Weed or wildflower?

strelitzia32

Hi, please could someone identify this? It's in a wildflower bed, and I seeem to recall it appeared last year, but I can't remember if it's a weed or not. Thank you!

Loxley

It looks like Alexanders to me, could be wrong though. 

strelitzia32

WillDB said:

It looks like Alexanders to me, could be wrong though. 

Thank you. I'm not sure if it's Alexander, there's definite similarities but guess I'll have to wait until some flowers emerge. For now it's taking over a corner of my bed! 

Loxley

Perhaps Angelica if you're lucky!

Dovefromabove

Lovage?

strelitzia32

Thank you both. I'm not sure it's either of those, the leaf structure looks different to lovage and the shape looks different to angelica. Very hard to tell though. I'll give it some time and see what flowers before deciding wether to pull it out!

strelitzia32

The confusion continues. Now I'm thinking it could well be angelica. Any thoughts?

bertrand-mabel

If it is angelica then you can tell by the smell from the cut stems. Ours though has been in flowers for many weeks.

Either plant though is useful for culinary purposes and the bees love the flowers.

strelitzia32

I'll give it a couple more weeks to flower. It's large, nearly 5ft so far, but not causing any real issues yet. Mostly it's filling out an empty corner of my wild bed, whilst my cosmos and borage decide whether to grow.

strelitzia32

I'm thinking it's angelica. Anyone know for certain? It's over 6 foot now and definitely an umbellifer

bertrand-mabel

Still difficult. The leaves of both are very similar but Alexanders are a vibrant green and shiny. However they do prefer coastal areas but can be found inland. Apparently they smell almost spicy sweet.

Interesting clip here:

Alexanders Smyrnium olusatrum Foraging UK Wild Food School