shepherd's purse
Scientific Name: Capsella bursa pastoris
Family: Mustard Family (Brassicaceae)
General Description: Shepherd's purse is an annual or winter annual weed reproducing only by seed.
Habitat: Shepherd’s purse occurs throughout Ontario in grainfields, waste areas, roadsides, gardens and lawns.
Seedlings
- Lobed basal leaves
- Hairy lobes
- Lobes or divisions are more or less uniform on each side
- Can produce over 33,000 seeds per plant
Stems
- Stems are erect
- Stems extend 10 – 60 cm high
- Stems are branched above or throughout
Leaves
- Grows from a rosette of lobed leaves at base
- Leafs are alternate (1 per node)
- The blades are very variable
- The leaf blades are oblong
- Leaf blades are 5 – 10 cm long
- Shallowly to deeply and coarsely toothed
Flowers and Fruit
- Flowers are white and small
- Flowers produce seed pods which are heart-shaped
- Flowers from early spring to late fall
Often Confused With / Distinguishing Features
It is distinguished from all of the other plants in the mustard family by having heart-shaped seedpods.
Herbicide Resistance
No documented cases of herbicide resistance in Ontario to date. Shepherd's purse is resistant to WSSA Group 2 herbicides in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
References
www.weedinfo.ca/en/weed-index/view/id/CAPBP
www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/ontweeds/shepherds_purse.htm
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