Most of us know this as shamrock. Good luck, outside of weed killer you'll have an endless chore. Chickens love it, roots and all. As you know, if one tiny piece is left it will spreed like wild fires pushed by the Santa Anna Winds.

It can be counted as a gift from God. If you harvest it in a controlled manner it can be a constant supplement food for your flock. It is a good source of carbs (roots) and calcium (leaves-flowers), not to forget the fiber it contains (whole plant).

Get some of the rolls of black plastic, unroll over the area and lay it out, weighting it down with rocks. Leave it for a few weeks. It will kill everything under it, however.

Velvet ~:>

Thank you for the responses! I may not have done a good job of describing it though. It's actually a "bulb" with no roots other than the tap root, and it lays dormant until the weather warms up at which time some of the cloves that make up the bulb (and there can be 100 of them on one bulb)will send up a leaf. At some point it will send up flowers and pollinate. It won't reproduce from a piece of the vegetation (we have a little of that type elsewhere on the property)only from the bulbs. If you hoe the above ground stems they keep sending up more from the same bulb all summer long. Last year I just decided I had to tough it out and simply dig up and dispose of all the bulbs, and probably spent four full days digging and sifting through to get them. What a drag. I had to stop when it got to the point that my flower crop was mature enough that I was starting to have a negative impact on their roots. I got maybe one fifth of them out. I'm not terribly excited about doing this again this year and next and.... Sooooo, thus starteth my search for an animal that thinks those things are a delicacy. You know, a lama (alpaca?) might actually be worth the $8,000 to me if it would eat all those blessed things!

They have a deep white carrot like tap root, above that they have a cluster of bulbs that look like elongated Lilly bulbs, the tops grow from a central crown, leaves have 4 petals, there are several verities-ranging from green to purple leaves, and small multi flowers on single stem. The different verities range in size of 1/2" across the leaf to 2", in height the different species range from 3" to 12". A goat will eat it, and cheaper yet build a chicken tractor and put 4-6 hens in it and move it around every day. But, any animal will only eat the tops off and not the root.

I've grown these plants in pots for 35 years and found that any extras can simply be stored in their pots for 2-3 years without water. Then simply put back in the greenhouse and watered and they grow like weeds. They can survive excessive watering and no water for long periods of time.

If you are trying to eradicate it, you can try the black plastic--but, short of removing all (every last tiny scape of root) is the only way to get rid of it besides using a herbicide.

I have a friends in Orange County, California had it growing next to a concrete sidewalk and redesigned their landscaping, they removed the sidewalk and all under it were bulbs from these plants. Their landscaper used round-up on them, said if they didn't dig and haul away all the bulbs and surrounding soil (to make sure even the tiniest bulbs were removed) that it was his experience they would be a constant problem.

Waaaaah! I was so hoping to hear of some magic bullet. C'est la vie. Guess I'll just have to resign myself to spending lots more quality time with my soil. Thanks again for the responses.