Weeds or Wildflowers? (Piedmont, NC) Page II

Some more of the stuff that's growing in the yard. :)

And now this, as yet, still unidentified monster.

Plants are about 6' tall/long. Round stem, pubescent oblong soft glabrous leaves, finally have flower buds at the tips.

You can see in th last photo that it is embracing a large pot with a floribunda rose in it. I had to move several other containerized plants to make room for these unexpected giants.

Amanda - I'm glad I looked at this thread! I'm trying to identify a vine that is growing very well in multiple places in the woods near my house. I took photos to post on the plant i.d. site, then lo and behold, I see that it looks similar to your pink fuzzy bean. The leaves aren't as long as on your bean vine, however, and this vine seems more delicate. Do you (or others) recognize this plant? I have not seen flowers or beans on it yet, although I haven't looked that closely and the deer might have eaten all the beans before I started observing it.

Hi Muddy,

I looked closely at some images of foliage. Mine is a young plant and seems to fade pretty early in the season, so it's never gotten so large and rambling.

It IS a very delicate plant with a small stem and hate to say that the flowers are almost insignificant, but they are. The beans are almost 2" long, but rather thin pods.

Here's a link to the NPIN with a closeup of the trifoliate leaf. It looks very close...

http://www.wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=28406

I don't think it's the one in the NPIN photo because the leaves on my vine have no indentations (not the proper terminology, I know). This vine does quite a bit of rambling. There is a dense patch, about 300 square feet in size, that is happily clambering over a patch of Japanese stiltgrass in the woods near me.

Well post it on the Plant ID forum. I have a couple I posted with no luck on ID. I hope it's something really awesome!

I have seen this around my house. I at first thought it might be seedling Kudzu, but thankfully it is not

I didn't get an i.d. for the vine, but might try again. I would love to know what it is!

I think I've got it! My vine looks pretty much identical to some of the photos of strophostyles helvola - another kind of trailing wild bean - that I've found online. There seems to be a large variation in the shape of the leaves.

Thanks - will have to look into that. :)

"2gardenkate" identified it: Amphicarpaea bracteata. I'm so excited it's a native plant.

That's great! Would take me days with a key. :)

I would like to have my camera fixed soon! In the meantime the camera's phone is not bad.

Th garden is a riot.

An finally TH mystery plant is blooming. Suppose if no one here can venture a guess I will have to put it o the ID forum...

!!!

Your garden is wonderful ! What's that vine with what looks like red, orange and yellow flowers? And the plant with dark purple flowers?
I don't recognize your mystery plant, although I haven't given up yet, but I think it's very pretty..definitely a keeper.

The vine is Spanish Flag (Ipomoea lobata). I spied a photo of it in the spring and had to trade for some. LOVE it, and so do the hummers. :)

I think the purple flowers are my Agastache sp. I was working in a botanic garden and collected seed from what was supposed to be 'Black Adder'. I found out later that the plant is supposed to be sterile. Whatever grew from it got to be about 10' the first season and the blooms were more at lavender. Black Adder is an "x" with parents A. foeniculum and A. rugosum.

This year only one has gotten to about 8'. I think it favors the A. foeniculum:
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=AGFO

The dark purple plants in the picture favor the A. rugosum:
http://www.plantexplorers.com/twiningvine/product_info.php/products_id/632

The mystery plant sure got big and lanky! Will keep looking.

Thanks for checking in.

I determined finally that my mystery plant is the Stiff Goldenrod (Hard-leaved Goldenrod)
Oligoneuron rigidum (Solidago rigida). I had to wait till the flowers opened but they absolutely favor a solidago, except the flowers are borne in flat topped clusters.

I also read that the plant will tend to flop (as mine did) if there is too much water, which we have had.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=sori2_003_ahp.tif

http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/stf_goldenrodx.htm

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/oligoneuronrigi.html

One of my neighbors has two mystery plants, and one of them has buds that look a little like the Stiff Goldenrod's. We decided they're "weeds", but I suggested to her that she wait until they bloom and see if she likes them. If they're native and reasonably attractive, I'll collect seeds for the woods because whatever they are, we know they're deer-resistant.
I like the A. foeniculum. I'm going to put that in the woods because the deer will leave it alone.
I just planted ilex verticillata apollo and sparkleberry in my front yard and the deer chowed down on it the very first night. Aargh!

