DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 



181 



Shepherd's Purse (Capsella Bursa-pastoris, (L.) Medic). 

 An annual or winter annual, one to one and one-half 

 feet in height, with root leaves clustered, nearly divided 

 or merely toothed, stem leaves sessile; flowers small, 

 white, in fruit, spreading; pods somewhat wedge-shaped, 

 slightly notched above, many seeded ; seeds mucilaginous 

 when moistened. It is, perhaps, 

 the most common weed in 

 Iowa, being found in gardens, 

 along roadsides, in fields, and 

 waste grounds, and in fact in 

 every village and town in the 

 state. Common across the 

 continent. 



False Flax (Camelina sativa, 

 (L.) Crantz). An erect an- 

 nual, with simple or sparingly 

 branched stem, smooth or 

 slightly hairy; leaves erect, 

 lanceolate or arrow-shaped, 

 entire or nearly so; flowers 

 small, yellow, pedicels, spread- 

 ing in fruit; pod four to six 

 inches long, smooth 

 gined; on addition of water, 

 seeds become mucilaginous. 



Ball Mustard (Neslia paniculata, (L.) Desv.). A 

 slender, rather densely rough and hispid annual from one 

 to three feet high; leaves lanceolate, sagittate, clasping; 

 flowers in elongated racemes, yellow, on filiform pedicels, 

 ascending in fruit; fruit a silicle. Common in wheat 

 fields in the Northwest. 



English Charlock (Brassica arvensis, (L.) Ktze.). An 

 annual or biennial, lower leaves divided nearly to the mid- 

 dle, the divisions being unequal, the terminal lobe longer; 

 flowers, yellow, large and very fragrant ; pod one to two 



mar- . Fig. 115. Pepper grass (Lep- 

 idium apetalum). 



