'Lesser' Weed Quickly Becomes More

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - What are those carpets of yellow flowers all over everybody's lawn right now - especially in damp spots? That's an alien weed that is very hard to get rid of called 'Lesser celandine' (Ranunculus ficaria), a member of the buttercup family.

A perennial weed, it not only sprouts up every year from tubers underground, it also spreads by seed, and it makes bulblets that drop from its stems too! A triple threat! That's how it spreads so fast. How did it get here? People planted it on purpose! They bought it as a garden plant - and it escaped.

Careful weeding or a shovel is your best solution - dig it out but don't leave any broken tubers they'll just reproduce! You can try weed killers, but they don't work very well on the waxy leaves. And you don't have much time to use weed killer anyway, because within a few weeks, this ephemeral weed disappears above ground - leaving a bare spot in your lawn - only to return even bigger and badder again next year!

Learn more about this invasive weed and how to control it:

http://buckshort.blogspot.com/2009/04/pretty-yellow-flowers.html

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/invasive_plants/weeds/lesser-celandine.pdf

Reported By Phran Novelli, KYW Newsradio