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Id of climber please!

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  • CloggieCloggie Posts: 1,457

    image Here's one I found earlier!  This is a White Bryony root (English Mandrake) and is a bit of a b***er to get out because they like to grow under hedges but this one didn't come back so I must have gone deep enough.  I found the source and dug around until I pulled out this fella! 

    You should read up about it, it has a fascinating history.

    How to tell the difference between Black and White Bryony:

    https://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/Profile?PID=783

    White Bryony is known as English Mandrake and if you google mandrake you get all sorts of interesting stories about screaming roots when you pull them up and strong laxatives with mediaeval con artists. 

    If yours is Black Bryony then it is possible it will have a large root also.

    If it's young, like the ones I pull up now, then the roots are pencil thin like young parsnips.

    Hope this helps.

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    Not totally convinced re ID of this one yet.



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • CloggieCloggie Posts: 1,457

    first pic in the thread looks like english mandrake but the later picture looks bindweed ish

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    I don't think that's white bryony. Never heard it called English Mandrake

    I have white and black bryony, 2 species of bindweed and a proper mandrake. still not sure of this one.

    The way the stem comes off the root in the first pic of the second batch looks wrong for bindweed.

    The leaves are the wrong shape for White Bryony

    I've had one plant of black bryony for years and it's never spread.

    is there something we haven't thought of?



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    Well, there are 3 sorts of bindweed nut so we've not considered them all.  Black bindweed (Fallopia convolvulus), Hedge bindweed (calystegia sepium) and the field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis.)  It looks more like one of those than a black or white bryony to me.

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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