So, first of all I should probably admit that I am VERY new to gardening of any kind. However, my wife and I just recently purchased out first home and I want to try to make the garden nice. My first problem though is that I have this weed (is it even a weed? Maybe some kind of fern?? I have no idea!!) all over my yard. There appears to be more of it than there is grass! As you can see from the picture it's small, with flat, oval shaped leaves. I've looked at a few different sites to try to identify it but have come up empty handed so far. Can anyone tell me what this is and how best to handle/remove it without damaging the grass around it? Any help/advice would be much appreciated!

I had the same little plant in Florida and I did not know what it was either. And low and behold I move to Michigan and darn if I don't have the same plant in my yard!
It does get tiny white flowers. It is not a fern. Some one will tell us both what it is.

Some gardeners would define a weed as any plant that grows where you don't want it!!

It reminds me a lot of Chamber Bitter (Phyllanthus urinaria), a weed that is all over my backyard.

I have a thundershower or I would go outside to collect one. I think that it might be Milk Purslane.

It doesn't look like Euphorbia (Milk Purslane) Spotted Spurge (Euphorbia maculata) to me. Doesn't that one have a trailing habit and also a dark splotch on each leaf? http://ontariowildflowers.com/...:

Boy that bottom image is close. It seems to me I remember darn blotches on the leaves.
But is this spurge the same plant as Tartans Tater Tot??

LOL, I've never heard of a plant with the common name of Tartans Tater Tot and I couldn't find anything when doing a google search for that name.

Another one with similar leaf is Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica) but it doesn't look quite right for that one to me.

That's the name of the member who posted the initial question on the forums.

Tartan Tater Tot is our original poster. The Chamber Bitter looks like a good match to me.

Thank you! Chamber Bitter is definitely it. Now, does anyone know how to get rid of it outside of pulling my half an acre lot by hand??

Don't mind me ... I'm old AND blonde.

Don't mind me either! I am just old!

plantladylin said: LOL, I've never heard of a plant with the common name of Tartans Tater Tot and I couldn't find anything when doing a google search for that name.

Another one with similar leaf is Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica) but it doesn't look quite right for that one to me.

That was my first thought too (mimosa pudica), but agree, the leaf spacing is different. On the other hand, just touch or very gently squeeze a few leaves about the center. If it's mimosa pudica, they will begin to close.

Mimosa leaflets are opposite, these are alternate.

TartanTaterTot said:Thank you! Chamber Bitter is definitely it. Now, does anyone know how to get rid of it outside of pulling my half an acre lot by hand??

Make tea...

A 2.4-D herbicide will kill all the broad leaf plants in your lawn but not the grass; and mentioning a herbicide will probably put me on the NGA black list.

Porkpal has the right idea here. I thought the same thing that he had the courage to post.

I have the same plant here and there. I pull them out when I see them so I don't know how big they get. At one time someone told me (or I read) that it was a mimosa. Not more specific than that. Since I have neighbors with mimosa trees, makes sense to me.

I think that suggesting the use of toxic substances on plants that you have zero personal experience with is incredibly irresponsible.

In this day and age of hermaphrodite 5 legged frogs, and monster jury awards from cancer causing toxins that the defoliant-producing company still insists "safe enough to put on your sandwich"... We really want to examine ALL other options!

Chamberbitter starts flowering and producing seed as a two week old seedling. Any poison used may kill the plant, but you still have a thousand viable seeds on each plant...

It's also important to understand where this aggressive annual came from.

Chamberbitter and mulberry weed (another aggressive annual) are both considered "nursery weeds".

You get them when you purchase container plants.

So... If you ever get rid of the current infestation, you would have to be very careful about bringing in new plants....

Personally, I wonder if you might simply consider covering the entire yard in several inches of topsoil, and start over.

Woodchip mulch is also effective. The trick is... To bury the seeds deeply enough to prevent germination.

Incidentally, I deal with chamberbitter and mulberry weed by hand-pulling and placing in bucket... Never pull without a bucket in your other hand! When I get finished, the bucket of plants goes in the grill, or the burn pile... Never in the compost.

I get these plants when "friends" offer to share their flowers... Any soil from their yard is full of seed from these incredibly aggressive plants.

The only kind of mimosa I like is the champagne with orange juice for breakfast!