weed control

Question

I live in south Florida. We have a weed in our lawn which has taken over a large area this year, smaller areas previously. It has little green seeds which stick to *anything* that goes near it! The plant has rounded small leaves, grows rather upright but low on a single stem, but several of these stems grow out of the root. Seeds are displayed on slender green stems, branching out, each having one of these seeds. They cover my pant legs, my dogs, my grand kids, anything walking on the lawn. The little green seed pods are maybe 1/16″, inside they have tiny black grains, I assume the actual seeds. This resembles finely ground black pepper. The plants are small and rather low growing but the tendril-type pieces with the pods branch up above the grass. Would love to know what it is and how to control or eliminate!

Thanks,
S. Snell

Answer 1

It appears that you have a Florida Pusley-Richardia weed growing in your lawn.
This is very common in your region and is often called the ‘Florida snow’
Treatment is difficult and the use of a pre-emergent is the best coarse of action.
Here is a link with more information.

http://suwannee.ifas.ufl.edu/documents/FloridaPusley.pdf

Answer 2

The photo of the mature plant looks nothing like what we have. I will try to get a better picture but it is mostly tangled in the grass [& other weeds at this point!