The weed may branch near the top of the plant. Flowers are white or pinkish-white. It is easy to tell from the other weed species listed here because the leaves are very long and narrow, the leaves are hairy, and the flowers are large and red to purplish-red. I have not seen this weed in Michigan no-till fields. Cow cockle is an annual weed that will start with a single stem and be quite branched in the upper part of the plant.
Stems are smooth with swollen nodes.
Leaves are smooth and are rounded at the base and the leaves will sometimes clasp the stem at the leaf base. Cow cockle has bright pink flowers from mid-July to September. This is not a problem in no-till fields because it is a small seedling at the time of burndown and easily controlled. Michigan State University has not researched the control of these weeds in no-till fields. We do know that white cockle and night-flowering catchfly are not on the Roundup Ultra label.