soil well watered and amended with organic matter (such as compost).
Quackgrass
Type: Grassy perennial
Size: Up to 3 feet tall and several feet wide
Where It Grows: Landscape and garden areas in sun or shade
Appearance: This garden weed has wheatlike flower spikes, which appear above slender clumps of grassy foliage.
Control: Mulch your garden well to prevent quackgrass. Dig plants out by hand, being sure to remove every bit of root. Spot treat with a nonselective weed killer.
Dock
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: Up to 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide
Where It Grows: Landscape and garden areas in sun or shade
Appearance: Dock produces large, wavy-edge leaves and large seed heads covered with brown seeds.
Control: Mulch to prevent dock. Pull and dig up plants or treat with an herbicide.
Henbit
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: Up to 12 inches tall and wide
Where It Grows: Lawn, landscape, and garden areas in sun or shade
Appearance: This lawn weed is a low, creeping plant with scallop-edge leaves and purple flowers.
Control: Mulch to prevent henbit in gardens or use pre-emergent herbicide in spring. Pull plants by hand or treat in lawns with a broadleaf herbicide.
Fleabane
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: 2 feet tall and 18 inches wide
Where It Grows: Landscape and garden areas in sun to partial shade
Appearance: Fleabane has slender leaves attached to an upright, branching stem. It produces puffy white to pale lavender daisies.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent fleabane or use a pre-emergent herbicide in spring. Pull plants by hand or spot-treat with an herbicide.
Nettle
Type: Broadleaf perennial
Size: Up to 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide
Where It Grows: Garden areas with rich, moist soil
Appearance: This garden weed has sawtooth-edge leaves and yellowish flower clusters covered with stinging hairs.
Control: Mulch to prevent nettle. Dig out weeds or treat with an herbicide.
Test Garden Tip: Always wear gloves when working around this plant (the sharp hairs can irritate skin).
Prostrate Spurge
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: 3 inches tall, 18 inches wide
Where It Grows: Lawn, landscape, and garden areas with dry soil
Appearance: Green or purple-blushed leaves of prostrate spurge form dense mats.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent prostrate spurge or use a pre-emergent herbicide in lawns. Pull weeds when young or spot-treat with an herbicide.
Chickweed
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: 6 inches tall, 12 inches wide
Where It Grows: Lawn, garden, and landscape areas with rich, moist soil in sun or shade
Appearance: This garden and lawn weed creates lush green mats studded with small, star-shape flowers.
Control: Mulch to prevent chickweed in gardens or use a pre-emergent herbicide in early spring. Pull weeds by hand.
Musk Thistle
Type: Broadleaf biennial
Size: Up to 6 feet tall and 18 inches wide
Where It Grows: Landscape and garden areas in full sun
Appearance: Musk thistle has prickly leaves growing off of tall stems topped by heavy two inch purple flowers.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent musk thistle. Use an herbicide or dig the weed out by hand.
Ragweed
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: Up to 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide
Where It Grows: Landscape and garden areas in sun or partial shade
Appearance: Ragweed has finely cut green leaves that are almost fern-like.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent ragweed. Use a post-emergent herbicide or pull it out by hand.
Yellow Sweet Clover
Type: Broadleaf annual
Size: 1-3 feet tall, 12-18 inches wide
Where It Grows: Landscape and garden areas
Appearance: Identify this garden weed by its lanky branches, clover-like leaves, and fragrant yellow flowers.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent yellow sweet clover. Pull plants by hand or spot-treat with an herbicide.
Yellow Salsify
Type: Broadleaf biennial or short-lived perennial
Size: Up to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide
Where It Grows: Sunny landscape and garden areas
Appearance: Spot yellow salsify by its gray-green leaves. Yellow flowers on the plant are followed by large puffballs of seeds.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent yellow salsify. Pull plants by hand or treat with a post-emergent herbicide.
Cudweed
Type: Broadleaf annual or biennial
Size: 10 to 24 inches tall and wide
Where It Grows: Lawns with thin turf grass and rocky or sandy garden soil in full sun
Appearance: Cudweed grows as a low, sparsely branched rosette in winter and as an upright stem in spring with white, lavender, or yellow flowers and gray-green leaves covered in wooly hairs.
Control: Dense turf grass limits cudweed. Remove individual weeds by hand or apply selective herbicide.
Red Deadnettle
Type: Broadleaf winter annual
Size: 4 to 12 inches tall, 12 inches wide
Where It Grows: Sunny areas
Appearance: The plant has square stems and light purple flowers with a tubular shape. New leaves have a purplish tinge.
Control: Use a post-emergent herbicide before the weed flowers or remove individual weeds by hand.
Dallisgrass
Type: Perennial grassy weed
Size: 14 inches to 5 feet tall, 18 inches wide or larger
Where It Grows: Lawns with bare spots, sandy and clay garden soil with full sun or partial shade
Appearance: Course-textured dallisgrass grows in an ever-enlarging circular clump. It resembles crabgrass but is much taller and has larger seed heads.
Control: Maintain a healthy lawn and apply pre- and post-emergent herbicides or remove weeds by hand.
While weeds in your garden are inevitable, you have several options for dealing with them. Hiring a professional lawn care service that offers gardening and weed control options is one hands-off way to address the issue. Weeding early and often will give you the best chance of success. If you choose to use weed killers, always read and follow all directions on the label for your own health and safety, as well as that of others who may come in contact with the product.
