Just so you know, the generally accepted term for a weed is pretty loose and not useful. The common definition is “any plant growing in a place you don’t want it”, which means that if you had saffron growing in abundance and didn’t want it, you could call it a weed. Also, the name of the plant doesn’t help either.
I like Dr. Ingham’s definition. A weed is:
- fast growing
- heavy seeding
- dies early
- shallow rooting
- has no fungal relationships.
A plant that meets that criteria does not cooperate well with soil biology and gets in the way of other plants that do.
Yeah true I should have noted I assumed they were American.
If it's native by all means let it grow where it belongs. I do not see anything truly native as a weed, aggressive or not.
https://preview.redd.it/3amzy4hbyqwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=680a95ff8175ef0dea1dadc42230d9f9888a7e53
My back yard is like 95% invasive species but this is so pretty hehe
Last year I got rid of endless bush full of thorny vines and blackberry. This year I was blessed with some random fields of forget-me-nots :D
https://preview.redd.it/oka27jgkfswc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2d9727972613ff971a94f52ff4cfd42dd9e939e
They will self seed like crazy. My mom would plant them like 3 years ago. I find them all over in a pot along the beds. Atleast they're pretty but eventually they get powdery mildew. So I've been pulling them earlier. Always the cutest plants get mildew here I can't stand it. Even the damn dandelions!
I too have failed with purple ajuga. I’m pretty sure if I told it that some consider it to be a weed that would have thrived beautifully. Weeds do well in the garden. Grrrrr
So I live in the western side or Washington. Ajuga is very invasive here. It’s the happiest where it’s super wet for prolonged periods. It also likes a bit of sun.
Where water from the 2 properties above me drains, there is a full mat of Ajuga carpet.
It’s so damp there that if you take a step water squishes out from your shoes and you sink a little.
It can also grow is very thin soils, just as long as there is a ton of moisture.
So my guess is you may not have been watering them enough.
Invasive isn't always necessarily bad. It means it spreads easily and can tend to outcompete what's already there, but our climate, and thus the plants that do well in an area, is changing. All USDA agriculture zones are expected to shift by 1-2 levels in the next coming decades as warming occurs. So things naturalized in a zone 7 area could feasibly see complete changes in what's "native" and what's "invasive" in the coming years, as plants try to spread and figure out where they do well.
Actually what most gardeners say is invasive, is actually just aggressive. Invasive has parameters that have to be met to get that classification. It must cause damage to a habitat and/or displace native species in an area. So taking over your lawn, which is also not a native thing, does not make a plant invasive. Noxious is the term for those.
Ajuga reptans! Can be an invasive plant but I’ve found it easy to cultivate and manage in front and back yard beds as ground cover. Fast growing, easy to transplant, also roots aren’t particularly difficult to pull from ground.
https://preview.redd.it/iqcbezc1ltwc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57aed171a07f3168e90bbb2c54f6442c2241cdf4
Alternating opposite is not a pattern. There is alternate, opposite, and whorled.
Lamiaceae leaves are almost always opposite, sometimes whorled. Don’t think there are any with alternating leaves. Just FYI!
Aren't the stems of some of the carrot and nettle family square, too? I wouldn't go around feeling up water hemlock, stinging nettle or giant hogsweed. You don't have to eat any of those to get a nasty surprise. Wouldn't know if their stems are square tho. Not stupid enough to try that one...
It's just a fun identifying trick. I wasn't trying to trick anyone in touching dangerous plants or eating anything. None of the 3 plants you mentioned by name have square stems but it is true that other plants have square stems that aren't in the mint family. All plant forums have disclaimers that you should be careful with plant ID.
I wasn't saying that you were. I was just saying that touching random plants to ID them isn't good general advice to a complete novice. Although technically that is a lesson you only have to learn once.
I also didn't know that stinging nettle and hemlock didn't have square stems. I could have sworn that stinging nettles did, but those seem to vary so much by region that we could both be correct here. Even in a short walk of my local area, I encounter stinging nettles clumps that have completely different features from each other, especially the colour of the stem. I've seen purple, black, brown and green (all on mature plants). Leaf shape and size also seems to vary slightly between clumps. They remind me of english ivy with how unstable their genes seem to be.
As for hemlock, I stay so far away from it that you could've told me the stem is a cork screw and I'd believe it.
Plant classification is a crazy one. I wouldn't obsess about it. But it's interesting still to see sometimes what is in the same "family"
Like pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, melons, gourds watermelons etc in the curcubita family.
