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My mom has noticed these growing near her flower beds, and we've never seen anything like them. Any ideas?enter image description here

Brian
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  • The photo is slightly 'foggy' so its hard to see detail - can you post a clearer one please? – Bamboo May 27 '18 at 18:46
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    Possibly something in the mint family - Lamiaceae. Where in the world is your mom? – Peter4075 May 27 '18 at 18:52
  • Usage of the word "mom" narrows your location down to either America or the English Midlands. – Peter4075 May 27 '18 at 18:58
  • @Peter4075 English Midlands? might sound like 'mom' but its never spelt that way in the UK,its always mum... it'll be the States somewhere... – Bamboo May 27 '18 at 20:16
  • @Bamboo - From the Oxford English Dictionary: "In addition to North American use, 'mom' is also found in English regional (West Midlands) use ...". And here's a link from a Birmingham (my home town) MP asking that Hansard spell "mom" not "mum": https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/mom-mum-mp-jess-phillips-12308391 . I've always written "mom", and it was only in recent years that I realised that most Brits use "mum". – Peter4075 May 28 '18 at 07:06

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A type of Wood Mint - Blephilia. Hard to tell what species since we don't know where you live in the US (or West Midlands). They're native to the Eastern US to just west of the Mississippi. Here are a couple of photos for you:

https://newfs.s3.amazonaws.com/taxon-images-1000s1000/Lamiaceae/blephilia-ciliata-fl-jgarrett.jpg

http://ontariowildflowers.com/main/species.php?id=819

Jurp
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  • Do they say "mom" for mother west of the Mississippi? :P – benn May 28 '18 at 20:33
  • I think it's either Mom or Mother throughout the US. I've travelled quite a bit between the Rockies and the East Coast and never heard anything else; don't have much personal experience in the Old South or the West Coast, though. – Jurp May 28 '18 at 21:43