NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – ‘Tis spring, and for many homeowners that means a yard covered in weeds. But what type of weeds do we get in New Mexico and are they the nuisance most people see them as?
Some of the more common weeds we see in the state, (Russian thistle, plantains, and dandelions) got to our area from other regions from the grain crops and spreads. “From there, birds love seed and they can disperse it that way too,” said Maria Thomas, curator of plants for the ABQ BioPark.
She said there can be a lot of benefits to the annual weeds that grow in New Mexico, like plantain weeds. “Not only is it medicinal and edible, it’s actually high in fiber; the seeds are. So it’s actually what the key ingredient to Metamucil is,” Thomas said. The plantain is also a host plant for the buckeye and painted lady butterflies. Bees also get support from weeds, specifically the dandelion, due to it flowering early in the season.
According to Thomas, a lot of what people consider weeds (like dandelion, plantain, globemallows, and nightshade) are important pollinator plants. “Being aware of what these plants are supporting is really important [as well as] creating that acceptable threshold of what you can allow to promote pollinators,” Thomas said.
Due to the potential benefits of some weeds, Thomas suggests focusing on getting rid of noxious plants like foxtails and letting your lawn become a diverse landscape with pollinators and edible plants. “The lawns of today are not our grandparents’ lawns because we’re learning a little more about ecosystems and habitat and using a holistic approach to yard care,” said Thomas.
If you decide that you want to get rid of the weeds in your yard, the earlier the better. If they are at the point of being a nuisance due to mass or quantity, Thomas said, it’s too late to do any spraying. “Because they’re already setting that seed, and you may kill the weed but you’re still dropping the seed. With annual weeds, that’s the big deal,” Thomas said.
She said the best time to remove the weeds is when they’re no taller than three inches when they’re still green. And make sure to discard them and not just leave them on the ground. “They’re taking advantage of the moisture that we have in the spring and the cool weather, so if you can manage them mechanically through various means, chances are you’re going to be able to control them and significantly reduce that seedbed for the next season,” Thomas said.
Blanket spraying to kill weeds is also a bad idea simply because the chemicals will not discriminate between weeds and plants or trees you’d like to keep around. “Roundup isn’t selective, and so it’s going to cause a lot of herbicide damage to the things that you like as well just by dropping into the soil and being taken up through the root system into the plants,” said Thomas. Ultimately, mechanical management of the weeds is the best way to go.
Thomas adds that it all comes back to how we look at landscapes in general. “Rather than just seeing something in your yard and panicking, getting out the chemicals…really pay attention to what’s going on in the yard and if it really is noxious, or if it’s potentially beneficial in some way,” said Thomas.
Below is a collection of weed and weed-like plants found in New Mexico:
Happening Now: cheatgrass, foxtail barley, mustards (London rocket), dandelion)
Edible/Medicinal: common plantain, dandelion, mallows, Russian thistle/tumbleweed, purslane, London Rocket, goathead, chickweed, prickly lettuce, henbit, lamb’s quarters, wild tarragon.
Pollinator Habitat: common plantain, dandelion, Albuquerque dalea, Scarlet globemallow, silver-leaf nightshade, asters, horseweed.
Native ABQ wildflowers and grasses that may look like weeds: ABQ dalea, Scarlet globemallow, Thelesperma, Black grama grass, Ricegrass, silver-leaf nightshade, horsetail milkweed, sand penstemon, dogbane, annual sunflower, broom snakeweed.
Dandelion | Photo courtesy Radu Chibzii (iNaturalist)
Purslane | Photo courtesy Andreas Rockstein (iNaturalist)
Scarlet Globemallow | Photo courtesy Andrey Zharkikh (iNaturalist)
Russian Thistle | Photo courtesy Forest and Kim Starr (iNaturalist)
London Rocket | Photo courtesy Erin and Lance Willett
Plantain | Photo courtesy Andreas Rockstein (iNaturalist)
Foxtail Barley (iNaturalist)
