Doper Botanists : Front and Center!

[Mangetout]

@WhyNot

It might have looked like a dandelion, but it wasn’t. Dandelion’s only grow out of basal rosettes, so will never grow taller than the leaves. Methinks what you had was a wild lettuce, which looks almost like dandelion, but the leaves grow off a central stalk that can certainly get 6 feet high. The other marker is that most wild lettuces have little teeth on the underside of the rib on each leaf.

I agree, although I have seen some phenomenally large dandelions - they were growing from the basal rosette, but the individual leaves were… I dunno… nearly a metre long; the flower stalk even longer - usually specimens like this are found as established plants (several years old) growing on the remains of a compost heap or some such - so they have a very deep, fertile root run.

Another contender for the ‘mistaken for giant dandelions’ trophy would be goatsbeard - a related plant with not-very-similar leaves, but very large, tall flowerheads that produce very much larger and more robust ‘clocks’ (seed heads).

[CandidGamera]

Ah, I suppose it could be a lookalike. The “blooms” resembled dandelions, and the leaves were close enough to not make me think twice… the central stem in this case was about an inch in diameter, and hollow. If that helps. I think I have another four-footer just like it…

[WhyNot]

@CandidGamera

Ah, I suppose it could be a lookalike. The “blooms” resembled dandelions, and the leaves were close enough to not make me think twice… the central stem in this case was about an inch in diameter, and hollow. If that helps. I think I have another four-footer just like it…

Yup, that’s one of the wild lettuces. I can’t tell them apart, though. Good for internal pain, including headaches when eaten or juice taken by mouth, sunburn, scrabes and other skin irritations when the juice is applied topically…and for learning new and inventive cursing when watching a gardener remove it!

Mangetout, I adore goatsbeard! We always tell the kids that blowing dandelion seeds is for little wishes, but goatsbeard is for gigantic wishes! You’re right, the leaf is nothing like dandelion, though.

[Savannah]

@WhyNot

It might have looked like a dandelion, but it wasn’t. Dandelion’s only grow out of basal rosettes, so will never grow taller than the leaves. Methinks what you had was a wild lettuce, which looks almost like dandelion, but the leaves grow off a central stalk that can certainly get 6 feet high. The other marker is that most wild lettuces have little teeth on the underside of the rib on each leaf.

While it’s a diuretic like dandelion, it’s also a mild hallucinogen, so don’t go eatin’ it all at once!

Oh, weird–I just yanked a couple of those at the back of our house tonight. I thought they were strange mutant dandelions. I’ve never seen a tall, lanky dandelion. Wild lettuce, eh?

We’ve got some interesting (to me) purple flowers in the back, and I was wondering if there was a “what’s this plant?” thread. Must get camera out tomorrow and see if you all will play with me, too.

Mild hallucinogen, eh?

[CandidGamera]

Stay tuned, I have a few late bloomers that might get a photo or two in the next few days. Also, that one plant described as “about to bloom” has bloomed, and looks very nice.

[Savannah]

Mine bloomed and turned out to be just leggy dandelions.

Mysteries remain!

Mystery Flower 1

Mystery Flower 1 again

More purple than blue, actually. About fifteen-twenty inches high.

Mystery Flower 2

Mystery Flower 2 again

Lower to the ground, distinctive ‘cones’.

Mystery Flower 3 Out of focus. Geraniums gone wild? Purple flowers; foliage turns a nice red as the plant ages.

Mystery Daisy

Some kind of daisy, right? It’s quite pretty. More Mystery Flower 3 is behind it in the picture.

[WhyNot]

“Mystery daisy” looks to me like a feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium), but I should warn you I scored very poorly in Plant ID in herb school!

[CandidGamera]

http://www.elvenempire.com/F201small.jpg
http://www.elvenempire.com/F202small.jpg

A low growing purple flower near my roses, sort of an almost vine-like stem.

http://www.elvenempire.com/F203small.jpg
http://www.elvenempire.com/F204small.jpg

Some kind of sunflower or black-eyed susan? I have two of these - they got spared the weedeating because I noticed they might be about to bloom. Bonus points for IDing the bug near the center of F203.

http://www.elvenempire.com/F205small.jpg

Really, really crappy picture because I forgot about my Digital Camera’s tendency to focus based on whatever takes up most of the frame (the siding) rather than what’s close and in the center (my thumb, next to an absolutely adorable inch-long preying mantis, whose fuzzy outline you may still make out.) It’s so tiny! It’s like the Tiny Elvis of preying mantids. I didn’t know they came that small.

http://www.elvenempire.com/F207small.jpg
http://www.elvenempire.com/F208small.jpg

The Super Dandelion/Wild Lettuce. This one’s just a four footer or so, not the monster I cut down the other day.

http://www.elvenempire.com/F209small.jpg
http://www.elvenempire.com/F210small.jpg

The pretty bloomer pictured formerly as #15 - the yucca.

