Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Roma on June 21, 2015, 02:57:57 PM

Title: Mystery Weed
Post by: Roma on June 21, 2015, 02:57:57 PM
This has me puzzled.  I thought it was a dandelion but on closer inspection it definitely is not.  Rabbits or deer have been eating the flower buds but i suspect they will be yellow.  Keble Martin is my usual reference for wild flowers but nothing there quite fits.  I should be able to use a key but prefer pictures.  This seems to be the only plant and I have not seen anything like it before.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Maggi Young on June 21, 2015, 03:11:13 PM
Is  Senecio aquaticus a possibility, do you think?  I don't know if it has those hairy stems though.....  ???

Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Maggi Young on June 21, 2015, 03:16:36 PM
Crepis capillaris ?
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Hoy on June 21, 2015, 03:24:23 PM
I think Maggi is right, at least i believe it is a Crepis.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Roma on June 21, 2015, 03:40:22 PM
Crepis does seem most likely.  I just don't understand where it could have come from.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Jupiter on June 21, 2015, 10:30:33 PM

I agree with Crepis capillaris. We have it here as a weed of wasteland and roadsides and I know it well. Maybe i's a recent introduction Roma?

Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Lesley Cox on June 21, 2015, 11:18:27 PM
So that is what has invaded my Crepis incana! We have a lot of this weed here and usually they just pull out but the one in question has become established in Crepis incana and no amount of pulling bits has done anything but encourage it to grow even more. I intended to lift the clump and separate them out but it may be too late now for the pinkie. And it's snowing/raining/sleeting and has been for about 3 weeks and we're almost under water so I'm not too keen on gardening just right now.

Like with you Jamie, it's a well known pasture and wasteland weed. I don't remember a time when we didn't have it, especially on roadside verges and I've had it in every garden I've ever lived in. Not usually a problem except for its numbers but easily controllable - usually. I always thought it was a kind of dandelion.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Growild on June 22, 2015, 09:47:15 AM
Could also be Wild Chicory leaves are identical.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Maggi Young on June 22, 2015, 12:07:16 PM
Could also be Wild Chicory leaves are identical.

Oh! Cichorium intybus ? Never thought of that - and yet  it is naturalised in much of this area so it should  be a possibility.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Anthony Darby on June 22, 2015, 01:33:40 PM
Crepis capillaris is common right throughout the UK. Only absent from the central highlands. http://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/smooth-hawks-beard (http://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/smooth-hawks-beard)
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Jupiter on June 22, 2015, 11:26:18 PM

The flowers will settle this when they come (if you haven't pulled them all out). My money is still firmly on Crepis capillaris. Leaves are very similar but not identical.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Alan_b on June 23, 2015, 06:39:34 AM
Hawksbeard grows all over the place here so I'm surprised you have not encountered it before.  Don't take any chances but it might be edible http://www.eattheweeds.com/crepis-japonica-seasonal-potherb-2/ (http://www.eattheweeds.com/crepis-japonica-seasonal-potherb-2/)
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Lesley Cox on June 24, 2015, 05:30:14 AM
Blue flowers on the chicory, yellow on the hawkweed.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: David Lyttle on June 25, 2015, 11:07:45 AM
Crepis capillaris - well and truly naturalised here along with its fellow travellers Taraxacum officinale, Hypochaeris radicata, Leontodon taraxacoides to name just a few. That does not exhaust the list of yellow dandelions. I am still trying to figure them all out.

I have attached a picture of it flourishing far from its home. When I made a comment that my neighbourhood was a biodiversity hotspot a botanist friend agreed saying  "Yes, most of it imported from the northern hemisphere!"
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Anthony Darby on July 10, 2015, 11:11:55 AM
Here's a weed that grows in profusion in the rarely cut areas around the local football pitches.
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: fermi de Sousa on July 10, 2015, 04:02:05 PM
Hi Anthony,
I think we have it over here too.
I suspect it is some kind of Erodium,
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Maggi Young on July 10, 2015, 05:19:12 PM
 I think it is  Erodium moschatum
https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/colleges/college-of-sciences/clinics-and-services/weeds-database/musky-storksbill.cfm (https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/colleges/college-of-sciences/clinics-and-services/weeds-database/musky-storksbill.cfm)

[attachimg=1]
Photo by  Eugene  Zelenko  via Wikipedia  (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erodium_moschatum#/media/File:Erodium_moschatum-2.jpg)

other pesky Erodiums in New Zealand:

Erodium cicutarium   http://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/21843 (http://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/21843)
Erodium botrys  http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/03030800-0b07-490a-8d04-0605030c0f01/media/Html/Erodium_botrys.htm (http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/03030800-0b07-490a-8d04-0605030c0f01/media/Html/Erodium_botrys.htm)



Title: Re: Mystery Weed
Post by: Anthony Darby on July 12, 2015, 03:56:24 AM
Thanks. Looks like another plant that will spike poor Heidi's feet.
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