plant/weed id

fryup

can anyone id this? ....and whats the best way of treating it??

looksee

Ah yes, very common and all over the place, but I have never been sure what it is called. Its easy to get rid of, hoe or pull up is easiest, but if you must weedkiller it you could, doesn't need a systemic one (the ones that kill the roots), can't think of any names at the moment, but hoeing will get rid of them, just loosen them to the surface and they will die off.

macraignil

I think it is a type of willowherb before it shoots up to form the distinctive flowers and pods of fluffy seeds.

looksee

macraignil wrote: »

I think it is a type of willowherb before it shoots up to form the distinctive flowers and pods of fluffy seeds.

Yes, I thought it might be, but it has never been allowed to get big enough to reveal itself

fryup

thanks for that,

is it an evasive species ? will it spread like mad if i don't get rid of it?

gozunda

fryup wrote: »

thanks for that,

is it an evasive species ? will it spread like mad if i don't get rid of it?

Yup it seeds freely and will grow between paving flower beds you name it.

Easy enough to dig up and discard at this time of the year as it is fairly shallow rooted

macraignil

fryup wrote: »

thanks for that,

is it an evasive species ? will it spread like mad if i don't get rid of it?

I think it could definitely be described as evasive as it is very difficult to remove from the garden completely. The roots do not go very deep usually but seem to meander about the place so while most of a clump can be lifted and removed easily small bits usually seem to escape and regrow into a new clump fairly regularly. Also the seed is wind spread so even if you can remove it from your garden new arrivals are unlikely to be far away. I do regularly remove them from my garden but even a few weeks of missed patrolling results in some of these sprouting seed heads somewhere during the summer months. They can get quite big growing underneath healthy shrubs and sometimes only become obvious when the seeds are already ready to spread.

fryup

while we're at it ..whats this ?

looksee

Looks like St John's Wort. There are a few varieties of it and this one grows as a shrub.

Edit: it is not very choice, but in a wildish corner it makes quite a nice sprawling shrub with good yellow flowers. The berries are toxic but then again, if you have children a lot of plants are toxic but you train the children rather than over-analyse the plants