Which weed is a spreading perennial with white flowers, sticky and hairy leaves, and mowing stimulates growth?

• A. Mouse-ear chickweed
• B. Yellow nutsedge
• C. Henbit
• D. Prostate knotweed

Answer: (A)

Mouse-ear chickweed is the weed that fits this description. It forms low, creeping mats in turf and has leaves that are small, oval, and coated with soft, sticky hairs, giving a fuzzy feel. The flowers are white and visually distinctive. Because this plant spreads by runners close to the soil, mowing can stimulate its growth by removing the top and encouraging new shoots to arise from nodes along the runners, which accelerates its spread across the turf. This combination of a spreading, perennial habit, white fluttering flowers, and hairy, sticky leaves with a growth response to mowing is not characteristic of yellow nutsedge, henbit, or prostate knotweed, whose features include sedge-like stems and grasslike leaves (nutsedge) or purple flowers or non-sticky leaves (henbit, knotweed).