For Quick Reference

• If plant is leafless with a straight finely-edged stem with joints at regular intervals, check the horsetails.
• If leaves are slender with parallel veins, check the grasses.
• If plant stem has a paper-like collar at the base of each leaf, check the buckwheat family.
• If the plant has lens-shaped, black or dark brown, shiny seeds, check the pigweeds, minerslettuce and lambsquarters.
• If plant has opposite leaves that appear joined around the swollen joints of the plant stem, check the pink family.
• If plant has alternate leaves and small four-part flowers in white, yellow or purple, check the mustard family.
• If plant has compound leaves and flowers are typical pea blossom shape, check the pea family.
• If plant has long compound leaves, small yellow flowers, spreads on the ground forming a mat and develops hard, spiny burs, check puncturevine.
• If flowers are tiny and in a broad flat cluster at ends of stems, check the parsley family.
• If plant has milky juice check the spurges, the dogbanes, the milkweeds and the sunflower family, a few of which have milky juice.
• If plant stem and leaves are bristly-hairy, check the borage family.
• If plant has a square stem and opposite leaves, check the mint family.
• If plant flowers resemble those of snapdragons, check figwort family.
• If plant has square stem, tiny white four part flowers and leaves are in whorls around the plant stem, check the bedstraws.
• If plant has round stem and leaves appear to be in whorls around plant stem, check corn spurry.
• If plant has a flower head with many small tube-like flowers clustered on a common base with an outer row of strap-shaped flowers, check the sunflower family.

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