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Help! What is this scarey looking weed!

beckycocker1beckycocker1 Posts: 3
in Problem solving
Hi everyone, we have just moved to a barn in north devon and have found this rather scarey looking weed - does anyone have any idea what it might be? We want to identify it before taking action, just in case. It has a black hollow stem and a rather crazy looking flower. Many thanks in advance! 



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Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 85,975
    Hmmm ... how interesting ... I keep thinking of Cobea scandens, but it's not quite right 

    I wonder if @nutcutlet is around ... she might know .... 

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





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,530
    We have it here ,also in Devon, I'd thought it one of the hogweeds, but I might well be wrong.
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 85,975
    edited July 2018
    Hosta ... now you've said that .... I was seeing it as some sort of exotic climber oops
    but if I pull back a bit and drink more coffee I think you're  nearer the mark but the buds don't look right .... and before the OP panics ... IT'S NOT THE DANGEROUS GIANT HOGWEED!   :D

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





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,530
    Here it gets to about a couple of feet tall. It has a longish tap root, but even with our heavy clay soil, it's fairly easily dug out.
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 85,975
    What are the flowers and seeds like @Hostafan1

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





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,530
    edited July 2018
    like hogweed.  ;) Although, I've never let it seed.
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 85,975
    edited July 2018
    Now I'm downstairs with my glasses on and using my laptop instead of my phone I totally agree with you I'm embarrassed at my earlier confuddlement ...  I'm saying it's Heracleum sphondylium ... Hogweed aka Cow Parsnip ... a sort of reddish purplish variant ... we get some like that here in East Anglia but not as dark as that but we know that things can be a bit different down there in the south-west  ;)

    Anyway, it's nothing for @beckycocker1 to worry about.   How lovely to have a barn in Devon ... quite envious here  :)

    I'd better stop trying to do IDs without my glasses  :'(

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





  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 36,816
    The flower - without the slug - is reminiscent of one of the Aristolochias. Hogweed is an umbellifera.
    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,530
    hogweed flower bud
    Image result for hogweed flower bud
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 85,975
    Ladybird4 said:
    The flower - without the slug - is reminiscent of one of the Aristolochias. Hogweed is an umbellifera.
    But the leaves are wrong

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





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