POTD: Field Chickweed

Field Chickweed
Bozeman, Montana
2011

It’s got weed in it’s name and it’s in our Weeds of the West book, but it’s also in two of our wildflower books. So which is it, a weed or a wildflower? Maybe they’re not mutually exclusive categories. I guess I’m going with the wildflower book which says “Many chickweeds are troublesome weeds of field and garden and have small unattractive flowers. The field chickweed, however, is neither weedy nor unattractive.”

2 thoughts on “POTD: Field Chickweed”

  1. Nice photo. Some of the flowers that I have in my native garden are considered weeds by “serious” gardeners. Like beauty, I think “weedness” is in the eye of the beholder and a matter of cultural defintion.

    1. Thanks Jim. One of my books quotes a definition of weeds that says basically a weed is anything you don’t want growing on your land for whatever reason you chose not to want it. So by that definition, “weedness” status can in fact change as soon as you cross a property line. Oh, and just because you quite mowing your lawn three years ago doesn’t mean you have a native garden!

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