100 Species #21: Chickweed

[urbpan]

Common chickweed Stellaria media growing in the perennial bed at the front of the house.

It seems strange to see such lush healthy chickweed, nourished by whatever the previous owners fertilized the perennial bed with. When chickweed has appeared in this blog before (as 365 Urban Species #88) it was a scrappy little weed clinging to the edge of a path or in the crack of a curbstone. A native of Europe named for its palatability to chickens, it's now found in every state in the US, and in most of Canada. We have another species of chickweed growing along the side of the house, and it's already gone to fruit, but I never identified it precisely (or got a good picture of it in flower).

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

so are you folks planning to have chickens...?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I do believe we are. We have many other things to get in place as well, and I intend to be pretty anal about the coop design, so I'm thinking applying for the permit in the winter and getting the chickens in the spring of 2012.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

yay! please do not forget the mspca in methuen when you are ready to pick your birdies; we generally have lots of lovely chickens looking for nice homes :)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware you worked there! I certainly will keep that in mind. Are there usually hens of laying age available?

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i'm a volunteer. we never put hens on the website, bc they tend to go fast, but we do get them quite often :) i get all of my eggs there in the season, as one of the poultry-house cleaning crew ;) let me know when you're ready and i'll let you know who we have!