Weed ID Chart. 10

The Turf Weed ID Chart

This easy-to-use Australian weed Identification chart shows you how to identify weeds by photo. The weed ID chart helps you to get the best results from a weed killer and saves you time and money when you manage lawn weeds.

This weed ID chart links to pages for each turf or lawn weed. These pages are detailed fact sheets on each weed, and cover topics like:

• What factors favour it.
• How to Identify it.
• What it can be mistaken for and
• How to control it by both cultural and chemical means.

Unlike many other companies we don’t try and push you toward the use of chemicals so if there is an effective cultural control we will tell you.

There are three important things to consider with lawn weed identification.

1. If you use this weed ID Chart properly and identify weeds from a photo, it reduces the need to spray. Correct Australian weed identification saves you time and money, as many weeds are indicators of problems. For example, docks indicate wet soils – if you deal with this then weeds like this struggle.
2. Weeds are either grass (monocots) or broadleaf (dicots). If you identify weeds when they are small, you get a good start in controlling them. A useful rule is that grass weeds have one seedling leaf and broadleaf weeds have two leaves. Broadleaf herbicides do not control grass weeds.
3. If your turf is dense and healthy, weeds find it hard to establish.

What is a weed?

A weed is any plant that grows where you do not want it. Weeds can be natives or introduced species.

How to Use the Weed ID Chart.

Correct Australian weed identification is the first step to manage them. For example, two weeds may look the same, but have a very different response to a weed killer. The old adage a picture is worth a thousand words is even more relevant when it comes to this weed identification chart. A poor blurry image helps no one. So good quality images are the name of the game to identify weeds by photo.

How a weed emerges from the soil gives a good idea on whether it comes from a seed, rhizome or other below ground structure. The best way to check this is to dig up the young weed.

If it’s easy to dig up, and has a few fine roots it is likely to be a true seedling. If it’s hard to dig up or has a rhizome its likely to be a perennial weed.

Once you have the weed in your hand you can use the weed identification chart to identify lawn weeds by photo.

For Australian weed identification, you can group weeds based on their life cycles.

Summer Annuals.

Summer annuals grow in the Spring or early Summer, and then grow through the Summer. At the end of the Summer, they produce seed, and then die as soon as frosts occurs. These weeds compete with turf grass for nutrients, moisture, and light. They spread by seed, and broken fragments of shoots, that re-root and grow into new plants.

Small seeded Summer Annuals.

Small seeded Summer annuals grow near the soil surface, and produce a large number of seeds over a season. If you disturb the soil it causes the seeds to germinate. Examples of these include: Pigweed, Knotweed, Mallow, Caltrop, Spurge, Black Medic, Capeweed, and Lambsquarters.

Summer Annual Broadleaf Weeds with large seeds.

These weeds grow quickly after emerge from a soil depth of 6 to 50 mm. They are aggressive, seed within a single season, and although they produce less seeds, these seeds survive for decades. Examples of these include Morning Glory.

Summer Annual Grass Weeds.

Summer annual grass weeds produce huge numbers of small to medium size seeds. These seeds germinate in the top 50 mm of the soil, and some germinate in response to light. Examples include Summer grass, and Crowsfoot.

Winter Annuals.

Winter annuals emerge in late Summer or Autumn, and spend Winter as low, compact plants or rosettes. In late Winter or early Spring they start to grow again, and form flowering shoots or stalks. They reproduce by seed in the late Spring or Summer of their second season, and in NSW, they may grow through the Winter. Examples of these include Wild Mustards, Deadnettle, Common Chickweed, and Henbit.

Biennial Weeds.

Biennial weeds germinate, grow for one season, and go dormant over Winter. In the Spring or early Summer of their second year, they bolt, flower, and form seed. Their life-cycle is like the Winter annuals, except in their first season they start to grow earlier. They live longer than a year, and their main roots are larger than most Winter annuals. Examples include Windmill Grass.

Perennials.

Perennials have deep, strong taproots (broadleafs) or strong fibrous root systems (grasses). This means that if you mow and remove the top of the plant, it will regrow. These weeds spread by seed every year. Initially they grow slowly, and then become strong competitors once they establish.

Their life span is around several years, and good examples are Broadleaf Dock and Dandelions.

Spreading Perennials.

These reproduce by stolons (at the surface), rhizomes (below the surface), bulbs, tubers, and by seed.

