Forum:

plants

Herbaceous plant ID

Posts: 3

posted 3 years ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I'm trying to catalog all the plants that are popping up in and around my yard (Zone 5, New England). Some of them are wild and some are remnants of things previous occupants cultivated. There is a decent patch of these leafy plants in a shaded area (see attached).

They look very lettuce-like and I hope they're edible.

2022-04-23-13.08.35.jpg

Joylynn Hardesty

master pollinator

Posts: 5261

Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

2228

I like...

posted 3 years ago

3
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Compare it to this variety of wild lettuce.
I have found other wild lettuces in almost full shade.

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

Ralph Sluder

pollinator

Posts: 241

posted 3 years ago

2
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Looks like comfrey to me. Hard to be sure until more growth comes on.

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 18101

Location: USDA Zone 8a

4612

I like...

posted 3 years ago

2
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

It doesn't look like the wild lettuce that we have here.

Like Ralph said, maybe it is comfrey.

It might be a variety of Dock.

I can't ID plants until they bloom as a lot of plants look alike and it just depends on the color of the blooms.

Or even what the flower looks like.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11700

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

5795

I like...

posted 3 years ago

3
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

The reddish tinge to the leaf ribs is unusual - makes it look like a broadleaved dandelion. I agree it's difficult to tell though at this stage, Turkish rocket (Buniuas orientalis) also comes to mind, but again that doesn't have the reddish ribs according to the pictures I can find.

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "