| Bees love the nectar from my tiny white flowers in the summer, and in the fall and winter goldfinches eat my seeds. Introduced from Europe, I have been planted in some places to stabilize soil, but I have spread along roadsides and other disturbed areas. As a member of the legume—or pea—family, my roots can enrich the soil by fixing nitrogen. I take two years to produce flowers and seeds and can reach 2 to 6 feet (.06–2 m) tall. In my first year, I am a tiny clump of leaves. My leaves have three leaflets with serrated—or jagged—edges. In my second year of growth I send up a stalk of tiny, white flowers that produce the nectar honey producers cherish. If cattle eat too much of me they can bloat. |
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| My name refers to my ability to get a head start on other grasses by using winter and spring moisture to grow early in the season. While still young and tender, livestock graze my flat leaf blades, but when I mature I have nasty awns—bristle-like appendages—on my seeds. These awns stick in the animals’ mouths if they eat me after I have gone to seed. The awns allow my seed to catch a ride in animal fur or people’s socks to travel to a new home. When I reach maturity I dry out or “cure” and become a fire hazard. Because I like to grow in disturbed areas I can dominate an area after a fire. This creates a frequent fire cycle that favors my growth over the native grasses. I am relatively new to America but I now grow in much of the western U.S. I originally came from southern Europe and southwestern Asia. |
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| In the same growing season I spring from a small, wedge-shaped seed to a large herb reaching as high as six feet tall. My stems have many round, slender and soft hairy branches. My alternate, lance-shaped leaves have edges fringed with hair and three or five prominent veins. My tiny green flowers are so small you may not notice their dense spikes, but when they bloom, they cause allergies in lots of people. I grow in cultivated fields, gardens and waste areas in the bosque where the soil has been disturbed. Birds and mice eat my dull brown seeds. Livestock will eat my leaves, but too many causes an upset stomach. An invasive species from Asia, I have spread all through the United States. |
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