Just keeps coming back every year. Have them in two spots. I was thinking it was a weed and I tried to dig one of them out and it has big roots for a weed...
Is this a weed?
I don't know why that picture is posted sideway.... but after preview, it doesn't allow you to change the files, so here is another one of the leaves.
Does it flower?
Maggie
I've never seen it flower. I pulled it out last year before it got too big. This year, I was in the process of digging it out when I saw the roots. Thought I'd post it first and see.
Looks like it might be Poke weed-
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/35080/
It pops up here and there in my yard and I even saw a plant in a crack in the parking lot at the post office! Tough bugger.
Some people used to (maybe still do??) eat the young leaves, but I think most people consider it poisonous.
Yup - you might have seen in another thread, my little town actually has a "poke sallet" (aka Poke Salad) festival. Evidently you take the smallest of the green leaves and fry them up with eggs or bacon grease. However, it can cause a lot of stomach upset - perhaps even death - if you don't cook the leaves, first.
If that is Poke weed, you probably have a million seeds in your soil - if left to bloom and go to seed they're very prolific.
AAarrggh! I have to dig them out tomorrow, first thing in the morning!!!
Well, if your weather is anything like ours is, you'll wanna get up *really* early...
hot, dripping sweaty HUMID!
Boy, ain't that the truth. I feel so bad for my horses.
Looks to me like a Butterfly Bush. If it's a deciduous perennial, grows tall like a tree, and when cut to the ground comes back again; If it has long racemes with clumps of tiny flowers, probably purple or white, that's probably what it is. If the butterflies love it, that's a good sign. If its stems are really woody, also good. My butterfly bush has white flowers (they don't last long, then turn brown, but they're still attractive in a bushy brown blossom kind of way...) and I cut it down in the fall. Springtime, it starts up again. Right now, it's about 12' tall.
Poke Salet only grows in the deep south, so I was told. THAT plant sounds like trouble; hope you don't have it.
2hot, thanks. I have butterfly bush and that one is not it. I went ahead and dug them out. Can't take any chances of those taking over.
Poke is used medicinally, but you have to boil it, drain it, boil it, drain it, and boil it again before you can use it. Can't recall off the top of my head what it's used for (I'm way more into theory than practice at this point). And since my name is Ann, I've always liked the song "Poke Salat Annie" and wanted to try it, but so far I haven't.
IF it is poke salad, it will grow in your zone...It does in my 6b/7a! Let it grow up, and at about chest or head height it will bloom and produce very dark inky purple berries. Then you will know it is poke salad. I know it is poisonous, but nothing here has died from it, and I have raised a child plus lots of animals, including horses, goats, poultry, rabbits, etc.
Do the berries come after tiny little white flowers? If so, I've pulled a couple out of my garden! I was thinking it was common nightshade, but wasn't too worried about it at the time, as all I knew was I didn't want it growing in the zinnia bed!