A Planty question

What am I?

I told my mom it’s most likely a very big weed but she wants to know which weed specifically.

pic?

For other elder Dopers, the “I” in “What am I?” is a link to a photo :wink: Kind of hard to see in the post.

congodwarf, it could be one of at least 3 weeds I have on my property right now. It’s very hard to tell from the photo. Any more descriptive information?

Not at the moment. I’ll try to get some more from her.

If she’s in MA, UMass has a pretty good herbarium website, but it’s not a lot of help if you don’t know what family the plant falls into. Still fun to look at, though.

I think it’s a sapling, possibly a maple.

No, that’s pretty clearly herbaceous, not a woody plant. It is not a tree.

I’m leaning towards a hogweed.

It looks similar to herbaceous hibiscus species I have grown, but I don’t remember which one.

Then you’re leaning in the right direction: Heracleum sphondylium - Wikipedia

I was talking to my mom today and asked her for more info. It would have been nice if she had given me the whole story yesterday.

Apparently it’s about 95% likely that it’s a hibiscus, after all it’s growing in the exact spot where my stepdad planted one last year. :smack: She insisted it was a weed. He insisted it was a hibiscus. They decided to ask me since I took a botany class so apparently I’m an expert.

Yup, it looks like a hardy hibiscus. They tend to come up late in spring, after you think they’ve kicked the bucket.