My Free Woodsorrel Bouquet

A large bouquet of woodsorrel on a table in a tall, square glass vase. February in the Bay Area means rain, blooming redbud trees, and lawns choked to the brim with masses of yellow flowers. The flowers are woodsorrel, a happy, friendly little weed that snuggles up to your shrubs during the winter like a wee, innocent baby chick.
In December the woodsorrel seems harmless. It is a weed sure, but it’s tiny and the other plants seem fine. It looks so innocent, who would even bother to weed that? So the woodsorrel is left alone and that’s when it strikes. By Valentines Day it’s smothering every living thing in it’s path like a possessive lover, suffocating planting beds with piles of cheerful yellow flowers.

Woodsorrel hugging a lavender plant to death.
Woodsorrel hugging some lavender to death.
Last week I had to step in and save the yard, it’s been a week of weeding war. I’ve ripped out plants by the handful and filled the green bin multiple times over. There have been casualties (a rosemary was smothered to death), and I’ve taken a war trophy – this fat bouquet of yellow flowers.A close up view of my woodsorrel bouquet. Woodsorrel is also sometimes called sourgrass. My free bouquet smells slightly like lilac. Take that woodsorrel, I win.

– Christin