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Help to needed to ID Weed growing through old hedge

declancallandeclancallan Posts: 3
in Problem solving

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I need help identifying this weed growing through our hedge. The rear garden had been very overgrown until we purchased the property. It's fast growing during spring and summer and dies back slight in winter. At the moment it is in flower also, it has a small purple flower. The new growth is green while the older growth is woody. 

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  • declancallandeclancallan Posts: 3

    image

    This is the purple flower 

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391

    I think it may be a Goji berry:

    https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=581

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • declancallandeclancallan Posts: 3

    I think your spot on, I'm very surprised at that. I have never seen any fruit on it but then I've been cutting it back throughout the summer as it grows so much.  Seems a shame now to be taking it out but not great to have as a hedge !. Thanks for the help Bob 

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,095

    Does the older growth have spines?  There'a a plant that grows on dryish waste ground in East Anglia ... we called it Rest Harrow, but it wasn't like the plant of that name I can find in books and online. It had long tough stems that scrambled through and over other plants and had little mauve/purplish flowers that looked a big like solanum flowers. 

    It looks a lot like your photo. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391

    It's probably the same plant, Dove.  Apparently it's been around a lot longer than we think (since the 17th century) - some info here:

    https://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/Goji_Berry_Plant/

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,095

    Yes Bob, I think you're right ... given the clue of 'Lycium' I've consulted my books and Mr Google and come up with Lycium barbarum which apparently is the form originally introduced whereas the form usually used for cultivation nowadays is the closely related Lycium chinense.   Isn't it fascinating image

    The first place I remember seeing it as a child was at the edge of a field in Mid Suffolk, not far from a small 'manor house' which had lovely old gardens ... so although that field felt far from 'civilisation' it would have been quite possible for birds to drop seeds from that garden.  I've also seen it in hedgerows and field margins in the Suffolk Coastal area, also an area where there have long been 'stately homes' large and small, with lovely gardens and grounds ... 

    A mystery solved image  We certainly didn't eat the berries ... as children we presumed they were poisonous. Who knew that a 'superfood' grew wild all over East Anglia? We could have gone ut picking it for free and those garden centres wouldn't have been able to make so much money out of us image

    Last edited: 31 July 2017 08:52:31


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,299

    I've seen these about all over the place. My neighbour has some. What I have never seen, ever, is a berry. I wondered if they needed male and female plants together but no hint of that anywhere I've looked

    Dove, what we called Restharrow was a little pea shrublet.



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,095

    Yes Nut ... that's what I find in books/online etc ... but it's definitely what we called it in the village when I was a child ... but that's common names for you image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,299

    Ah common names, so precise. image



    In the sticks near Peterborough
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