Slender Parsley-Piert

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 ▲ ▼

▲ 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 1/2" 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