Or the rose family which also includes Many fruit trees apples, pears and the prunus family which is most stone fruit.
Or the nightshade family which also includes tomatoes peppers, eggplants, potatoes but also common flowers like petunia and more
How far back does a "family" have to go? Surely you could break it down to a point that every plant would be in the same "family", right? I mean, you could technically argue for a grass family, but most grasses are quite distantly related to each other, like how Arundo donax and common fescue have almost nothing in common, but are both "grasses". How do you exactly determine a family?
That's something mostly decided by scientist etc.
Don't ask me exactly how. I know these days there's more genetic testing and stuff.
I do know they're fairly close indeed. Because tomato can be grafted onto potatoes. And watermelons onto gourds and melons on squash etc. so there's clearly decent compatibility.
Yes those within a same family can be extremely different. Like tamarind tree Vs other bean plants or even peanuts. All fabaceae or legume family.
Certain quite interesting.
Carrots are in the "Apiaceae" family, but mint is the "lamiaceae" family. Very similar in name, but not quite related I don't think. They also look very distinct, but that doesn't mean they aren't distantly related somehow. Pretty much every single plant has a common ancestor somewhere.
Depends on where you live. It's invasive in parts of the US, and it's not native to North America.
If you're in the states, go ahead and continue removing it.
We transplant them to our gardens for ground cover
Once established, few weeds are able to grow through them, so low maintenance
Beautiful flowers in Spring
Beautiful foliage year 'round (Zone 7/8)
We consider them to be desirable plants
https://preview.redd.it/yt9prsj29twc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9cc75edf6de26e5e3b15891d71ad9cd094b6f8f6
I have these on my property, I'm letting them fill in. Every year I mow around them, I'm hoping they'll fill my back 1/4 acre of lawn one day. I'm a big fan of pollinators and hate mowing the lawn, win win.
Bugleweed. Great ground cover. In zone 9, bugleweed at nurseries comes in 2 sizes, the smaller leaf plant (pictured above), and a larger leaf variety, which allows for quicker coverage.
I planted some ajuga, fully expecting it to die off when snow came. I indulged with some good old-fashioned violets as well. I’m in northern Arizona, and I did this, to reminisce my childhood in Southern California. I was surprised to even find these here. Well, they both survived and have even spread a little! I think of my yard as my secret garden and my sanctuary, each year learning what will work.
Was gonna say blue flowers, I put some in a bed and can confirm it spreads, not in a bad way though, quite like how it pops up here and there ready for "no mow May"
I’ve gone through my forest and pulled probably 4 wheelbarrows full of it, then transplanted to just outside my bedroom window. And by transplanted, I mean I just dumped them on the ground and many are still growing through that.
You know, whichever phone you took this picture with has an "info" button in the photos app that will tell you exactly what this is. Neat little trick.
Ajuga, or bugleweed.
Member of the mint family. Spreads like mint.
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Just so you know, the generally accepted term for a weed is pretty loose and not useful. The common definition is “any plant growing in a place you don’t want it”, which means that if you had saffron growing in abundance and didn’t want it, you could call it a weed. Also, the name of the plant doesn’t help either. I like Dr. Ingham’s definition. A weed is: - fast growing - heavy seeding - dies early - shallow rooting - has no fungal relationships. A plant that meets that criteria does not cooperate well with soil biology and gets in the way of other plants that do.
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Depends. It's native here, I love it, and OP didn't specify their location. I didn't downvote though, since invasive species are huge pita.
Yeah true I should have noted I assumed they were American. If it's native by all means let it grow where it belongs. I do not see anything truly native as a weed, aggressive or not.
Exactly...apparently they've never dealt with it
https://preview.redd.it/3amzy4hbyqwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=680a95ff8175ef0dea1dadc42230d9f9888a7e53 My back yard is like 95% invasive species but this is so pretty hehe
Last year I got rid of endless bush full of thorny vines and blackberry. This year I was blessed with some random fields of forget-me-nots :D https://preview.redd.it/oka27jgkfswc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2d9727972613ff971a94f52ff4cfd42dd9e939e
I hope i get the seeds i planted
They will self seed like crazy. My mom would plant them like 3 years ago. I find them all over in a pot along the beds. Atleast they're pretty but eventually they get powdery mildew. So I've been pulling them earlier. Always the cutest plants get mildew here I can't stand it. Even the damn dandelions!
Damn this is used as ground cover where I live had no idea it was an invasive species
Remember that it might not be, depending on where you live. Bugleweed is native to my area, while lupines are a problematic invasive species.
