New, large fast growing ... weed?

Jun 14, 2005 19 Replies

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this foot tall...weed? Seems to have magically appeared in about



2 days. I just pulled bolted spinach from the bed on Saturday and Monday evening and never noticed this foot-tall, foot-wide plant was there.

Unless it is a volunteer of somethign I can't recognize.



Anybody recognize the critter? DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,


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Kind of looks like a pokeweed I had in my yard last year. If it is, you want to get rid of it. It's a huge, nasty plant that will take over your neighborhood. Make sure to get all of the root or it'll come right back.

Pat

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> Found this foot tall...weed? Seems to have magically appeared in about

I don't think it is poke weed. Poke weed is a nuisance for me, but I don't find it too hard to control. I just keep cutting or stepping it down. Eventually it dies.

The plant in the picture look very similar to brugmansia. Maybe it is a datura. I would let it go and see what happens.

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Certainly has a tropical look to the leaves.

I think I may have tossed a avocado pit or two into compost sometime and mixed it into the soil last fall.

Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

you are right, it is an avocado. I have two as houseplants and I was wondering why it looked so familiar.

Phytolacca americana, better known as "Poke Weed".

The fruit is a berry and birds drop the seeds everywhere in their poop.

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> Found this foot tall...weed? Seems to have magically appeared in about

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> Could this be an avocado plant?!

Don't think it is an Avocado. An Avocado would not grow that much in 2 days.

Definitely not an avocado.

Avocados aren't fleshy with shiny leaves.

Its "Poke Weed", Phytolacca americana.

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>>> Could this be an avocado plant?!

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>> Found this foot tall...weed? Seems to have magically appeared in

Looks like a milkweed to me. Also looks like something I'd dig out and throw in a garbage bag.

Dick

I also believe it is milkweed. A string trimmer makes short work of it.

It has the appearance of a pokeweed seedling, if it were returning from a perennial rootstock the stems would be fatter and somewhat red.

Milkweeds (Asclepias) have their leaves in pairs or sometimes whorled, not alternate, D*****ad.

Throw it out, maybe. Poke Weed is edible.

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>>>> Found this foot tall...weed? Seems to have magically appeared in

You go ahead and believe that, Stubby, but you would still be completely wrong.

Fifty lashes with a string trimmer for you.

I did grow a datura (flower points downward--they get confused with brughmansia a lot). Although this lacks the furry/slky feel of the leaves. Also my datura had a hairy stem.

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

Checked out some photos online, looks like a match. Even found one showing the tiny leaves sprouting from the crotches. Although almost all the pictures show red stems. The seedling pictures I found look like the smaller weeds I am pulling out in bunches out back. It was a new one this year... hadn't seen that seedling type before.

I can't be bothered with cooking it for greens--have to cook them as they are poisonous raw and/or when mature. Out it comes.

Thanks to all...

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>>> Found this foot tall...weed? Seems to have magically appeared in about

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

If you all had listened to me, I told you at beginning it was pokeweed. It sprouted a huge tree thingy in my yard last year and I've been seeing it sprouting here and there this year. It's a pain in the butt!

Pat

Yes, Pat, you were right. :-)

Although I find it interesting that different weeds show up each year. THis is a first for pokeweed in three years. I have pulled over a dozen of a tree...the seed looks like a chestnut (five fingered light green leaves with red blotches in the leaf). The squirrels have apparently buried them in all of my vegetable beds. I know cause they were sifted with a fine wire mesh and there is no way I missed all these 1 inch round nuts. This didn't show up the two previous years--maybe the tree has a cycle.

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

Damn squirrels. What did somebody on here call them? Lawn rats? I think that's appropriate.

Pat

I'm guessing this is the mother PokeWeed plant-- doesn't have a red stem as much as a purple-ish one. Almost looks like it is purple underneath a green skin.

It has a thick and very fleshy, smooth stalk. This one is just starting with little white flowers and is about 2 1/2 feet tall.

I spotted this last year and wondered what the heck it was. It was around 4-5 feet tall when I think a gardener whacked it down.

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DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

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