What is this monster plant? Need help identifying.
I don't go out back nearly as much as the front. The incline is just too steep for my old knees, especially if the ground is wet and lately, it seems to stay wet. We finally got a few days of no rain and I journeyed out back and was surprised to find this huge monster plant had sprung up.
This thing wasn't there just 2 weeks ago and today, it's about 3 feet high and already starting to flower. This is something new to the yard and I have no idea where it came from.
I checked all the normal Georgia Weed sites and nothing comes close to looking like it. Without a name for it, I don't know where to start researching it. I've tried googling every set of keywords that describe it, that I can think of. Nothing is showing up.
New growth stems are green, but they must turn purple as they mature because most of the plant has purple stems. Even the center part of the leaves are purple.
The leaves are somewhat ragged looking and seem to have pointed spines along most of the edges. I have not touched it and don't really want to till I know what it is. It looks sort of scary when you see it in person. I love the color purple but me and purple plants and veggies tend to not mix well together. I tend to break out in a fairly severe rash from them.
Connie just got brave enough to touch it and she said all parts of it are very prickly and felt like some of them has stuck in her finger.
In just the couple of hour since I found it, either it has closed up its flowers for the day or the larger flowers have already wilted and are going to seed. None of the flowers you see in the photo are physically there now. (possible something ate them too).
Any help with identification would be greatly appreciated!
Sow thistle!!! that would be my guess!! great medicine!!!
I found very little information on medicinal benefits of it. Could you write a post about it? I would love to add it to the Sotall Directory so everyone could benefit from your knowledge!
I will do that!! the milk is amazing for warts!!!
Wish I knew that when I was a pre-teen. Ended up with a seed wart and in almost no time, I had over 150 on my hands. I could not write for weeks during treatment to remove them all. YUCK!
ouch!! I look back and wish i had learned a thing or 2 when i was younger. The old ways and medicine are so easily forgotten and replaced with more convenient remedies. Hope you havent had them back!!!
yes sir... not so tasty, but edible
This is one I will keep in mind in case the SHTF, but I think as long as I don't absolutely have to, I won't be eating this one, lol.
Lol, hey dear don't be scared from this plants, because that's a Asian plants, and I have lot of thats type plants in my farm, well nice post, Thanks for sharing with us.
Thank you for your reply. In my research yesterday, I realized it came from Asia. It loves our climate and is considered highly invasive because it grows so quickly. I dug this one up because it was growing in my tomato bed, but I noticed 3 smaller ones nearby where the roots had spread.We have several plants here that came from Asia. They all seem to love our climate and grow very fast.
IS it perhaps wild lettuce?
I know they can grow super tall once they are matured for a year or two
Leafs are different
I'm not sure. This is something that literally was not there just 2 weeks ago. The flowers look pretty much exactly like dandelion flowers, just a little smaller. the photos don't show that as well. You'd have a hard time convincing me to eat this one, even if I had a ton of proof it was edible, lol. The only words I can come up with that seem to fit it are words like monster, vicious looking, scary, etc.
I am going to dig it up, but, I'd like to find out what it is to know if I need to go further than just digging it up. I'd hate for one of the animals to eat some of it if it's poisonous.
When I first saw the leaves and the yellow flowers (they do mimic dandelions) my first thought was wild lettuce. I have some growing in the back behind the house and I leave it. The first year or two it won't grow tall, but once it matures some it will grow 3-6 feet in height.
Here is a good description and you'll see in the video with the guy kneeling down, the wild lettuce is quite tall
http://www.skilledsurvival.com/wild-lettuce/
I thought wild lettuce too
When I dug it up, there was a wild lettuce hiding behind it. It is in a much smaller life stage. I left it so I could get some photos of it today, but it will have to go too because it is in the tomato bed. Only onions, garlic, marigolds and tomatoes in the bed, lol.
It is possible it is in the same family, but the leaves on all the wild lettuce photos I am seeing don't look the same. Most of the wild lettuce has leaves that are sort of like a bunch of triangles attached to the stem. This leave is much wider where it attaches to the stem and narrows to a point at the end. The edges of the leaves are curled, but a solid shape from end to end.
I happened across a photo of just the flowers that looked almost exactly the same. They said it was a spiny sowthistle. I just started researching spiny sowthistle, but I have a feeling it is part of the same family. spiny sowthistle is part of the dandelion family and I have found several photos that look a lot like what's in my yard. The only difference is all the purple on the stems and leave. All the spiny sowthistle photos don't have the purple.
