IDENTIFICATION
Winter annual or biennial.
Flixweed, a member of the Mustard family, is one of the first weeds
to appear in the spring. It has very small, greenish-yellow flowers which
grow on tiny stalks along the stems, sometimes to half the height of the
plant. Leaves are long, with two to three divisions, giving a lacey appearance.
Mature plants are 30 to 100 cm tall.
DAMAGE
In cultivated areas, flixweed can crowd out crop plants and reduce
yields.
HABITAT
Flixweed is found growing in disturbed habitats, fields, roadsides,
and logged-over forests on a wide variety of soil types, but it is most
abundant on dry, disturbed
sites. It is frequent throughout British Columbia at low - mid-elevations
and present in the Kootenays, Okanagan, Thompson, Mainland, Island, Cariboo,
Peace and parts of the Omineca agricultural regions.
SPREAD
Large plants can produce as many as 700,000 seeds. Flixweed seeds
get sticky when wet, which may help them spread when they stick to animals
and adhere to soil.
