That looks like what I call prickly lettuce. Do you see an immature plant around there anywhere? It will be a rosette of prickly looking dentate leaves. While they are a stiff prickly, they are not a spikey prickle(does that make sense)as in the sense you know they are there, but they generally don't impale your hand if you touch them. They do not really look like the mature leaves of the spike. I just saw one here the other day and I will try to remember where and get a photo of it to post here.
Hi Carolyn, neither plant has any spikes at all. The leaves top and bottom are very smooth and shiny. I broke off a leaf and it does have a milky sap.
Update on Big weed It has gotten so big, I can't even get close to top with a step stool! Husband took a few close ups but he had to use stepladder! He's 6'3" and would not pose next to plant, so I marked where his head was located LOL Used Husband as yardstick ( photo / image / picture from CrisGzr's Garden ) There seems to be new buds forming in the place where leaves attach to stalk. top of weed ( photo / image / picture from CrisGzr's Garden ) Here is a close up, I used zoom, but it's on my iPod camera which is hard to hold; looks like colors are starting to show at tip of buds. close up of buds ( photo / image / picture from CrisGzr's Garden )
This is getting curiouser and curiouser! What an amazing growth on that plant. Wish some of the edible stuff could attend evening class to learn how one should grow to size in a short timespan.
I agree Droopy! Imagine a tomato plant with a stem like that! It would be like your own market! When I look at it, my first thoughts usually revolve around fairy tales like jack and the beanstalk. I grew a monster plant at my last house near the bird feeder, it finally made seeds and they looked like millet but it looked like a tree! Makes me wonder where these seeds are from and hope they are benign and not invasive!
It looks a lot like a sow thistle. We probably have different ones here in zone 6a than you have and I don't think they get that big here but that's what they look like. Probably more a perennial sowthistle than the annual one. One key identifier is the sessile leaf (no petiole). Hope that helps!
Barb, I've been reading the descriptions online and I think you maybe right! It seems to have a very bad rep out in cattle country, it's considered a noxious weed. the root is apparently the way to tell the annual from the perrenial. "PERENNIAL SOW THISTLE: Stems 3 to 7 feet tall, smooth, with milky juice throughout the plant. Leaves similar to dandelion, irregularly lobed, alternate, 4 to 8 inches long, with spine tipped edges. Flowers are in branched clusters, bright yellow-orange color, about 1 1/2 inches long. It is important to distinguish perennial sow thistle from annual sow thistle and prickly lettuce. Prickly lettuce has smaller flowers with a pale yellow color and leaves are spiny on the midrib beneath. Annual sow thistle does not have underground creeping root-stocks." http://www.siouxfalls.org/~/media/Docum ... _Weeds.pdf http://www3.northern.edu/natsource/NOXIOU1/Perenn1.htm "Perennial sowthistle looks very similar to the more commonly found weeds, annual sowthistle, Sonchus oleraceus, and dandelion, Taraxacum oficinale. A key distinguishing character is that perennial sowthistle spreads by rhizomes while all other sowthistles (Sonchus spp.) in California are tap rooted. Because of the rhizomatous growth, perennial sowthistle typically forms dense stands. Perennial sowthistle is also larger than annual sowthistle, growing up to 6 feet tall. We have a subspecies of perennial sowthistle, Sonchus arvensis ssp. uliginosus, that has glabrous phyllaries (no hairs on the flower bracts)." http://www.countyofsb.org/agcomm/wma/Psow.htm Dandelion-like flowers will be the last piece in the puzzle if you are right, but it really does seem to be it. Wow, thank you for solving this mystery!
Oh yum, looks like I need to harvest some leaves before it flowers! This page shows recipes and herbal uses and it says that sow thistle was originally brought over by Europeans as a garden veg! http://www.squidoo.com/sonchus
Prickly lettuces are usually easy to ID (or eliminate) because of the prickles on the underside of the midribs of the leaves, which I didn't see in your close-up photos. I found your post by accident when I was googling a weed I was trying to ID . . .no luck so far.
You are right, no prickles, hairs or fuzz! I am thrilled to find this because I love to cook edibles freebies! Did you post your weed?
I am going to have to try the goat cheese and pine nuts recipe! Sow Thistle Recipes: http://www.foragingfoodie.net/all-sow-t ... cipes.html
You're brave. I'm way too paranoid to eat anything I identify even if I'm pretty confident what it is.
Well, I agree if it were a mushroom but several sites on foraging claim that there are no poisonous look-a-likes! Also, people swear by the tea for gout and arthritis. One woman says that if she forgets her tea, she aches that day! The pressure has dropped and we have a typical foggy, no-rain day today -which means I woke with achey knee! I have old knee and wrist injuries, so that is good too! My algonquin grandfather always said that God gave us exactly what we need in our own backyards! :-D
Well, let me know how it tastes. We have plenty of them here, just not that big. I am going to post my latest mystery weed but will start a new thread. Maybe you'll know what it is!
