A rather unassuming weedy plant, galinsoga (Galinsoga parviflora) often comes and goes in the garden without really being noticed at first. Easy to pull due to its shallow root system, the plant doesn’t have big flowers or nasty prickles or spreading rhizomes or tangling tendencies. Ask a farmer about galinsoga, though, and you’ll get an earful about what a nuisance it can be.Galinsoga comes up in early summer, and if left unpulled, it has the ability to produce multiple generations until the first frost. It’s tempting to add the plants to your compost pile as you weed—its juicy, nitrogen-rich biomass breaks down easily and seems like a gift of greens. But alas, if you do, you’ll see the effects of one of galinsoga’s most effective survival strategies.