Fragments of stolons or rhizomes as small as 25 mm, can re-grow into new plants, and many of the most serious turf weeds are in this class. Examples include Couch Grass, Nutsedges, and Bindweed.

How to use the Weed ID Chart.

The weed ID Chart enables you to identify weeds by photo. Questions to ask when you start to ID a weed include:

• What is the leaf shape? what do the leaf edges look like? and what do the leaf veins look like?

• Does it have prickles, spines or thorns?

• Are hairs present and where are they?

• What is the leaf structure?

• How are leaves arranged on a stem?

• What is the colour or size of the leaves and flowers?

• How are the flowers or clusters of flowers arranged?

• Is there any milk or sap when you cut the stem or leaves?

• Does it smell if you cut or crush it?

• Is it annual, biennial or perennial?

• Does the weed have a large main root or have rhizomes or stolons?

• Is there a leaf sheath, and what does a cross section of the stem look like?

• Does it grow along the ground or is it upright?

• What is the size, shape, structure, and colour of any seeds.

Other traits that can help identify weeds by photo include:

• Are there many branches, and how are these arranged on the main stem?

• What is the size of the leaves?

Online weed resources.

The sites below will help if you still cannot identify the weed from our Weed ID Chart.

Web Sites.

Hornsby Council in Sydney is a great resource for weed ID.

Ground Covers

Some Weed removal Techniques.

Weed Glossary

Australian Government Weeds ID Tool. You can look up weeds by name, place, growth habit and flower colour.

PlantNET.

Brisbane Weeds.

Grass ID

The Corroboree

Iphone apps.

Leafly

NSW Weed Wise

Picture This

Plant Net

Weed Scan

The images below prove I am not an artist but they do help you to identify weeds by photo. Identifying lawn weeds can be difficult but all weeds do have traits that help with this.

Properties of weeds in the Weed ID Chart.

The table below shows some of the properties of common weeds in our Australian weed identification Chart and helps with Australian weed identification. It explains:

• How viable are weed seeds over time?
• How many seeds do they produce? and
• At what soil depth do they germinate?

Australian Weed Identification Chart.

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Weed ID Chart.

All the images below allow you to identify broadleaf weeds by photo. Just click on an image, and it then links to a page for the weed. This page can then help with Australian weed identification, with information on its growth, habit and how best to control it.

Broad leaf Weed ID Chart.

Grass and Sedge Weed ID Chart.

All the images below allow you to identify sedges and grass weeds by photo. Just click on an image in this weed identification chart, and it takes you to the page for that weed.

​This is a relatively new section of this Weed ID Chart. All these lawn weeds tend to be found in the sub-tropics or tropics of Australia. You know the drill by now, so click on the image to go to a page with high quality images, and more details about the weed.

Identify weeds in QLD and Northern NSW.

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Lawn weed control with the Weed ID Chart.

Once you use the Australian Weed Identification chart to identify weeds by photo, there are several options to control them. If cultural control is not practical then you can use a weed killer.

There are several ways to class weed control products.

• Post or Pre-emergent weed killers.
• Contact or systemic.
• Granule or liquid.
• By Chemical Group and
• Are they selective or non selective?

You use pre-emergents before weeds emerge, and so you need to use these before you see weeds. These kill lawn weeds as they germinate, and have no effect on weeds that you see. These work well on weeds like Winter grass and Summer grass, and some work against broad leaf weeds. These can be liquids or granulars.

Once weeds grow, you need to use post-emergents. These can be contacts like MSMA, or systemics like the SU’s. A good example of a post emergent is ProForce Recondo, which is an alternative to Monument.

Contacts vs Systemics.

Contacts work when the weed killer comes into contact with the plant, and these work best on young weeds. Good examples are Diquat, Carfentrazone, plant oils, and herbicidal soaps.

Systemics work better on actively growing older weeds, and move inside the plant to kill the weed. Examples are Glyphosate (which is non selective), Quinclorac, 2,4-D, and Dicamba.

Selective weed killers kill weeds without any damage to the turf, and only kill certain weeds. A good example of this is Warhead Trio which kills only broad leaf weeds and not grasses. Non-selectives like Glyphosate, kill all plant material and that includes the turf.

More info to use with this Weed ID Chart, is in our turf chemicals section or the free 2024 Guide to turf pesticides.

Correct use of the weed identification chart, allows you to identify weeds by photo. This helps you to choose teh best way to control the weed, and get the best results.

Always remember that if you are using weed killers to rotate through chemical groups to reduce the chances of chemical resistance.