Slender Parsley-Piert

Aphanes microcarpa (Boiss. & Reut.) Rothm.

Rosaceae (Rose Family)

▲ seedling (about 1 inch diameter)

▲ young plant (about 2 x 3 inches across)

young plants in late winter, early spring ▲▼

young plants in late winter, early spring ▲▼

▲ mature plant

▲ flowering plants (tiny green axillary flowers

Slender Parsley-Piert: 

·         small, European-native, winter annual in the Rosaceae (Rose) family

·         grows 1-6” tall and wide, with stems branching from the base

·         leaves are about ½” diameter, palmately lobed—appear like an annual geranium leaf

·         flowers are greenish, inside leafy bracts in the axils of the leaves—not showy

·         found in dry, open soils, dormant warm-season turf

·         can make very dense cover where they occur, excluding other species

·         currently not common in southwest Missouri, but appears to be spreading fairly quickly