Broadleaf weeds in your lawn? How to identify and beat every one

You look across the lawn and it is not one weed, it is several. A patch of clover here, something daisy-like over there, a low creeping thing through the middle. It feels like you would need a different spray for each, and a shed full of half-used bottles to deal with the lot. You do not. Almost all of the weeds taking over an Australian lawn in the cooler months belong to a single group, and that group can be handled with one product. This guide walks through the broadleaf weeds you are most likely to be looking at, how to tell them apart, and how to clear them.

One quick check first. This guide is about broadleaf weeds, the wide-leaved weeds that spread low through the turf. If what you are seeing is a fine, grassy clump that looks like a lighter green version of your lawn, that is a grassy weed like winter grass, and it needs a completely different approach. Our winter weeds guide covers how to tell the two apart. Everything below is broadleaf.

The broadleaf weeds you are most likely to have

Bindii

A low, flat rosette with fine, feathery leaves like a tiny carrot top or a sprig of parsley, bright lime green, sitting flat enough that the mower passes straight over it. It looks harmless through winter, then forms the hard seed pod in spring that becomes the prickle you feel underfoot.

Winter is the ideal time to treat it, before the prickle forms at all. If it is already spring and the burrs have set, spray anyway. It will not remove prickles that have already hardened, but it kills the plant before those burrs drop and add another year of seed to your soil. Our bindii guide covers both windows in full.

White clover

Three rounded leaflets to each leaf, often with a pale crescent marking across them, spreading in low mats by runners that root as they go. Small white ball-shaped flower heads sit just above the leaves. Clover thrives where the lawn is low on nitrogen, because as a legume it makes its own, so a hungry lawn actually favours it. It is one of the fastest broadleaf weeds to respond to treatment.

Creeping oxalis

Often mistaken for clover, but look closer. Oxalis leaflets are heart-shaped with a notch at the tip, where clover's are rounded, and oxalis carries small yellow five-petal flowers rather than clover's white. It creeps flat and roots at the nodes, and its seed capsules burst to fling seed a surprising distance, which is why it spreads so quickly. It ranges from green to a bronze-purple colour.

Capeweed

A flat rosette of deeply lobed, greyish-green leaves with a soft woolly white underside. In late winter and spring it throws up a yellow daisy flower with a distinctive dark, almost black centre. It favours bare and thin patches and can spread wide across a struggling lawn.

Plantain

Narrow, lance-shaped leaves with strong parallel ribs running their length, held in an upright rosette, with wiry flower stalks rising above. It anchors with a deep taproot, which is why hand-pulling so often leaves a piece behind that simply regrows.

Cat's ear

Frequently called false dandelion, and it does look like one: a flat rosette of lobed leaves and yellow dandelion-style flowers on thin branching stems. The tell is in the leaves. Cat's ear leaves are hairy on both sides, where a true dandelion's are smooth. Like plantain, it holds on with a deep taproot.

Cudweed

A low rosette of narrow leaves that are green on top and silvery-white and woolly underneath, with small, dull, clustered flowers that are easy to miss. It sits low and flat in among the turf rather than standing out, which is how it often goes unnoticed until there is a lot of it.

One product for the whole list

Bow and Arrow controls every weed above. That is the point of it. Rather than a different spray for clover, another for capeweed and another for oxalis, it is a single selective herbicide built to take out the broadleaf group as a whole while leaving your turf standing. A 500ml bottle is $55 and treats 1,000m2.

It manages that with 3 active ingredients, Clopyralid, Diflufenican and MCPA, working across 2 different modes of action. The practical benefit of that combination is broader control across more weed species, a more complete kill, and a lower risk of weeds developing resistance than you get from a single-active product. It is absorbed through the leaf and moves through the plant to the growing points, shutting the weed down from the inside rather than just burning off the top.

How and when to apply it

Timing is about the weed, not the calendar. Apply while the weeds are actively growing and before they set seed. For most of the broadleaf weeds here that means autumn, through winter, and into early spring across the southern states, and earlier in the warmer north.

The rule that matters most is to treat weeds while they are small. A young, actively growing weed absorbs the product more completely and dies faster. The same weed left to mature and seed is significantly harder to kill, and by then it has already sown next year's problem.

That said, treating late still beats not treating. A mature weed killed before it drops seed is one less year of seed bank to fight. Expect it to take longer and expect to need a second pass 4 to 6 weeks later.

