Near our house is a place we call “the path”. It’s a short stretch of paved path (from about 100 S to 500 S) next to the Lake Creek canal. Being near water, home landscapes, and a couple of ag fields it has quite the assortment of plants present.
Because I have a number of years of experience in the field of weed mapping, I feel like I must point out that the list that follows is not a complete inventory of all species present. Rather, it’s a list of the species (generally considered to be weeds) that I’ve noticed, and remembered to write down when I get home, when I’ve been exploring with my daughter. Additionally, I don’t have photos of all the weeds, but as we continue to take walks along the path I’ll add more photos and/or names to the list as I notice more species.
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- stinging nettle
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- reed canarygrass
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- prickly lettuce
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- common mallow and feral rye plants
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- honeysuckle
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- houndstongue
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- mare’s tail
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- lambsquarters
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- brynony
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- catchweed (mixed in with some lambsquarters)
Species present:
- mare’s tail (Conyza canadensis)
- downy brome (Bromus tectorum)
- flixweed (Descurainia sophia)
- field pennycress (Thlapsi arvense)
- lambsquarters (Chenopodium sp.)
- prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola)
- houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale)
- black mustard (Brassica nigra)
- salsify (Tragopogon dubius)
- feral rye (Secale cereale)
- Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica; I believe this is the one, though it could be one of the other non-native, invasive Loniceras)
- common mallow (Malva neglecta)
- filaree (Erodium cicutarium)
- bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara)
- curlydock (Rumex crispus)
- field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)
- bryony (Bryonia alba)
- garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata; since this is a relatively new invader on Utah’s noxious weed list, I dutifully mapped it’s location on EddMaps West to let the local weed authorities know of its presence)
- Scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium)
- stinging nettle (Urtica diocia; I know, I know, this is an edible plant, but seeing as how it is growing very closely to a well-trafficked path where someone might brush against it unaware, I thought I would include it)
- burdock (Arctium minus)
- yellow sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis)
- tumble mustard (Sisymbrium altissimum)
- catchweed (Asperugo procumbens)
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