I am trying to identify a weed/plant that popped up in one of my flower beds. Maybe y’all can help. I live in East Texas, it’s been extremely wet and shady. The soil is sandy loam but is under a pecan tree so there’s plenty of compost in the soil.
The plants flowered small violet petals and produced very small bluish/black berries. The berries are less than 1/8th " in diameter, they are red now. The plant itself is low profile with oblong medium green leaves about 2-3" long and half that wide. The plant is 6-8" in diameter and only a few inches tall but has a shoot that grew 1 1/2 - 2’ tall upon which the flowers and berries grew.
The root system is a tuber.
They “magically” appeared in my stand of bluebonnets. Nobody claims responsibility and they aren’t anywhere else in the yard.
thanks in advance…
JB
Sounds like some type of nightshade . Maybe bittersweet nightshade . Does the plant have a strong, bitter smell?
Nice try, but no that’s not it. I’m familiar w/ most of the local nightshades. No bitter smell, actually not much fragrance at all. Then again, when they were in full bloom it was raining 24/7 around here. So, it could’ve smelled like fish and I probably would’ve missed it.
The leaves may be the give away. They aren’t pointed at the tips like most plants. The point starts at the stem and is more rounded at the tip. They are not hairy or waxy w/ no spines or bristled. They have a velvety texture and are a medium green in color. The flowers were just little wisps of lavender and/or violet. I assumed then they were a type of violet but don’t know for sure. Got company… be back later. thks
There aren’t any types of violets with fleshy fruit. They all have capsules that start out green and ripen/dry to brownish.
East Texas is a little out of my usual stomping grounds, although I have been there in May before. Any chance of a picture?
Well, I made it back. Had a customer at my produce/plants stand. Sold some marigolds, tomatoes and a few squash. Made a couple of hundred bucks in the last few days. Not too bad for a start.
Back to the subject at hand.
The plants were just flowering and hadn’t produced any fruit when I originally thought violets. I’m no expert on violets though. As far as the fruit is concerned. I don’t know how fleshy I’d call 'em. Most of the “berries” aren’t any larger than a BB.
I’ll see if I can get a picture loaded up tomorrow.
A picture is best, or you need to describe it differently. I looked eariler for a page to discribe how you identify plants, and didn’t find one that explained it good enough. There’s more than I want to try and explain.
Hey, if you know a good online plant identifier I’m all ears. The USDA used to have a good one but not anymore. I used to use the one at Texas A&M but didn’t have any luck today. They’ve changed it too. The National Arbor Society is good for trees and such but not plants obviously.
If you need a better description, I don’t know what to say. I’ve given the leaf size and shape and color, root system and stem structure, plus the floral and fruit color, size and shape. I even included the geographical location, soil, and climate details.
My books are all in storage or I’d just look it up.
It’s not that big of a deal. I was just doing some weeding today and was trying to decide whether to pull them or not.
Gotta go…somebody’s honking.
Stuff like alternating branches, compound leaves, and 5 petals per flower. Like I said a lot of explaining.
It kind of sounds like elephant’s-foot, but that’s a Composite and shouldn’t produce berries.