What kind of weed is this?

[neener92]

These weeds are covering our cattle pastures. We've taken some to our local feed mill to see if anyone there would identify it but nobody knew. It's getting to be a pain! It grows in shaded and moist areas to dry and sunny areas. We sprayed some of it last year, it dead then came right back. It has a pinkish colored stem and gets little pink seeds on it closer to fall, seems to be popping up where we roll out hay for the cattle in the winter. Anybody have any ideas?

 

[elevan]

Looks like a smartweed to me.

 

[Sycamore27]

I'll second the smartweed call, also called knotweed and the scientific name is Polygonum. As I recall from my dad talking about it, it is a pain to get rid of. See if you local Ag office has an ideas or resources on it, or you can find a lot of articles on getting rid of it online from universities and such.

Good luck!
Jessie

 

[Cricket]

x2. It's taking over our pastures terribly--never seen it like this. My husband esp. has noticed it where he has reseeded bare areas or new pasture--he thinks it was in the bag of pasture mix we bought last year ($70.00) Don't know if it's coincidence or not. I tasted it out of curiosity of why my cows and horse wouldn't touch it--much like biting into a HOT pepper.

 

[SheepGirl]

Looks like a plant I had trouble identifying last year... http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=19930

 

[elevan]

x2. It's taking over our pastures terribly--never seen it like this. My husband esp. has noticed it where he has reseeded bare areas or new pasture--he thinks it was in the bag of pasture mix we bought last year ($70.00) Don't know if it's coincidence or not. I tasted it out of curiosity of why my cows and horse wouldn't touch it--much like biting into a HOT pepper.

Some herbalists recommend it as a substitute for pepper

Smartweed is taking over areas of my yard and field (by the pond) this year like it never has before and we didn't do any reseeding. I think it just likes the weather we're having this year.

 

[Cricket]

Yep. I e-mailed our extension agency, and the guy there said it's just been a banner year for germinating seeds. (And before I tasted, I did have a rough idea that it shouldn't kill me!)

Sheepgirl, your's looks a lot tallerthan mine in the second photo. Ours doesn't get any more than knee high.

 

[secuono]

Real smartweed is edible and a substitute for pepper/hot stuff.
I have it in lots of areas, too. It's very pretty, had a rabbit try a leaf through his cage, he didn't try it again.

 

[annageckos]

I have that all over my yard, we call it knotweed. It's a pain to pull, it breaks and the roots stay in the ground. I have some that gets huge. We let one plant go last year and it grew 7/8 feet and thick as a marker. This year I have some very large thick plants and the smaller normal looking plants. I am not sure if the larger ones are a different type or not. They look the same as the smaller plants, just taller and thicker.