AIZOACEAE (CARPETWEED FAMILY) 



135 



Means of control 



Prevent seed development by early and frequent hoe-cutting. 

 Forked Chickweed, like Common Chickweed, may be killed with a 

 spray of Iron sulfate or Copper sulfate if taken just before or during 

 its first bloom, when it is most tender and more or less hairy. 



CARPETWEED 

 Mollugo verticilldta, L. 



Other English names: Indian Chickweed, Whorled Chickweed. 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : May to September. 



Seed-time: June to October. 



Range: New Brunswick to Ontario and Minnesota, southward to 



the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Habitat: Gardens, lawns, fields, roadsides, and waste places. 



Like Purslane and Common Chickweed, this plant seems almost 

 domesticated in its liking for cultivated fields and gardens. It is 

 frequent along sandy roadsides, and springs up in the crevices of 

 city pavements and side- 

 walks. 



Stems three inches to a 

 foot long, smooth, prostrate, 

 branching in all directions 

 from the slender root and 

 forming circular mats. 

 Leaves in whorls of five or 

 six, spatulate, sessile, entire, 

 a half-inch to an inch long. 

 Flowers, axillary, very small 

 and without petals but hav- 

 ing a five-parted calyx, white 

 inside and green without, 

 three stigmas, and five sta- 

 mens if they alternate with 

 the sepals or three stamens if 



they alternate with the three FIG. 87. Carpetweed (Mollugo verti- 

 cells of the ovary. Seed cap- tiUatd). x i 