I would think goldenrod would grow better in full sun

I found mature hairy yucca seeds on a walk today. I haven't had much success transplanting them because they have such a long taproot. I'm hoping I will do better with seeds. Does anyone have any experience growing yucca from seed?
I also took tip cuttings and layered a productive wild grape. From frustrating experience, I've learned that is the best way to acquire wild grapes. There is incredible variation in Vitis rotundifolia and many foliage look-alikes that don't produce edible fruit at all. t can be frustrating to raise a plant to fruiting size only to find out it is a poor fruit producer or yet another male plant.

That does sound like a lot of work on th grape but I hope this time it's a fruitful endeavor. :D

So that's why none of my wild grape vines have grapes on them! I haven't seen flowers on them yet, either. I have volunteers all over my yard, so maybe I will some day.

I use wild muscadines as bribes. If the furry and feathered grape eaters have nice muscadine grapes around, they leave the fruit of hybrids like 'Southern Home' for us. Also, grape seeds are useful medicinally. Heaven knows muscadines produce a lot of seeds.
I'm trying moss verbena (Southern mockvervain) in a problem hot spot. I don't know yet how it will work long term, but the bees and butterflies are already showing their support for the idea.
Spanish Flag will be in our garden in Spring. Thanks for the introduction.
Mk*

I was watching a mocking bird eat some poke berries and had to laugh to myself at the weeds I allow to grow for wildlife sake. :)

Last fall, I saw a neatly pruned pokeberry given a front and center location in a container at a botanical garden. It made an impressive focal point. Visitors were "oh-h-hing and ah-h-hing over it. Seen in such a different context, took me several minutes to realize what "that impressive structural plant" actually was.
As I ease into retirement and a 26-year-old takes over, Amargia is becoming as much about the fauna as the flora. It is finally drying up from all the rain. Nadine (the up-and-coming steward) was on a frog rescue mission today. She gathered all the tadpoles from a drying up puddle and took them to the local park where she was greeted by the gatekeeper with "Aren't you the same young lady who brought us the dragonfly nymphs last week." lol.

The birds plant pokeberries all over the place at my parents' house. :)

I have oodles of mustang grape plants around the property - and nary a sign of a bloom. Since Joy got me started on Mustang Grape jelly, I would love love love to have just one female plant! I may have to hunt around for one.

Is anyone interested in offsets from manfredas? The crazy weather here is apparently their favorite thing because all of them have taken off! I'm hoping I'll finally get some spring blooms from them (which I'm beyond excited for as I've read they have quite the perfume!)

I wish I could get them to grow here, but I bet it is too wet.

Crystal, I'll bet if you put them in a sand mixture (anything fast draining) they'd do great!

I have extra m. virginica (just a couple) and plenty of the spotted one.

Carey, I would be happy to send you a female vine when these are well rooted.

Jim? Nadine sounds like a good steward. I worked an internship at a wetland plant nursery and most of the beds has tadpoles in them. It was very distracting, to where we has to go around (secretly!) and make sure the tads didn't dry out. Beds were essentially wooden frames on the ground lined with plastic to hold water. I was a mess most of the time with all the critters. Haha! That is a familiar theme!

Carey, you sent two rattlesnake manfreda to me last year and I kept them in the bsmt over winter. I'm glad... They would have drowned with all our rain.

The yard is a wild mess, asters beginning to bloom, boneset, mistflower. I have lost some plants to the wet soil this year. Very different from my prior gardening seasons here.

Melissa Kay, would you could you???? Oh my goodness that would be fabulous! Is there anything I can hunt down for you? There is a pretty nice little greenbelt area behind my house where there are lots of different wildflowers and native plants.

Looked at your want list: I can get the white mistflower and I have the night-blooming jasmine and White Ginger. I can also easily get the grey and the green santolina. I also have hundreds of seeds for the anacacho orchid tree but they like horrible soil so may not work for you.

Amanda, let me know if yours bloom! They are in some terribly rich soil but it doesn't seem to bother them in the slightest.

