Lesser Celandine; Treating it in Your Lawn (or trying to!)- March 27, 2023

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna) is a very aggressive, non-native species that is quickly engulfing our natural areas and choking out our diverse native populations of spring wildflowers. We have tested a lot of different methods for controlling it, and have only found glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) to be effective. In the spring of 2022 we tested twelve different combinations of herbicide concentrations trying to find a practical solution for treating Lesser Celandine in a lawn. Unfortunately, we found that the common treatments for broad-leaved weeds in lawn, such as Triclopyr 3 (salt), Triclopyr 4 (petroleum base), Mecoprop-p, 2,4-D, and Dicamba did not seem to have much effect on Lesser Celandine populations in the lawn. We tested several concentrations of each, but even relatively strong concentrations had minimal impact. We did find that glyphosate was an effective control, but will also kill off the desired grass species in a lawn. One solution proposed is to treat with glyphosate when the lawn has small patches of Lesser Celandine, and then either reseed with new grass, or allow the existing lawn to fill in the bare spot. We welcome comments from others with better solutions to control this very aggressive non-native weed. Do you have solutions that work for you? Do you have other suggestions on methods we should try? Please leave suggestions in the comment section for the benefit of everyone who is trying to control this weed.

Oak Haven is a 60-acre private woodland in Southwestern Ohio near Cincinnati. Jim and Julie Varick both have degrees in Botany and over thirty years of experience in managing natural areas. They enjoy sharing their enthusiasm for the natural world and would like to build relationships with like-minded people to share knowledge and resources.

[thanman]

I have been killing lesser celandine in lawns (without killing grass) with Tenacity herbicide (or Torocity herbicide- same chemical), with the concentration recommended on the label. First spray around late February, second spray around mid March. Sometimes a third spray. I spot spray when I can so I can spare the violets and clovers. I try to do as much of the spraying as possible when the temp is over 50F, it seems to work better. Some of the grass may temporarily turn white.

[markbirkle]

I am new to your videos but not new to lesser celandine. I live on the east side of Cincinnati. I have records that show that the Krippendorf's, who founded the Cincinnati Nature Center, brought lesser celandine in from Georgia. At first it did not appear to be aggressive and then it took off. It now inhabits the whole Little Miami and East Fork watersheds. It came up Buck Lick into my neighbor's yard. Crossed the road and now has a patchy presence in my lawn. I typically am relaxed about my lawn, as long as it is green from the house to the road, I don't care. I drew the line at lesser celandine. I did the same broadleaf (Weed-B-Gone) weed killer test as you did. By the next spring, it was clear that I also failed to control this plant. Guess I will spot treat with Roundup and see how much lawn is left. Ha! Ha! A fun fact, it seems that I am one of the few people who have photographed the tuber with a small emerging leaflet. Rhode Island contacted me to use the photo in their invasive species pamphlet.

[jeffh]

Also in SW Ohio and we have a ton of it in the yard. Our woods is the worst since it was not taken care of by previous owners. We just built our house a few years ago and have had our priorities on other projects, but dealing with this pest is coming up on the priority list. Good info about what works and what doesn't. I am wondering if repeated treatment of a broad leaf killer will work over time if applied early. Next Feb will be the start of (probably) a few years of treatment to deal with this pest.

[ASolitaryHowl]

Thank you, your videos are very informative and helpful.

I have a large patch in my yard, this year I sprayed it all with 1.5% glyphosate. I wanted like 3% concentration but they don't sell it here, atleast for the public's use. I hope it doesn't come back next year!

[michaelgorini]

Hey. Thanks for the video. So based on your video last year and seeing the the effects of Triclopyr, I did some research and found that Tzone would be a good herbicide to try in my lawn.

You are correct about the timing, it matters alot. I knew that I would have to use several applications so I did 3 treatments, one in January, one on February, and one in March.

It definitely had an effect and visually looked like it killed most of it. The ones I sprayed on January completely stopped growing and at the minimum, didn't reproduce.

[chrisderhodes]

Really great videos! Check out Milestone specialty herbicide, in my tests the last couple years I'm getting about 99% control at the lowest concentration on the label. Caution with using it around legume trees like locusts because it does have some soil uptake via roots, but it a highly selective herbicide to mostly legumes and thistles. It absolutely smokes canada thistle as well!

