Grass Weed - Lighter Green - Annoying?

Question

I have patches of a "grass weed" that are sprouting up in my lawn. They're a brighter green color than the normal grass color. They usually have 3 long thin leaves that come up from the root. It grows slightly faster than the rest of my lawn. If it wasn't for color and growth speed, you wouldn't know it was any different from the rest of the grass.

If I grab the weed by it's base, it pulls up very easily with a short pinkish/purplish type root. When I pick them out of the ground early, the root is very thin, but if I don't pick them early enough, the root gets thicker and thicker. As the root gets thicker it seems as if the grass surrounding the weed starts to die.

Does anyone know what this weed is? How to prevent it without killing the surrounding grass? And by my continually picking them out of the ground, will it prevent future spreading?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Really need some more info to narrow down your weed.

Location?  state / city

Type of lawn grass currently?

Type of soil? sandy / loam / clay / rocky

And best, if you can take a pic of the weed both in your lawn and pulled to display the root - you can open a free account on photobucket.com and upload the pictures there.  Then post the link here so folks can go view pics of your weed.