Other Names: Wood sorrel, love plant, false shamrock

Type: Weed, but some people plant them purposefully

Appearance: It is a flowering plant with three heart-shaped leaves the resemble a shamrock. Leaves can vary in color, from green to purple to maroon, and they fold down at night. The dainty flowers can be white, yellow, rose, or pink.

Risk: Oxalis typically invades lawns that are thin and weak from improper care. It thrives in dry, open places but can also appear in moist, well-fed lawns, too.

Timing: It appears around St. Patrick’s Day, blooming in late spring or early summer.

How to Control Oxalis

Prevention

Like many weeds, a healthy lawn will help prevent an infestation. You can achieve a defensive turf with these tips:

• Water Well: Your grass needs adequate water to thrive. It prefers long soakings about two to three times weekly instead of daily watering, depending on the rain levels from the week.
• Reseed patchy spots: Grass roots go deep into the ground and take up a lot of space, taking away the valuable real estate weeds need to thrive.
• Aerate Your Soil: Soil compaction keeps air and water from reaching the deeper levels of soil where grass roots grow, so only plants that grow nearer to the surface, like weeds, can thrive.
• Check Your Lawn’s pH Level: If your soil’s pH level isn’t neutral (about 7.0), your grass doesn’t have the right environment to thrive, but weeds might. To balance the pH level, your soil may also need applications of lime.

Treatment

If you don’t like the look of oxalis, you can pull the weed by hand or treat it with a weed killer. When pulling out manually, the entire root must be removed, or the plant will grow back.

You can leave the weeds to Shades of Green Lawn & Landscape. We use science-based practices to prevent and treat lawn weeds and offer different lawn care packages so there is an option for everyone’s lawn and budget. Call us today at 765-771-9998 for more information and a free quote.

 

Need Help with Oxalis?

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