This little guy showed up, with about fifty friends, in a shady spot in my backyard where nothing was growing. Now it's full of stiltgrass, this, a silktree that thinks I haven't spotted it, and some sneaky wisteria. I intend to burn this section to the ground and sow the fields with salt, but I'd like to know what this guy is before I embark on my scorched earth policy. (I assume it's a noxious weed, because it's ALWAYS a noxious weed. I just wanna know what kind, and whether mere removal will suffice, or whether I need a priest and a flamethrower.) Unwilling to drag the camera out, I just clipped one of these suckers and scanned it. It's not a perfect solution, I grant you, but it beats me flailing around with hand gestures going "Sorta...purply thing...ya know?" The stems are bare and branching, emerging from a flat thicket of leaves that lay flat to the ground--in some cases partly under dirt--and vaguely resemble primrose or African violet, in that they're fairly fleshy, veined, and the classic oval-pointed-at-one-end shape. The stems have no spines, but are hairy. Each flower head is bracketed by three heart-shaped leaves forming a little rosette. The flowers themselves are small pale purple sprays set into a head rather like a clover. Two or three of the flowers would pop out at a time, rather than the whole flower head blooming simultaneously. The flowers are very small, the plant about eighteen inches high. I've scoured wildflower listings, and I am stumped. An ID would be greatly appreciated. X-posted to gardening