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I have been trying to take over a completely overgrown lawn at a house I purchased since the beginning of April. We removed several trees, bushes and shrubs to the best of our ability and sodded the entire yard with St. Augustine grass. For the most part, the St. Augustine has been thick enough to choke out the other plants from coming back. It's also worth mentioning, that any of the overgrowth that had a root or stump larger than about 1/2" I drilled and poured RoundUp into the hole to hopefully kill off.

However, the plant picture below is popping up in the most random places in my yard. I don't actually remember removing anything that looked like this, so I'm guessing it was dormant back in April. I live in the Dallas, TX area so it's a hot, dry climate right now. These plants have started coming up in the cracks in my concrete, around my pool equipment and along my deck drains. They grow at insanely fast rates, the one pictured was cut down last time I mowed which was less than 2 weeks back.

The ones along my deck drain get just as big and ugly, I even removed my deck drains about a week and half ago and dug out as much dirt and roots as I could in an attempt to kill them and they're already back. Roundup knocks them out for a few days, but they always come right back.

Can anyone identify this plant and help come up with a plan to kill them off for good?

Rogue Plant

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    Possible duplicate of gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/7930/…
    – Niall C. ♦
    Aug 12, 2013 at 17:18
  • Thanks for the comment @NiallC. it definitely appears to be the same stuff, and that post explains why it didn't show up until recently as we had lots of rain before the summer hit. Any ideas on how to keep it from coming back other than removing it by hand every time a new sprout pops up? I've been removing them by hand steadily for several weeks and it's driving me crazy.
    – Kyle
    Aug 12, 2013 at 17:21
  • RoundUp has worked for me. From the post, it's not clear to me if you're cutting the plant back then spraying, or spraying it on the leaves and leaving it alone until it kills the plant (which is what you should be doing). You could also try a flame weeder.
    – Niall C. ♦
    Aug 12, 2013 at 17:47
  • I still swear by eating it. I actually have had to plant it in my garden for the past few years, because we apparently ate too much of the wild stuff and it does not come back.
    – michelle
    Aug 13, 2013 at 0:07

3 Answers 3

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Pre-emergents can help a lot in preventing them from showing up at all. Use it every 4 months. or at least before the rainy season a couple times a year. The seeds might be carried to your place by the birds and their droppings

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    As to the removal part of your question, soak the sail ah hour with a trickle coming out of the hose, then give it a good yank while holding the base.
    – David Ritko
    Aug 16, 2013 at 13:19
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That would be purslane. No amount of herbicde seems to kill these based on the various reports I've read over the years. It's edible, even the wild variant. It has a slightly sour taste and it's used in salads a lot in Greece. It's incredibly health. It does spread vigorously though, so you will want to keep up with chemical treatment. Some people claim to have success with glyophosate (Roundup) but it won't really work.

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Roundup, in anywhere close to the correct mixture, does not kill purslane. I was foreman of a landscape maintenance crew, and had standing orders for the crew to remove by hand (or foot KICK!) any purslane that was spotted in areas we were keeping weed free. We sprayed roundup mixed with scythe rather frequently (one of the many reasons I quit and started my own concern) and the purslane would be the only thing left the next week when we returned, happy and growing and looking not at all ill effected. (you may take this as a warning not to eat any purslane growing in an area that may be maintained by commercial or other landscape crews) You may consider that this has been well tested and proved.

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