Speedwells are common field plants and yet they are often overlooked, probably because they are so inconspicuous and have such a short life-span. They are mostly overwintering plants, Buxbaum’s Speedwell being especially hardy and capable of growing, and even flowering, in the winter as soon as the temperature rises just above freezing.

Although difficult to eradicate it is a welcome plant in that it is one of the earliest to flower in spring. What makes eradication of Coltsfoot difficult is its extensive root system. The rhizomes, the foodstore of the plant, spread horizontally below the surface of the soil at depths ranging from 20-250 cm, with the greatest concentration found 1 m down. From this, shoots rise to form new rooting plants on the surface, and in autumn, several flower buds form below the surface, close under the leaves, in readiness for the following spring.

Elsewhere, one-square-metre patches sown to spring crops yielded about 34 000 plant seeds in a well-tended field, and 45 000 in a neglected one. If nothing else, these calculations endorse the validity of the old country saying that the best herbicide is a hoe.

The stems of Wall Speedwell are covered with leaves that decrease in size from the ground upwards. The flowers form a terminal raceme; the flower stalks are erect or slanting outwards at an angle and the stems are covered with short downy hair. The stem leaves of the other two species are constant in size. Their flowers are borne singly in the axils of the leaves and the stalks curve downwards after the flowers fade.

The flowers are composed of tubular and strap-shaped florets. After fading they dry up and disappear. The smooth achencs (3), as many as 8000 to a single plant, germinate as soon as they are ripe – within about three to six hours. Later, their viability rapidly decreases and three-month-old achencs will not in most cases germinate. Once the flowers have faded, fairly large heart-shaped to round leaves appear.

The fruit is a capsule patterned with a veined network, and the seeds are tubercled. The speedwells generally flower in early spring, Wall Speedwell perhaps somewhat later than the other two.