But so far, none of the photos has been identical enough to what is in my yard for me to feel comfortable that it is a match. Lots of similarities, but no exact matches yet.
Plus, how did this thing grow so quickly? Three feet in 2 weeks? Have aliens invaded or something, lol.
I cut a leaf off from about half way up the thing. There are some bigger and some smaller. This one is about 10 1/2 inches long and there was another 2 inches or so where I couldn't get the scissors all the way up to the stem.
This is the backside:
Funny thing. Just 40 some odd minutes ago when I was out there, all the blossoms had disappeared. Now, only of them has opened back up, but now it is a shaggy white, almost furry looking thing instead of the yellow dandelion like flowers from earlier.
I'm telling you, it's an alien!
@goldendawne I think it is a Spiny Sow Thistle. I would say for sure it is spiny sow thistle if it were not for the purple stems. I have yet to see a single photo of one with purple stems, but everything else is 100% correct.
It is considered an invasive species in Georgia. It is edible, just like a dandelion and it is in the dandelion family. It is considered less bitter than dandelion, but with this thing growing so fast, I am not going to let it stay around to see what happened.
In about 2 hours, it has gone from fully opened flowers, to zero opened flowers, to the furry start of seed heads. I can understand why both Georgia and Florida have it on their list of highly invasive plants. Hopefully, I have caught it before the root system has had a chance to get established because it can spread through the root system and seeds.
Thank you much for your help! Your wild lettuce suggestion led me to a prickly wild lettuce which led me to spiny sow thistle, lol.
If it were wild lettuce it would bleed a milky substance.
When I squeezed the stem I cut off, it had a milky sap. But that is also common with the spiny sow thistle. I dug it up because it was in my tomato bed. But I have seen several images and videos and I am satisfied it is spiny sow thistle.
I'm going with mutated evil dandelion. Of course that is just a guess. ;)
Oops, got to stop replying bottom up. See what I said to alaskahippie. It's seed look just like dandelion seeds blowing everywhere.
lol
I agree with mutated jumbo dandelion
You may be right, but I do wonder what caused the mutation. This morning the yellow flowers, a few hours later, they were gone, two hours later a seed head opened and when I was digging it up, it let loose a million seeds on little tiny wings just like a dandelion, lol. I have never seen anything with a life cycle that fast!
Dandelions bloom only a few times, and are only open when the sun is up. So it is possible that you found it at the tail end.
Perhaps it was growing next to something that mutated it.
Four leaf clovers are a mutation and are found around dandilions if I remember correctly.
I did not know about the clover around the dandelions.I have LOTS of dandelions around. I drink dandelion tea on a regular basis. Why pay for it when it is easy to grow more than I could every need, lol.
Thank you for the video. It took a while to identify because I did not know even a common name for it, but I cam to the same conclusion on what it is. It is probably a present a bird left for me as I have never seen it here before.
So it turned out to be Sonchus Asper "S piney Sow Thistle", no mutations or aliens involved, just your run of the mill invader from Asia. Hey, at least you can eat it :)
I should have thought about it possibly being from Asia. In the mid 50's, Georgia brought over many plants from China, Japan and other areas in an attempt to improve our"good ole Georgia red clay" and to help control erosion. Most every one of them ended up being highly invasive. They love our environment.
Ligustrum sinense (aka Chinese Privet) - Mom called them hickory switches and would tan our rear ends with them after making us go pick one for her to do it with, lol.
Pueraria (aka Kudzu) Both leaves and tuber are edible and they are EXTREMELY PROLIFIC and fast growing.
Wisteria sinensis (aka Wisteria) When these things flower, they fill the air for hundreds of yards around with the most wonderful scent. They are extremely invasive however and have been known to choke the life out of entire forests. The flowers are edible both fresh and raw, but the rest of the plant is poisonous.
There are many others, but they are not quite as invasive as these 3. I need to research if the others are edible. Heck the Chinese Privet might be edible but I have never researched it. It is not a plant that brings back good memories, lol. Even know, we are fighting it year after year to prevent it from taking over our yard. But the neighbors don't bother, which makes it impossible for us to get rid of it.
Youre welcome. The whole video is a good watch for anyone living in the south and concerned about SHTF issues with feeding yourself- Well the food is all around you, you just cant recognize it. Sometimes people cant see the forrest, because theres too many trees in the way.
@ 8:00
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