Kickxia elatine (commonly known as sharpleaf cancerwort and sharp-leaved fluellen) is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. It is native to Europe and Asia, but it is present on other continents as an introduced species, and sometimes a noxious weed.
This is a small hairy herb with a trailing stem with many branches. It produces oval to arrowhead-shaped fuzzy leaves at wide intervals along the slender stem, and solitary snapdragon-like flowers borne on long, straight pedicels. Each flower is up to 1.5 centimeters long with a narrow, pointed spur extending from the back. The lobes of the mouth are yellow, white, and purple, and the whole flower is fuzzy to hairy, except for the flower stalk, which is more or less bare, in contrast to Kickxia spuria which has a hairy flower stalk. The fruit is a spherical capsule about 4 millimeters long.An annual plant. Stems creeping, 10–40 cm long, from glandular-hairy to hairy, branched at the base. Leaves short-petiolate, lower ovate-lanceolate with one auricular tooth, or with 2 slightly pronounced teeth on each side. Sinus flowers, on long slender peduncles, 15-20 mm long, glabrous. Corolla 5 mm long, light yellow, lower lip intense yellow, larger than the upper. Seeds from ellipsoidal to ovate or obovate, 1.1–1.3 × 0.7–0.9 mm; the surface is dull, dark brown.
It blooms in July and August
This plant is useful.
How to get rid of:
The main way to get rid of weeds is mechanical. It is not so much about weeding after planting as about removing old roots.
