3

I started everything from seed this year, with over 40 varieties of annuals. I'm not sure if this thing is one of them or just a weed. It is definitely the tallest thing in my garden right now. I can see a bud forming at the top that looks like it is going to flower at some point. I've got a lot of these throughout my garden, which makes me think they are a weed. But I just want to make sure before I yank them all out. The spikes coming out of the leaves make it look dangerous.

P.S. I'm in the PWN, Portland, OR to be exact.

enter image description here

A close-up pic of the bud forming at the top.

enter image description here

BB Smooth
  • 31
  • 2
  • Two ideas: list the planted species'; cut the stem of this plant and report is there milky sap. – Vorac Jun 06 '23 at 23:35
  • Some places to look for information about likely weeds local to you: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bes/55084 – Ecnerwal Jun 07 '23 at 01:41
  • It looks a lot like a variety of wild plant that exists in Ontario. But I have always thought this plant was a "feral" version of a flower. – Boba Fit Jun 07 '23 at 20:01
  • 1
    @Vorac I cut the stem and there is no milky sap. I bought a lot of those mixed flowers seed packets with a ton of different seeds in them. I don't have the packets any more so I can't list all of the different seeds that were in them. Hence, my confusion about whether this is from one of those types of seeds or just a weed. – BB Smooth Jun 08 '23 at 01:51
  • 1
    @Ecnerwal Thanks for that link. I looked through all the noxious weed profiles and I don't think I saw my mystery plant. I guess I might have to wait until one of these blooms before I can get around to identifying it. – BB Smooth Jun 08 '23 at 02:01
  • 1
    UPDATE: My neighbor thinks this is some type of cornflower. He showed me some pics he found online of cornflower sprouts that have the spiked leaves. The pic of the bud does look like a cornflower. This would make sense as I'm sure some of those mixed flower packets probably had cornflower in them. So he has convinced me to leave these for now. I'll update here once they start to bloom and I can verify. – BB Smooth Jun 08 '23 at 02:51
  • Have you tried to eat the curly leaf? It looks remarkably like what we call Wild Rocket in the UK, so a variety of arugula that is self seeding and in theory, a perennial in some climates. – Nikki Jun 08 '23 at 19:06

0 Answers0