What is chickweed?

Overview. Chickweed is a plant. The leaf is used to make medicine. People take chickweed for constipation, stomach and bowel problems, blood disorders, asthma and other lung diseases, obesity, a vitamin C deficiency disease called scurvy, a skin condition called psoriasis, rabies, itching, and muscle and joint pain.

What is chickweed herb used for?

Chickweed is a plant. The leaf is used to make medicine. Chickweed is used for stomach and bowel problems, lung diseases, wounds and skin ulcers, joint pain, and other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses. In foods, chickweed is eaten in salads or served as cooked greens.

What is chickweed look like?

Common chickweed forms small mounds in your lawn about three to eight inches in diameter. It forms small, delicate, daisy-like, white-to-pink flowers in the spring. The leaves are shiny and oblong with a point at the end. It grows in dense, compact patches and produces small white flowers with five petals.

What plant family is chickweed in?

Pinks
Chickweed/Family
chickweed, either of two species of small-leaved plants of the pink family (Caryophyllaceae). Both species of chickweed have inconspicuous but delicate, white, somewhat star-shaped flowers. The common chickweed, or stitchwort (Stellaria media), is native to Europe but is widely naturalized.

Why is chickweed called chickweed?

And it’s called chickweed because chickens love it. There are some reasonably close look-alikes, but three things separates chickweed from poisonous pretenders. First, it does not have milky sap. Next, it has one line of hairs on its stem that changes sides at each pair of leaves.

Where is chickweed found?

Common Chickweed is a cool weather plant native to Europe that has widely naturalized in the United States and throughout the world. It’s often found in lawns and other areas of sun to partial shade in moist soil.

Where can I find chickweed?

Field chickweed is a spring-blooming matted or clumped perennial herb that pops up in a variety of open sunny habitats at elevations from sea level to over 12,000 feet. It grows throughout North America, but is infrequent in the Southeast. Plants in the western U.S. have somewhat larger flowers than those in the East.

Can we eat chickweed?

Star chickweed is an edible, foraging-friendly weed with a corn-cob-like flavor in its raw form. Star chickweed is an edible, foraging-friendly weed with a corn-cob-like flavor in its raw form.

Does chickweed have any look alikes?

There is really only one important chickweed look-alike to know about, and that is Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis). Scarlet Pimpernel is toxic and needs to be avoided.

Can humans eat chickweed?

What family is chickweed in?

Field chickweed (Cerastium arvense) is in the pink family (Caryophyllaceae), which is a group of about 3,000 species worldwide, with many of them being cultivated ornamentals. The carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) is perhaps the best known member of the pink family.