Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Help! What is this scarey looking weed!

beckycocker1beckycocker1 Posts: 3
in Problem solving
Hi everyone, we have just moved to a barn in north devon and have found this rather scarey looking weed - does anyone have any idea what it might be? We want to identify it before taking action, just in case. It has a black hollow stem and a rather crazy looking flower. Many thanks in advance! 



«13

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Hmmm ... how interesting ... I keep thinking of Cobea scandens, but it's not quite right 

    I wonder if @nutcutlet is around ... she might know .... 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    We have it here ,also in Devon, I'd thought it one of the hogweeds, but I might well be wrong.
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2018
    Hosta ... now you've said that .... I was seeing it as some sort of exotic climber oops
    but if I pull back a bit and drink more coffee I think you're  nearer the mark but the buds don't look right .... and before the OP panics ... IT'S NOT THE DANGEROUS GIANT HOGWEED!   :D

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    Here it gets to about a couple of feet tall. It has a longish tap root, but even with our heavy clay soil, it's fairly easily dug out.
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    What are the flowers and seeds like @Hostafan1

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    edited July 2018
    like hogweed.  ;) Although, I've never let it seed.
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2018
    Now I'm downstairs with my glasses on and using my laptop instead of my phone I totally agree with you I'm embarrassed at my earlier confuddlement ...  I'm saying it's Heracleum sphondylium ... Hogweed aka Cow Parsnip ... a sort of reddish purplish variant ... we get some like that here in East Anglia but not as dark as that but we know that things can be a bit different down there in the south-west  ;)

    Anyway, it's nothing for @beckycocker1 to worry about.   How lovely to have a barn in Devon ... quite envious here  :)

    I'd better stop trying to do IDs without my glasses  :'(

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 37,906
    The flower - without the slug - is reminiscent of one of the Aristolochias. Hogweed is an umbellifera.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    hogweed flower bud
    Image result for hogweed flower bud
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Ladybird4 said:
    The flower - without the slug - is reminiscent of one of the Aristolochias. Hogweed is an umbellifera.
    But the leaves are wrong

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





Sign In or Register to comment.