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...?