slender parsley piert
Family
RosaceaeScientific Name
Aphanes microcarpaSynonyms (former Scientific Names):
Aphanes australis
Alchemilla microcarpa
Habit
Plants germinate in fall and early spring and bloom from May to August. Often overlooked, parsley piert grows among the turfrass canopy or in thin areas of turf. Plants are most conspicuous in spring in areas of dormant bermudagrass or zoysiagrass.
Leaves
The leaves are of a dusky green color, wedge-shaped, three-cleft, the lobes deeply cut, the whole leaf less than 1/2 inch wide, narrowed into a short foot-stalk with leafy, palmately-cut stipules, sheathing and cleaving to the footstalk. The stem is sometimes prostrate, but generally erect, and much branched from the base. Plants are rarely more than 4 inches tall.
Identifying Characteristics
Plants are very small and inconspicuous. Leaves have deep lobes and often grow in a thick clustered mat. Plant parts may be sparsley or completely hairy.
Flower Seed Head
The greenish, minute and stalkless flowers are crowded together in tufts almost hidden by the leaves and their large stipules. There is no corolla, the stamens, which have jointed filaments, being inserted at the mouth of the calyx, which is usually four-cleft. Plants bloom from May to August.
Seed Fruit
Seeds are produced continuously during the flowering period. Achenes are 0.6 mm long and enclosed in a pubescent hypanthium.
Where Found
Parsley piert is widely distributed throughout Europe and North Africa and has been introduced into North America. In the United States, plants are common from Maryland through Tennesee and into Georgia in lawns, fields, and pastures, especially on sandy soils.
Growth Habit
Varies:
upright and nonwoody,
prostrate and nonwoody
Thorns or Spines
not present
Approximate Flower Diameter
pencil
Dominant Flower Color
green
Flower Symmetry
not symmetrical
Leaf Hairs
no hairs
Leaf Shape
spatulate
Leaf Arrangement
alternate
Leaf Margin
lobed
Leaf Structure
palmate
Leaf Stalk
Varies:
none,
shorter than leaf
Stem Hairs
no hairs
Stem Cross Section
square or multi-edged
Milky Sap
not present
Root Structure
Varies:
fibrous,
taproot
Life Cycle
winter annual
Ochrea
not present
Plant Type
Herb