[Zabali_Clawbane]

@CandidGamera

What’s the world record for Dandelion height? Because I took down a six-footer last Sunday…

This person is claiming to have had a 12 foot dandelion growing in their yard, (though others contend that it’s a Sow Thistle instead) and here is an image of what appears to be a dandelion that’s about 4 feet tall.

[Savannah]

@CandidGamera

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无锡浇哟汽车用品有限公司

A low growing purple flower near my roses, sort of an almost vine-like stem.

Sweet peas?

[WhyNot]

http://www.elvenempire.com/F207small.jpg
http://www.elvenempire.com/F208small.jpg

The Super Dandelion/Wild Lettuce. This one’s just a four footer or so, not the monster I cut down the other day.

I take it back. That doesn’t look like a wild lettuce to me. The leaves don’t have the deep “teeth” that dandelion and wild lettuces do. They’re also not growing off either a basal rosette like dandelion or a central stalk like wild lettuce.

Zabali_Clawbane, nope, neither of those are dandelions. If each and every leaf doesn’t start all the way at the ground from a central point, it ain’t a dandelion. White puffy flowerheads do not a dandelion make.

[WhyNot]

Hmm, that wild lettuce link worked on preview, but not now. [Here’s](www.mass.gov/.../ giant_hogweed_photos.htm) the page I got it from; it explains the taxonomy pretty well.

[Zabali_Clawbane]

@WhyNot

Zabali_Clawbane, nope, neither of those are dandelions. If each and every leaf doesn’t start all the way at the ground from a central point, it ain’t a dandelion. White puffy flowerheads do not a dandelion make.

Ah, missed the leaves! :o

[jayjay]

Savannah,

Mystery Flower 1 looks like Platycodon aka Balloonflower (because the buds swell up like balloons before they open).

Myster Flower 2 is Prunella vulgaris aka Self-Heal.

Mystery Flower 3 certainly looks like geranium. There ARE wild species, usually called cranesbills.

[twickster]

Savannah’s mystery flower 3 is probably a geranium – i.e., a “real” geranium, a perennial, not the annuals sold by that name by the bajillion. I love 'em, and have 6 or 8 varieties, none of which have foliage that’s turned red at this point, but there’s a hundred different varieties of these, so that doesn’t mean anything.

The thing CandidGamera speculates is a black-eyed Susan is, I’m guessing, a black-eyed Susan – a.k.a. rudbeckia. Nice, reliable, hardy plants.

[elelle]

Savannah[

Balloonflower, yep, if the new buds look like little balloons, could be a campanula/bellflower otherwise.

Self-Heal, check, Wild Geranium, check, the lacy leaves correspond to one known as Herb Robert. Feverfew, check, used tradionally for migraine headaches.

CandidGamera

Confirms for Sweet Pea, Rudbeckia,& Yucca, specifically Spanish bayonet, Yucca filimentosa.

The wild lettuce/dandelion looks like the Spiny Sow Thistle, Sonchus asper.

http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H146.htm

www.missouriplants.com/Yellowalt/Sonchus_asper_page.html

Those photos look a bit spinier than yours, the illustation in my Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide look like yours though. An introduced plant/weed, with an amazing range, every US continental state. Looks like you’ll have more, cuz them seed heads are blowing around.

After reading **Zabali’s “tallest dandelion” link, I had to laugh. Granted, that Sonchus arvensis is twice the usual size, but it’s being grown in a cultivated bed, and whupped up on water, no doubt. He’s so excited about it, thinking it’s a dandelion.

Bless his heart, hope he gets a job soon.

[Savannah]

Mysteries all solved! Thank you very much.

Except… I think I bought two small “balloon flower” plants at a big drugstore last summer on clearance–$1.99 each or something, and they had lost the identifying plastic strips. The ones I bought were small and low to the ground, sort of like a small pansy or primula. Small and low. I put them in a planter at the side of the driveway, where they bloomed some more, and I was surprised that they were definitely whiteish “balls” that opened into the purple flowers. These ones this summer have appeared on the other side of the house and in the back yard, but not where I originally planted them, and they’re much, much taller.

Is this something along the lines of it self-seeding and the next generation going back to a less cultivated form?

I am a novice gardener, heh. But I am having fun.

[elelle]

Platycodon/balloonflower are prodigious seeders, but not at all windborne, so the seeding in would most likely occur due to moved soil from the seedbed. Make sense ? Some platycodon are low-growing, but the more robust species are about 3’ tall. If you have those, the low-growers prolly hybridized. As said, they are seedy opportunists, more power to them, a fine trait for survival, so wouldn’t doubt the strong trait would dominate.

[CandidGamera]

No one is as amused by the tiny mantis as I?

Such tiny thoughts he must have…

[Savannah]

I’m sure he’s adorable, but I could barely see him!

I hope he comes back. Check the garden, camera in hand.

He–ere, Mr. Mantis, he–ere…