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What groundcover plant (or weed) is this?

Bill_and_BenBill_and_Ben Posts: 161
in Plants
Can anyone tell me what this is. I think I bought it a few years ago as ground cover but it is now the bane of my life as it's all over! I've been pulling it up every day for two weeks but every day more appears. And it's 'jumped' to other beds.

If I put something like Roundup on it will it just destroy that plant or will it damage others if the roots of this touch the roots of other plants?

My location: Histon, near Cambridge, UK


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  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    That's the trouble with ground cover. It's a thug that you think you can control😞
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Bill_and_BenBill_and_Ben Posts: 161
    B3 said:
    That's the trouble with ground cover. It's a thug that you think you can control😞
    Quite!! I re-did my garden from scratch in 2014 and quite a few friends gave me plants to cover the space which I am now regretting. My list of thugs so far include this one, acanthus, creeping oxalis and creeping geranium. Even the verbena bonariensis is pushing its luck all over! Although at least that is easy to see/weed. The acanthus is very tenacious - it had enormous roots (which didn't get all of) and reappears all over like triffid leaves. There's something quite horror movie like about the light green crinkly leaves appearing like mini daggers.
    My location: Histon, near Cambridge, UK


  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    I can't remember what it is although I think I've seen it before. If you spray it with Roundup its roots won't affect other roots. Roundup has to be sprayed on leaves in order to kill a plant.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • CloggieCloggie Posts: 1,457
    Look on the bright side - you're pulling up plants that are weeds .... Weeds that are plants ... Just pull them up and be glad they're not nettles, bindweed, ground elder, couch grass ... You get my meaning!  😊
  • CloggieCloggie Posts: 1,457
    I hear ya on verbena bonariensis and I have a golden creeping jenny?? Ground smother I'd call it!  Pretty and bright but pull it up like hair outa the shower drain!  😬 Apologies for that image he he!
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    I suspect it's probably Viola Riviniana, Dog Violet. Whether it is Sweet Violets or Dog Violets, I think a gentle ground cover and not at all a thug compared to other even more faster growing plants like Euphorbia Amygdaloides.
  • Cottage CompostCottage Compost Posts: 496
    Is it Lesser Celandine?  I find the wanting a ground cover plant situation interesting and sometimes amusing.  We decide we want ground cover, so we plant something and then when it's done it's job we don't like it and then rage war on the plant to get rid of it!

    I have lesser celandine and creeping jenny and i love them both, they do exactly what i planted them for.  Everything else doesn't suffer and grows up through them without issues. They trap moisture in the soil so watering isn't needed so much.
    I love the fact that what was a very boring lawn in my garden has been partly taken over by lesser celandine, creeping jenny, white clover and Hippocrepis comosa (Horseshoe vetch) and others. So much more interesting and rewarding given the increased wildlife they attract to the garden.

    Mixing creeping jenny with mind your own business and bugle works very well indeed too.

    If you leave lesser celandine alone, it appears in spring, flowers and does it's thing and then dies back quickly and disappears until next spring.  Disturb it and it spreads and comes up all over the place.  Leave it alone and this doesn't happen so readily.

    This my experience.
  • Bill_and_BenBill_and_Ben Posts: 161
    Busy-Lizzie said:
    I can't remember what it is although I think I've seen it before. If you spray it with Roundup its roots won't affect other roots. Roundup has to be sprayed on leaves in order to kill a plant.
    Thank you for this reassurance! My husband convinced me that I would kill the whole bed of precious wanted plants as the Roundup would go down the roots and touch all the other roots eventually. I think he's been watching too much virus scaremongering news! 
    My location: Histon, near Cambridge, UK


  • Bill_and_BenBill_and_Ben Posts: 161
    Cloggie said:
    Look on the bright side - you're pulling up plants that are weeds .... Weeds that are plants ... Just pull them up and be glad they're not nettles, bindweed, ground elder, couch grass ... You get my meaning!  😊
    Cloggie said:
    I hear ya on verbena bonariensis and I have a golden creeping jenny?? Ground smother I'd call it!  Pretty and bright but pull it up like hair outa the shower drain!  😬 Apologies for that image he he!
    I like your positivity that I am pulling up plants that are weeds! Although I do have plenty of chickweed, nettles thistles and ground elder too. I seem to have pretty much got the ground elder under control by ripping it up the minute I see it.

    The verbena bonariensis freaked me out as I bought one 3ft high plant from Hampton Court Flower Show in July 2014 when we replanted our garden from scratch after re-landscaping. That plant was fabulous by the end of August. Next summer my entire 16m wide back bed was full of tiny seedlings from it - I must have had 1000! I've calmed down about it now as I let some grow but pull most up before they set seed and also it's easy to pull out. Unlike this retched stuff with wide travelling horizontal roots!
    My location: Histon, near Cambridge, UK


  • Bill_and_BenBill_and_Ben Posts: 161
    Borderline said:
    I suspect it's probably Viola Riviniana, Dog Violet. Whether it is Sweet Violets or Dog Violets, I think a gentle ground cover and not at all a thug compared to other even more faster growing plants like Euphorbia Amygdaloides.
    I think you have hit the nail on the head and it is indeed some sort of violet as I think when it has flowered in the past it is purple. But I am finding it quite a thug. I will now look up Euphorbia Amygdaloides and make sure I never buy any of that!
    My location: Histon, near Cambridge, UK


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