winterweed

winterweed

English

Etymology

winter +‎ weed

Noun

winterweed (usually uncountable, plural winterweeds)

1. Various small weeds that grow in winter
   1. common chickweed (Stellaria media)
      • 1936, Fieldbook of Illinois Wild Flowers:

        WINTERWEED Stellaria media (L.) Cyrill The large Pink family has representatives in nearly every part of the world. Some of them are valuable ornamental plants and others are troublesome weeds.

      • 1984, Laura C. Martin, Wildflower Folklore, page 92:

        BLOOMS: early spring through fall Other common names for this plant include bird seed, starweed, and winterweed. That the seeds are eaten by several species of birds accounts for the name bird seed.

      • 2013, Bill Church, Medicinal Plants, Trees & Shrubs of Appalachia‎, page 14:

        Chickweed – Starwort, Winterweed (Stellaria media) - Annual or biennial

   2. Veronica hederifolia, a speedwell.
      • 1888, James Madison Gore Carter, A Synopsis of the Medical Botany of the United States‎, page 80:

        V. hederæfolia, L. (Ivy-leaved Speedwell. Winterweed.)

      • 1888, Francis William Galpin, An Account of the Flowering Plants, Ferns and Allies of Harleston‎:

        V. hederifolia, L. Ivy-leaved Speedwell. 3 — 8. Common in fields and by waysides. Popular name Winterweed.

Synonyms

• (Stellaria media): chickweed, common chickweed, chickenwort, craches, maruns, starweed, starwort
• (Veronica hederifolia): ivy-leaved speedwell