That sounds vaguely familiar – very vaguely (former Jefferson County native here). Describe the leaves more – smooth or serrated edges? fleshy or thin? “Leaf-shaped” (like an ash tree) or different?
Do you need to sign in to see your google.doc item? I’m just getting the ad with a login screen.
Have you checked whether your plant is a burdock?
What are the shapes of the leaves?
Smooth? Toothed? Lobed? Size?
Individual? Clusters? Compound (pairs of leaflets extening off a single stem)?
Branches opposite (pairs starting from stem opposite each other)?
Branches alternate (each branch is by itself on the main stem with the next one higher or lower on the opposite side of the stem)?
I thought I had changed the sign in. I just did it now so you should be able to see it.
It’s definitely not burdock. It’s about 2’ high at the moment and it only started growing about 2 months ago. The plant that was actually living in that pot doesn’t grow nearly that quickly.
I am your typical city raised girl. Even though MA has lots of trees and plants, nature education was not a part of my upbringing. I can recognize magnolia, lilac, forsythia (if they’re in bloom) and weeping willows. That is the extent of my tree knowledge. I am even worse with leafy plants.
Something about this plant though, makes me think it’s a tree of some sort.
It’s sometimes hard to identify plants - especially trees - when they’re young and little, partially because the proportions are so different. (Twenty feet tall? Sure sign it’s a tree. Twenty inches tall? Whole nuther story.)
Try standing near the pot, then looking all around you in every direction. Look at smaller shrubs as well as the big trees. Does anything have a similarly shaped leaf, similar coloring? Anything in a neighbor’s yard? Something popping up in a pot is usually from a wind-blown seed, and would probably have come from a nearby parent, although squirrels certainly like to plant oaks and things in random spots for you.
I just took a look around. We have quite a few trees behind our house - no shrubs though. Nothing looked similar.
However, there is now another of the same plant starting to grow in the same pot. The very small plant is only a couple inches high. The center stem is red. The larger plant has a green stem with purple ribbing.
Considering they sprout in a pot they may not even be native to the region. Anything can hitch a ride in potting soil sold in a bag or used in a greenhouse.
Or birdseed. I’ve seen millet, corn, and a horror called the stinging nettle sprout. And every year sunflowers of all sizes, everywhere! Got two dozen growing randomly now.
…Sorry I can’t guess at the plant in question, but I’m curious and keep reading to see if anyone can ID it.
