I'm trying to figure out what this is. It is growing in my front flower bed. Last fall I had a planter with spinach in it in this spot and I'm wondering if some went to seed. Does this look like spinach to you? I'll admit I'm a little afraid to just try it. Call me a wuss if you want.I don't have any spinach growing right now so I can't compare.
11 comments:
it almost looks like chard. not spinach though. i'd say go on line and look through some weed identifiers. it is most likely edible, but it would be good to know that for sure!
I thought it looked like chard too but I didn't grow any chard last year so I have no idea how it would have gotten there.
It's pokeweed.
Here's a link.
That's odd. I've had lots of pokeweed and I don't remember it looking like that. I've even helped other people identify pokeweed. Weird.
Well, I could certainly be wrong, but that's what the young plants look like around here.
I could take some photos if you'd like. I looked around on the internet for an immature photo, but couldn't find one.
Nah,don't bother. I'm just going to pull it up anyway. If it was spinach I was going to eat it after I pulled it up. I'll just compost it instead.
I don't think I've ever noticed the young plants, but pokeweed would make sense, we have a ton of it here!
Yeah, we've got a ton of pokeweed around here... I'm sure that's what it is too. Apparently, you can boil the new leaves and eat them like spinach... the older leaves and roots are poisonous though. It forms one incredible root too!
Ron
Well, see if it breaks off or comes out fully and whether it has a big taproot—either of those are classic poke.
I have some spinach that came back that had different shape leaves from the earlier spinach. But I don't think I would eat anything I wasn't sure about either.
Have a good weekend.
Yeh. I would'nt risk eating it either.
There are some plants that are safe when young, or when old, or only after being cooked.
And then there are some plants that look so much like another that it's next to impossible to tell for sure...remember what happened to Christopher McCandless in "Into The Wild"?
I looks like pokeweed to me as well. As soon as I looked at it I said it's pokeweed.
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