Carrot Weed: How to Identify It and Get It Out of Your Lawn
How to Get Rid of Carrot Weed
Follow these steps to identify and remove carrot weed before it gets out of hand.
- Confirm it is carrot weed Look for a low-growing plant with fine, fern-like leaves similar to carrot tops, a single taproot, and small white to pale yellow flowers. It flowers in early winter and does not produce any burrs, which is the clearest difference from bindii.
- Check your watering and drainage Carrot weed thrives in moist, damp soil. If it has taken hold in your lawn, check whether you are overwatering, and look for any low spots or drainage problems that keep the soil wet for extended periods. Fixing these conditions makes your lawn far less inviting for this weed.
- Pull small infestations by hand If only a few plants are present, hand-pulling is the quickest fix. Find the centre of the plant, grip it close to the soil surface, and pull firmly to remove the taproot in one piece. Leave any root behind and it may reshoot.
- Treat larger patches with a broadleaf herbicide When there is too much to pull by hand, apply a broadleaf herbicide such as a dicamba-based product or a registered broadleaf lawn herbicide. Important: dicamba-based products are not safe for use on buffalo lawns, so check the label carefully before you apply.
- Act before it sets seed Timing matters. A single carrot weed flower can produce 50 to 90 seeds, and a mature plant can produce up to 1,275 seeds in a season. Getting on top of it before flowering in early winter will save you a much bigger problem the following year.
Why Carrot Weed Turns Up and How to Tell It Apart from Bindii
Carrot weed, also known as annual button weed or common cotula (Cotula australis), is common across NSW, south-east Queensland and other parts of eastern Australia. It germinates in spring and autumn and flowers from late winter into spring. Because it looks so much like bindii, it often goes unnoticed until it is well established. The key difference is that carrot weed flowers earlier, in early winter, and never produces the painful burrs that make bindii such a nuisance underfoot.
This weed spreads entirely by seed, so every plant you remove before it flowers is hundreds of future weeds you will never have to deal with. A healthy, dense lawn is your best long-term defence. Warm-season grasses that are well fertilised, mown at the right height, and not overwatered naturally crowd out weeds like carrot weed by leaving little bare soil for seeds to establish in.
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