Even Weeds Can Have a Good Side

For the last few days   the bane of my gardening  endeavors  has been  a weed that looks like  a  miniature mimosa tree. It has taken over large areas in the flower, herb and veggie beds to produce  forests of miniature mimosas. Its  official name is  Phyllanthus urinaria,  but  it is more commonly known as chamber bitter, gripeweed, shatterstone, stonebreaker or leafflower. And although the plant looks like a little mimosa, it isn't even in the same family. I can see why  people call it gripeweed; I've been griping about it for days!

Since I don't use herbicides I've been pulling it out by hand- a job made much easier if the ground is wet. We haven't had any rain, or not enough to  soak the ground, for  a few days so pulling without breaking the roots has been  quite a job and I haven't been all that successful. Its  strong root system is the reason it is sometimes  called  stonebreaker or shatterstone. It does have a pretty extensive root system, as you can see here:

According to what I've read, it also has  yellow or white flowers, but I haven't seen any yet. Or maybe I just didn't look at the right time.  What it does have  though, are explosive little seeds- a kazillion of them,  on the underside of its leaves,  so it's a pretty safe bet that for every plant I've pulled there are  hundreds more ready to sprout from all the little seeds that have  dropped.

Because of those little seeds,  it's not a good idea to  put the weeds in your compost pile unless  your compost gets hot enough to kill them.  Mine doesn't, so I bag them up and send them to the dump. I'm not sure how our county dump handles yard waste and whether they  compost it in nice hot, steaming compost piles, but I doubt it. I fully expect to drive past the dump one day and see that it has become a  forest of tiny  fake mimosas.

But, as with so many other things, Phyllanthus urinaria is not all bad (unless it's growing in your flower beds) and I've discovered that it is reported as having many useful properties and has been the subject of several scientific research studies for it's possible effectiveness as an anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic agent in certain cancers. It has been used for hundreds of years  in  the  Far East, where it is native, as a remedy for various liver and kidney ailments. Tea made from the leaves  is sold as an herbal medicine to aid in everything from boosting your immune system to lessening the effects of a hangover. All of which makes me wonder whether I should be  saving the leaves and drying them rather than dumping them. But  then I read that in India  the crushed plant is used as fish poison and I don't really want to poison any fish. I do plan to read more about it, since it  has turned out to be such an  interesting weed. But not interesting enough to let it grow unchecked in the flower beds!