About once a year, usually during spring, the county will send out workers with their heavy roadside equipment to mow the weeds along rural roads in the area. But with the benefit of having the weeds mowed comes a downside. The mechanical mower has a bad habit of unintentionally spreading weed seeds from one location to another. Unfortunately a wide patch of whitestem filaree (Erodium moschatum) is now growing on my property near the road.

Filaree (Erodium spp.) is a low growing weed found throughout most of the state. Whitestem filaree, redstem filaree (Erodium cicutarium) and broadleaf filaree (Erodium botrys) are some of the species growing in Solano. They are often found in vineyards, orchards, pastures, fields, and along roadsides. 

Young filaree plants grow in a flat rosette pattern. Mature plants bear small flowers in the center of the rosette generally from February through May. The flowers are then followed by long thin pods that eventually burst open to eject thin long seeds.

Filaree propagates by seed. So it's important not to let them go to seed. Which means I'll be spending a lot of time outdoors pulling those darn weeds!

You can find out more information about filaree at UC Weed Research and Information Center website at www.wric.ucdavis.edu.