Common Chickweed

Common Chickweed, Stellaria media

Common Chickweed, a cool season annual, is native to Europe, but has since spread throughout most of the North American continent. The name chickweed comes from its common use as food for chickens. This plant cannot tolerate high temperature well, resulting in a growth only during the fall and winter months. While regarded as a weed, chickweed has many other uses and purposes. The seeds are food for birds, the young leaves are edible to humans, and the plant has been used for a variety of folk remedies.

As someone one told me: "Nothing is a weed, but rather a plant growing in the wrong place."