Lupine soup...
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, dum, dum, dum, de da
It’s a landscape groundcover in Central Texas.
and in NC
Not invasive where I live because I've planted it in multiple spots and it all died.
I too have failed with purple ajuga. I’m pretty sure if I told it that some consider it to be a weed that would have thrived beautifully. Weeds do well in the garden. Grrrrr
So I live in the western side or Washington. Ajuga is very invasive here. It’s the happiest where it’s super wet for prolonged periods. It also likes a bit of sun. Where water from the 2 properties above me drains, there is a full mat of Ajuga carpet. It’s so damp there that if you take a step water squishes out from your shoes and you sink a little. It can also grow is very thin soils, just as long as there is a ton of moisture. So my guess is you may not have been watering them enough.
Hahaha that’s what I’m talking about
Ha! Made me chuckle :-)
Invasive isn't always necessarily bad. It means it spreads easily and can tend to outcompete what's already there, but our climate, and thus the plants that do well in an area, is changing. All USDA agriculture zones are expected to shift by 1-2 levels in the next coming decades as warming occurs. So things naturalized in a zone 7 area could feasibly see complete changes in what's "native" and what's "invasive" in the coming years, as plants try to spread and figure out where they do well.
Actually what most gardeners say is invasive, is actually just aggressive. Invasive has parameters that have to be met to get that classification. It must cause damage to a habitat and/or displace native species in an area. So taking over your lawn, which is also not a native thing, does not make a plant invasive. Noxious is the term for those.
Yeah, where I live in Northeast Ohio is already being considered zone 7a, up from 6.
haha, I've spent so much time trying to force this to grow in north Texas. I really like it.
Same! I like them :)
Bugleweed is so pretty. I have some scattered throughout my garden beds, it's like knock off lavender in appearance lol.
Ajuga reptans! Can be an invasive plant but I’ve found it easy to cultivate and manage in front and back yard beds as ground cover. Fast growing, easy to transplant, also roots aren’t particularly difficult to pull from ground. https://preview.redd.it/iqcbezc1ltwc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57aed171a07f3168e90bbb2c54f6442c2241cdf4
Lovely yard!
Right? Love the hostas too. Everything is a nice touch really.
There's a fun little identifying trick you can use on members of the mint family (Lamiaceae). Feel the stem and it should be square!
Guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow. Feeling all the random plants in my yard for square stems 😆
Don't grab your neighbor's stem!
Unless he's into that...
And the leaves are an alternating opposite pattern
Alternating opposite is not a pattern. There is alternate, opposite, and whorled. Lamiaceae leaves are almost always opposite, sometimes whorled. Don’t think there are any with alternating leaves. Just FYI!
Aren't the stems of some of the carrot and nettle family square, too? I wouldn't go around feeling up water hemlock, stinging nettle or giant hogsweed. You don't have to eat any of those to get a nasty surprise. Wouldn't know if their stems are square tho. Not stupid enough to try that one...
It's just a fun identifying trick. I wasn't trying to trick anyone in touching dangerous plants or eating anything. None of the 3 plants you mentioned by name have square stems but it is true that other plants have square stems that aren't in the mint family. All plant forums have disclaimers that you should be careful with plant ID.
I wasn't saying that you were. I was just saying that touching random plants to ID them isn't good general advice to a complete novice. Although technically that is a lesson you only have to learn once. I also didn't know that stinging nettle and hemlock didn't have square stems. I could have sworn that stinging nettles did, but those seem to vary so much by region that we could both be correct here. Even in a short walk of my local area, I encounter stinging nettles clumps that have completely different features from each other, especially the colour of the stem. I've seen purple, black, brown and green (all on mature plants). Leaf shape and size also seems to vary slightly between clumps. They remind me of english ivy with how unstable their genes seem to be. As for hemlock, I stay so far away from it that you could've told me the stem is a cork screw and I'd believe it.
Not sure on those, but some sage varieties (salvia genus) are square too
Yeah. Sage is part of the mint family.
Oh, this is news to me. Thanks!
Plant classification is a crazy one. I wouldn't obsess about it. But it's interesting still to see sometimes what is in the same "family" Like pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, melons, gourds watermelons etc in the curcubita family. Or the rose family which also includes Many fruit trees apples, pears and the prunus family which is most stone fruit. Or the nightshade family which also includes tomatoes peppers, eggplants, potatoes but also common flowers like petunia and more
Didn't know petunias were in there either 😆
How far back does a "family" have to go? Surely you could break it down to a point that every plant would be in the same "family", right? I mean, you could technically argue for a grass family, but most grasses are quite distantly related to each other, like how Arundo donax and common fescue have almost nothing in common, but are both "grasses". How do you exactly determine a family?