The rate is 50ml per 100m2 in 2 to 5L of water through a garden or backpack sprayer. One 500ml bottle treats 1,000m2, so a typical suburban lawn is several full applications from a single bottle. Shake it well and keep it agitated while mixing.

A few application rules from the label:

• Apply to actively growing weeds, not ones that are stressed or frosted.
• From September onward, spray early morning or late afternoon. MCPA can cause temporary discolouration in heat or on a lawn already under stress. Water the lawn well the day before and avoid spraying above 30 degrees.
• Do not spray if rain is expected within 4 hours.
• Do not mow for 3 to 4 days before or after treatment. The weed needs leaf area to absorb through.
• Do not use clippings as mulch or compost after treatment.
• It is Schedule 5, so wear gloves and eye protection, and keep children and pets off the area until the spray has dried.
• Do not tank-mix it with your Turf and Surf liquids. Apply it on its own, and leave at least 24 hours before or after your liquid program.

What to expect

It works thoroughly rather than fast, and that is what delivers the complete kill. In the first week the actives absorb and move through the plant, and you may see some yellowing or tip distortion. Through weeks 2 to 4 the weeds wilt, brown and collapse. Full death of larger, established weeds can take the full 6 weeks, while smaller weeds go faster. Where weeds die out you may be left with bare patches, and a lawn on a consistent program will spread to fill those gaps on its own.

Turf safety

Bow and Arrow is selective, so at the correct rate it targets the weeds and leaves established turf unharmed. It is safe on couch, zoysia, carpet grass and Queensland blue couch. It is registered for buffalo, but some varieties including ST85 can show temporary discolouration, so test a small area and wait 7 days if you are unsure of your variety. Transient discolouration can also show on kikuyu and Queensland blue couch and passes on its own. Do not use it on bent grass.

Stop the next generation

Bow and Arrow kills what is already up. It does nothing to seed still in the soil. To stop next season's crop germinating at all, apply Spartan pre-emergent in the autumn window, before soil temperatures drop and the seed germinates. Treat now with Bow and Arrow, then protect next season with Spartan.

Complete the program

Clearing the weeds is half the job. Broadleaf weeds move into lawns that are thin, hungry and patchy, because that is where the bare ground and the lack of competition is. A dense, well-fed lawn does not leave them the room. Clover is the clearest example: it moves in precisely because the lawn is short on nitrogen. Feed and thicken the turf and you remove the invitation.

The Starter Pack is the right foundation for a thin lawn that keeps getting invaded, at $150 for Soak, Vital and Surge. The full 5-step program is the season-long routine that keeps it dense enough to crowd weeds out for good.

Frequently asked questions

Is that clover or oxalis in my lawn?
Look at the leaflets and the flowers. Clover has rounded leaflets and white ball-shaped flowers. Oxalis has heart-shaped leaflets with a notch at the tip and small yellow flowers. Both are broadleaf weeds and both are controlled by Bow and Arrow, so the fix is the same either way.

Will one product really handle all these different weeds?
Yes. Every weed in this guide is a broadleaf weed, and a selective broadleaf herbicide is built to control the group. What it will not touch is grassy weeds like winter grass, which look like grass rather than having wide flat leaves. Those are a separate problem covered in our winter weeds guide.

It is already spring. Is it too late to spray?
No. Mature weeds are harder to kill and may need a second application, but treating them before they drop seed stops next year's crop being worse. Late treatment is always better than none.

Why are the weeds not dying quickly after I spray?
Bow and Arrow is designed to work over 4 to 6 weeks rather than scorch the top off in a day. Smaller weeds show decline within 1 to 2 weeks, larger established ones can take the full 6. The slower action is what takes the whole plant, roots included, so it does not simply recover and regrow.

Can I spray if I have a buffalo lawn?
Yes, Bow and Arrow is registered for buffalo. The one caution is that some varieties including ST85 can show temporary discolouration. If you are unsure of your variety, treat a small test area and wait 7 days before doing the whole lawn. Any discolouration passes on its own.

The same weeds come back every year. Why?
Two reasons usually. The lawn is thin or hungry enough to leave gaps for weeds to establish, and the weeds are being left to mature and seed before they are treated. Treat early while the weeds are small, then feed and thicken the lawn so there is no bare ground for the next generation to land in.