Plant Id

Found this down an over grown dead end road, the plants are very tall and the leaves about a foot by 18"
It is not woody in the stem.
The plant with the burs grows right alongside the other, looks similar, but smaller diminsions and burs. It is also breaks differently...

The plant looks very familiar, but I can't seem to put a name on it in my head. I am fairly certain I have seen it frequently growing up. As for the last picture, those look a /lot/ like burdock burrs. The image is a bit fuzzy and it is hard to tell what the shape of the leaves attached to them are though. Burdock leaves would be broad and long, sort of like a fat spearhead shape the size of a platter and bearing a wavy edge.

I will try to remember what the leaves are from and post here when/if I recall. Where is this located?

Thanks for the reply and sorry about the fuzzy images-we where in a hurry.
We live in southern Ohio, Cincinnati in particular.
These where down a narrow wooded lane, next to a decrepit home. The plants were more than 9' tall, their height and the size of thier leaves really caught our eye..

Explains why it looks familiar. I grew up in Middletown. It's going to bug me until I can figure out what it is though. At first glance, I was thinking Catalpa, but the leaves are wrong for that. Hmmm...

Hello there!

That is a lovely Burdock you have there. In reading the other posts, it is true, great burdock has bigger leaves which are deeper green with ruffles and spire closer together along the stalk. What you have here is Lesser Burdock.
There are three types of Burdock in the Arctium (Burdock) family, these are Arctium lappa (Greater Burdock), Arctium minus (Lesser Burdock), and Arctium tomentosum (Wolly Burdock). The way to properly identify a burdock is by the shape of the plant, as we know it is tall, the leaves grow in a spiral, and are generally tear shaped, in greater burdock they are deep green and ruffled, in lesser burdock they have longer stems, are lighter green, and have no ruffle, and in wooly burdock the leaves are covered with soft hairs. Also, the most key way is via the burs, the brown dried burs in the photo have visable hooks at the end, this is another key element.

Exciting find and fantastic specimen!

- Nicey <3

Thank you so much!
I will have to consider planting some to nearer to me, as they are edible and my six year old daughter wants to use the leaves as umbrellas like in this:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro

We were snooping for unattended urban lots to uh, "apropriate/appreciate", and spotted this plant.

Middletown!? Where have ya run off to?
You know how this region draws one back...

Admittedly, the majority of my experience has been with Great Burdock, but I thought the majority of lesser burdock had a reddishness to the stem and the leaves had a rough/fuzzy texture. These leaves looked too smooth to me.


This is the best picture example I could find of what I am referring to.

Here's a website that might be useful to verify other specific traits of the lesser burdock, so you can do a one to one verification. http://www.survivalplantsmemorycourse.com/2012/02/arctium-minus-lesser-burdock-elephant/

As to Middletown, I already got caught in the yo-yo effect once before when I thought a good job offer was on the table. It ended up being part time indefinitely instead of moving into a full time forklift position. When they started cutting hours down into the 12 a week range, I moved on again. Currently I am in South Texas, but that is temporary. As soon as I can secure a good enough job elsewhere and have the funds ready for a move, I will be relocating. If I am really lucky, the Middletown Vortex won't catch me again. Heh.