I also used Speedzone herbicide on a huge infestation of stat of bethlehem, another invasive tuber/bulb spring ephemeral and had outstanding results. Speedzone really wallops bulb plants.

[markjones]

Every time I see small yellow flowers this time of year in our woodland my heart jumps. So far all native. Phew....Will continue 'The Watch' however. :) Thank again for another great video!

[michaelmathes]

Great Video. I definitely get a lot of inspiration from your work. Treating so much honeysuckle right now.

[v.britton]

That cute damned stuff invaded the edge of a garden I was working on, the owner knew what it was and let it go. The next year it had taken over.
It looks like violets in a lot of ways.
The little tubers on the roots look like micro sweet potatoes. They pop off and spread

[craigmossman]

Best time to treat is a day where temp is up and just before bloom.

[AnomadAlaska]

I need to look for that species. Don't think I have it, yet.

[lizbrugman]

Do you have any recommendations for killing grapevine or porcelain berry? Those vines are killing my trees. I thought I would try the cut stump method you use for honeysuckle on those vines. You are right about lesser celandine. It is taking over the lawns as well as the woods in northern Cincinnati where I am.

[AshleyK.-]

Hello, I've used glyphosate to kill what little patches I have in my yard. (It had already bloomed when I found this video, so I'll likely spray again this year and start in January with spray next year.) But I sprayed almost 2 weeks ago. I read that you shouldn't mow because it spreads the stuff, but now that it's starting to die, can I mow killed off patches of the stuff? How long should we wait until we mow? (I also plan to get out there and dig some of it out soon, but I will need to mow in the next few weeks.)

[lisakuprionis]

Thank you for this information. Due to your videos I have been working on the lesser celandine by the creek in our backyard last year and this year. Question 1) do you recommend putting dye in the solution, so you can see where you’ve sprayed it? Question 2) do you dilute the shoreklear herbicide to get it down to 4% glyphosate?

[ProfessorLiljedahl]

The ONLY thing that has worked for me is using a string trimmer to defoliate areas that are infested, and to do this repeatedly every two weeks. Grasses recover better than the Celandine does, but it still takes a whole season of doing this to kill of the big, established bulbs. True, the lawn looks like crap for a couple of days after doing this, but keeping the lawn short anyway minimizes this bad look, and you can overseed the treated areas.

[jenniferlutes]

Have you tried weeding it out if it is not a large patch or do you find that it just keeps coming back and needs to be sprayed?

[KylinIt]

I cannot for the life of me find something that will kill lesser skullcap. I have st. Augustine. Can I brush glyphosate on just the lesser skullcap? Will it still kill my st. A if I let it dry on just the lesser skullcap before letting it touch anything else? Plllleeeeaaassseeee heeelllppp!!! It’s taken over a good area in my yard. I thought Virginia buttonweed was bad, NOPE!

[marcusboehler]

Moved to Cinci and bought a house and this stuff is just overrun. I have a half acre little wood line and this junk is so strong, it’s nearly a foot high in some places and covers the entire property like carpet.

Didn’t realize you are in Cincinnati until one of other videos. I’ve been super discouraged about this stuff and feeling helpless. I’ve been working hard on propagating this big moss patch and the lesser c just overruns it every year setting me back. At least your video gives me a little hope.

But am I going to harm all the trees and everything if I use glyphosate across the entire woods? I wish I could upload pics of it. Makes the lesser c in your video look tame

[rstew]

Thank you for all your videos on Lesser Celandine, so invasive. What about Crossbow Specialty Herbicide which contains 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, butoxyethyl ester, Triclopyr BEE. This maybe somewhat of a solution for lawns with the Triclopyr. Watching your past video with Triclopyr and testing 14 other solutions, this may work better for lawns since the glyphosate will kill everything . I am going to try this this season as I have tried everything on an 1.25 acre of lawn and its relentless, just keeps coming back more and more. I have been fighting this weed for 10 years and I am praying the Crossbow works...Thoughts?

[janakain]

Have you tried contacting herbal enthusiasts, homeopaths in local, non- local areas? Matthew Woods (institute of herbalism) can advice what to do with it or perhaps recommend someone who can. It seems repeated "problem" (because nature knows what it's doing).
Good informative and enjoyable videos