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Please help! Hoping this isn't JK.

karen paulkaren paul Posts: 230
in Plants
I'm hoping that someone can reassure me that this isn't a Japanese Knotweed seedling! I found it in the middle of one of my flower beds coming up through a heuchera. I have no JK anywhere in my garden and neither do my immediate neighbours, we have all been here for over 20 years. There was someone who had it 3 doors down but had it treated about 3 or 4 years ago, as far as I know it was a success. The heuchera had been moved from the front garden to the back last year and was near a dogwood and not too far from a lilac which I believe can be mistaken for JK but to me the leaves are way too heartshaped and alternate on the stem for either dogwood or lilac. The only things giving me hope are that I have read that it's very rare for JK seeds to germinate and that the stems (there was also 3 more smaller seedlings in the same spot in the heuchera) seem a little too woody to be JK. I think I got it all out as the soil and heuchera rootball was so loose but I'm worried it could pop up somewhere else if it somehow came to my garden as seed. Please someone put my mind at rest. I am going to allow a piece to grow bigger in a pot (where roots cant escape!) so I can keep an eye on what I'm dealing with.

Posts

  • Red mapleRed maple Posts: 1,138
    I’m sorry I can’t help you, but hope someone will be along soon who can answer your question. It does look a lot like lilac, though, so fingers crossed!
  • BeefleyBeefley Posts: 52
    Looks more like epimedium to me
  • Hampshire HogHampshire Hog Posts: 330
    Not certain but the stem looks wrong to me JK stems are hollow as you say these look to woody all I can offer I'm afraid.
    "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."
  • karen paulkaren paul Posts: 230
    Thankyou everyone for at least giving me hope. It would make sense for it to be lilac and my worry would turn to joy if it turns out to be that as I had to dig my lilac out as it was suckering too bad near my drive and I didn't have a container to put it in so let it die but i regretted not having at least kept a small piece of it to start again. It had been about 15ft away from the heuchera. Here's hoping :) 
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    edited August 2018
    If any more come up take a photo of them in situ, it's easier to ID a plant that's growing.
    I don't think that is JKW. Looking at the underside of the leaf, yours has a palmate vein structure, 5 veins from a point. JKW has one central vein and branches off of that. 
    PS Lilac has a central vein as well 


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I'm with Beefley - the vein structure looks right for epimedium.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • karen paulkaren paul Posts: 230
    I've just Googled epimedium and it doesn't look quite right, I certainly don't have any already growing in my garden. I did once try to grow some cercis chinensis from seed and gave up because they weren't germinating, their leaves look similar don't you think? I have been known to just throw used compost in the flower beds, I wish I could remember what I did with those seeds, but I think I'm just clutching at straws because I don't think they they would have landed in a cluster like I found these seedlings. 
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    The Cercis is a strong contender, I don't think Epimedium stems branch like that.
    Grow them on, things often germinate when you've given up.
    But not JKW so no worries there


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • karen paulkaren paul Posts: 230
    Thankyou Nutcutlet. I've been back out to save the other seedlings (that I'd put in a tub to dry out) incase it's my cercis! Lol
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    That would be great and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it were the Cercis. They're very much baby tree to look at and not one of the common weed trees


    In the sticks near Peterborough
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