How Eclipta Spreads and How to Stop it

•  As an annual, it spreads primarily from seeds produced over a long late summer season from simultaneous bud, flower, and seedhead formation.

•  As a Composite family member, each of what appears to be a flower petal is a full floret able to be pollinated (see tiny insect visitor above right) and to self-pollinate.

•  It has fibrous roots from shallow taproots. Some adventitious roots appear to grow from the lower nodes of stems too. Branching stems and sprawling shallow roots help it spread and absorb water and light from poor, thin, often moist, soil.

•  Best control is to pull it out when it’s young, cut it back to its roots to exhaust it, and fertilize the soil.

The beauty of Birdsfoot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, may place some gardeners on the horns (in Latin: horn = cornicula) of a dilemma: whether to weed or not to weed. Its yellow flowers resemble “Baby’s slippers," another common name for this cutie. Flowers are well-proportioned relative to its clover like 3 leaves. As it first appeared, it aroused suspicion despite its voluptuous flowers, since I hadn’t planted any clover-like plants in my flower bed. Indeed, it is a volunteer, spreads into clonal colonies, and resists removal. I removed it.