Small purple flower on alternating round-shaped leaves

This "weed" showed up in my perennial bed, and I found it's foliage intriguing enough to let it go. And now it's making little purple flowers above every leaf... it's probably the prettiest weed that I have - it's doing better than some of the perennials!


Mystery foliage ( photo / image / picture from Yardening's Garden )






Purple Mystery Flower ( photo / image / picture from Yardening's Garden )

 

I thought maybe creeping Jenny but I think it has yellow flowers

 

It doesn't seem to be anything "creeping", since despite the angle in the pictures it stands straight up. It's about a foot tall at present. I haven't seen one in any of the neighbor's yards, so I don't think it's anything cultivated. On the other hand, I usually have hundreds of the same weed but only one of these, so who knows?

 

It reminds me of Bells of Ireland, but the flowers on that are green/yellow. It is a really cool plant though.

 

I've seen something like it before... but for the life of me can't think of what it is!

 

Venus Looking-glass (Triodanis perfoliata)? We have them here in Texas but I'm not sure if it's the exact kind we have.

 

There are some Veronica that have a similar growth pattern, but I don't think any have five-petaled flowers. My original pictures are pretty bad so I went out and used a proper camera. The plant was suffering from lack of water so it's a bit yellow, but the blooms are back now that we've had some rain.


Mystery Purple Flower Closeup ( photo / image / picture from Yardening's Garden )






( photo / image / picture from Yardening's Garden )



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Oh, I think we have a winner! Thanks a bunch... it's officially a "weed"! It seems to be related to bellflowers, so maybe I'm a candidate for some of those

 

I have lots of 'official' weeds growing here, and many of them I like. Oxeye daisies and violets to name just two. I let them grow. And the other weeds, I just cant keep up with those.

 

Pro-tip: Oxeye daisies are very tolerant to mowing

I also like to let the violets grow anywhere that there isn't grass. I mulch right over them and they poke on through in a few days. They are very easy to remove when you don't want them anymore.

Also, as follow-up - this Venus Looking-Glass thing is completely dead now! So my perennial garden is back to planted perennials...