A Week of Weeds - Speedwell and Chickweed

Here they are together, which explains why they share this post.  Cultivate some land and the first weeds to turn up will be these two.   Below is a typical vegetable bed scenario.  Under the fleece, along with the desired veg, these two have been thriving!

They are each individually innocuous but in volume, which they very soon develop, they bully the plants you want to grow and deprive them of nitrogen and water.

So which is which?  Here's Speedwell on its own (or nearly there is another weed, possibly cleavers, far right):

Speedwell: Veronica persica

And here is a Chickweed plant  (again ignore the extra weed on the right)

* Chickweed: Stellaria media

Both are very successful weeds that could be considered as green manures if it weren't for their ability to produce insignificant flowers and then seeds in such quick order.  Both are edible although chickweed is more like a spinach substitute whereas speedwell is better suited to a tea having a certain astringency about it.  To date I have not tried consuming either myself.   For the record chickweed has white flowers, whereas speedwell flowers are blue with a white centre.  If you can see the flowers it is time to weed!

* Mouse eared chickweed (Cerastium fontanum) is a similar to "ordinary" chickweed (Stellara media) but belongs to a different family.  The best account of the differences between them is at the following link

How to tell chickweeds apart

The leaves are either bare and pointed or hairy and round - like a mouses ear!