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Pernicious weed

ejessop13ejessop13 Posts: 5
in Problem solving
Can anybody recognise this:

It suckers with roots that go down about 2 feet. I have dug out an area for a raised bed removing a foot of soil and its popped up everywhere

I've tried Glyphosate with little effect does it need a stronger weedkiller.

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,157
    Centranthus ruber ‘albus’. One of my favourite garden plants. If you don’t like it I find it easy enough to pull up and regular garden weeding does away with seedlings. 


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





  • ejessop13ejessop13 Posts: 5
    Trouble is its popping up everywhere and I want to put a raised bed with alpines in it so I dont want it popping up in the middle of an alpine bed so I think elimination is the best way. I dont let it set seed so its spread must be by its root system which seems to disappear into the drainage rubble underneath the soil.
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,560
    Yours won't be the only garden with it. The seeds will blow in from elsewhere. I've never known it to produce runners
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,157
    If it’s been allowed to seed previously there’ll be several years worth of seeds in the soil



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





  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    I don't think it is Centranthus - the photo shows alternate leaves but centranthus has opposite (as @Silver surfer would say.) :)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,594
    edited June 2020
    BobTheGardener said:
    I don't think it is Centranthus - the photo shows alternate leaves but centranthus has opposite (as @Silver surfer would say.) :)
    Agree with you  BobtheGardener. Definitely not Centranthus.
    Interesting.
    ejessop where are you living?


    Zooming in, the flowers have 4 white petals, alternate leaves clasp the stem.
    I think this is something in Brassicaceae.
    Maybe Cardaria sp/syn Lepidium...introduced in 19th century to Swansea and spread via railways.
    Sounds a real pest.....a Pernicious weed!

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Cardaria_draba_vesnovka_obecná_2.jpg


    According to this USA site it is hard to eradicate.

    https://wric.ucdavis.edu/information/natural areas/wr_C/Cardaria_chalepensis-draba-pubescens.pdf

    Found  for the first time in the Grand canyon in 1965....they are trying to eliminate it there as well.

    http://tchester.org/gc/plants/species/cardaria_draba.html
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,157
    Whoops! I agree ... now I’m looking on my phone and not my laptop I can zoom and I see it’s not centranthus 🙄 ignore everything I said. Sorry!

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





  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391
    Crikey, I hope never to see that growing in, near, or even in the same county as my garden!  Seems as bad as JKW!
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • ejessop13ejessop13 Posts: 5
    I'm in West Yorkshire. Luckily the weed is confined to a relatively small area at the moment but it looks like I'm going to have a war of attrition on my hands. It grows in the middle of other plants where it is harder to spot.
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