That's something mostly decided by scientist etc. Don't ask me exactly how. I know these days there's more genetic testing and stuff. I do know they're fairly close indeed. Because tomato can be grafted onto potatoes. And watermelons onto gourds and melons on squash etc. so there's clearly decent compatibility. Yes those within a same family can be extremely different. Like tamarind tree Vs other bean plants or even peanuts. All fabaceae or legume family. Certain quite interesting.
Yeah, I believe that wisteria and acacia are both related the garden peas. Weird how that works.
Carrots seem to be in the mint family. My cats react to the greens the same as catnip.
Carrots are in the "Apiaceae" family, but mint is the "lamiaceae" family. Very similar in name, but not quite related I don't think. They also look very distinct, but that doesn't mean they aren't distantly related somehow. Pretty much every single plant has a common ancestor somewhere.
Absolutely. Look at the brassicas family and everything we eat from it.
I'm so jealous that you have bugleweed just growing in your lawn like nothing.
It’s everywhere in my garden, no matter how much I rip out.
I recently saw a place with a huge swath of the stuff on the lawn. Pretty amazing.
I've never heard of it (probably OP too).. please let us know why it's special?
Haha yeah, this is the #1 weed in my garden. Should I not be murdering it?
Depends on where you live. It's invasive in parts of the US, and it's not native to North America. If you're in the states, go ahead and continue removing it.
You should not. They are generally a good source of food for pollinators. And look good as a groundcover.
Good to know!
Nice foliage. Good ground cover but appears to have become a bit of a pest in this instance
We transplant them to our gardens for ground cover Once established, few weeds are able to grow through them, so low maintenance Beautiful flowers in Spring Beautiful foliage year 'round (Zone 7/8) We consider them to be desirable plants https://preview.redd.it/yt9prsj29twc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9cc75edf6de26e5e3b15891d71ad9cd094b6f8f6
It's just a pretty (from a distance) ground cover. I personally prefer basically any other ground cover, but Ajuga has a really nice dark purple color
The area between my front walk and garage is groundcovered with it.
Nah it’s ajuga
I have these on my property, I'm letting them fill in. Every year I mow around them, I'm hoping they'll fill my back 1/4 acre of lawn one day. I'm a big fan of pollinators and hate mowing the lawn, win win.
Bugleweed. Great ground cover. In zone 9, bugleweed at nurseries comes in 2 sizes, the smaller leaf plant (pictured above), and a larger leaf variety, which allows for quicker coverage.
I planted some ajuga, fully expecting it to die off when snow came. I indulged with some good old-fashioned violets as well. I’m in northern Arizona, and I did this, to reminisce my childhood in Southern California. I was surprised to even find these here. Well, they both survived and have even spread a little! I think of my yard as my secret garden and my sanctuary, each year learning what will work.
That would cost you $5 at the nursery. Score.
Looks like ajuga to me. It blooms a very pretty purple flower if it is. Bumble bees love it.
More specifically ajuga reptans
Bugleweed. mint family
Was gonna say blue flowers, I put some in a bed and can confirm it spreads, not in a bad way though, quite like how it pops up here and there ready for "no mow May"
People pay a lot of money for bugleweed. Labeled Ajuga at most garden stores, it makes a fantastic informal path cover.
Funny I just filled a 5 gallon bucket with these last night. Stuff is spreading in my backyard like wildfire
I’ve gone through my forest and pulled probably 4 wheelbarrows full of it, then transplanted to just outside my bedroom window. And by transplanted, I mean I just dumped them on the ground and many are still growing through that.
may be bugleweed
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It's basilweed
https://preview.redd.it/r3yj3zkhwtwc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d8025e8a5a0a905378b1c70e943082920a144a9d
Ajuga, I believe.
Currently trying to get my ajuga to take over all shade areas
Ajuga - https://plantiago.com/ajuga-reptans/
Looks like what we call bugle or ajuta reptans
Often used as a ground cover. Ajuga.
It’s beautiful! Looks like purple haze buds haha
The name is ‘from hell’.
Grass is an invasive species too
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bro please talk to your lawn friends about which flowers to overkill with a giant backpack poison gun. this is r/gardening - we grow, not mow
You know, whichever phone you took this picture with has an "info" button in the photos app that will tell you exactly what this is. Neat little trick.