No, Amanda. This is one of Jim's partners in crime. We had this brilliant idea (NOT!) to simplify things at Amargia. Instead of all of us having individual DG accounts, we thought one account for us all would be a good idea. We read over one another's shoulders, after all. Correct each other’s spelling and grammar slips and the like. It seemed logical, but it hasn't worked out in practice. Seacanepain (Jim), Sansai87 (Nadine) and kudzu1 (myself) will be coming back as individuals when it is time to re-up.
Nadine liked that her dragonfly nymphs and some of the tadpoles are now part of an educational display at Landmark Park. This was the city kid who saw a field of ripe cotton and thought the farmer was growing marshmallows so she understands the need for teaching children about the natural world. It is the little animals that snag children's interest and draw them into nature. Wildflowers, wild edibles and oddities like our native pitcher plant appear to be what first sparks botanical interest in children. Yet another reason to go native
Below is what I know as a "mustang grape", Carey. It is the Vitis rotundifolia type that usually grows in clusters of three and ripens to a purplish-bronze. Is it the one you are interested in? There is another type known locally as a bull grape or a bullace. It is a little larger, but grows singly. The type called Scuppernong grows wild here, but I don't think it is truly native. I suspect it was brought down from the Carolinas by early settlers and escaped cultivation. It is large, grows singly and ripens to a pale green blushed with gold.
Any plant that has a noticeable fragrance and/or is loved by bees and butterflies is of interest to me. Much of Amargia is at one extreme or the other. Lean, dry, sandy soil or damp rich clay soil. The more balanced areas are used for veggies so I'm always on the lookout for plants that can handle the extremes.
Mk*

Pardon my ignorance, but what is Amargia?

Amargia is a 6 acre experiment in horticulture and cooperative living. In the beginning I only planned to use the property as a retirement home for service dogs and a place actively working service dogs could run around and play while their humans visited with their retired predecessors. (Guide dogs are amazing creatures, but their working lives are short.) Initially, all I planned was a series of dog friendly gardens packed with plants blind people could enjoy, but the project took on a life of its own as others became involved. These days, Amargia is composed of people with different types of physical limitations such as mobility problems and all the little nuisances that come with T.M.B. (too many birthdays). We try to find ways for anyone who wants to garden to garden.) There is also the occasional able-bodied young person living here while they sort out some life crisis
I guess the short answer is Amargia is a green, useful, but often crazy place...watched over by old dogs.
Speaking of dogs, dog fennel "Eupatorium capillifolium" is blooming. That may be a native best appreciated by blind people. At its best, it's a fine foliage backdrop and the looks of the foliage actually deteriorate a little when it produces its inconspicuous blooms, but the scent is fantastic. It is not at all a plant you would expect to have a perfume quality fragrance. It is often recommended by our county extension service for steep, damp slopes. That makes it a keeper for us.
I was pleasantly surprised the moss verbena is still blooming despite being transplanted at such a bad time of year. The continuing rain and cooler than normal temps are probably why it transplanted so easily. The bees and butterflies were visiting the blooms only minutes after it was transplanted and it now appears to have received official frog approval.
Mk*


This message was edited Sep 3, 2013 6:16 PM

Forgot to add the Picture. lol (Jim)

Wow! What a great idea! I know what you mean by the smell of dog fennel . I could smell it as I was reading your post. I never intentionally grow it, but it crops up where ever it gets a chance. Many of my memories of it are from childhood and how it grew taller than my head as I walked through the pastures.

And where is Southe, AL located? Near what?

That's a lovely thing to do with your property, Amargia. ♥ Great frog pic too.

Nadine corrected me. She informs me that is a Fowler toad, not a frog. The kid has come a long way in her knowledge of the natural world. I know Nadi has been providing the unusual number of tadpoles in a certain puddle with fish food and that particular puddle has been suspiciously slow in drying out since the weather has cleared. ;-)

ROFL. I think Jim meant that to be 'Southeast, AL'. We are located down in the tri-state area near Ft. Rucker. Dothan is the nearest city of size. At least Dothan likes to consider itself a city. The residence were indignant when Reagan visited and it was written up in a national paper that the president visited "a small town in southeast Alabama."
Dog fennel is one of the friendlier of the ubiquitous weeds in this area. No prickles or itch inducing sap. I pull it out of flower beds, vegetable gardens and animal grazing areas, but have a live and let live attitude about it in wild areas. I've used it as a "pioneer plant" in land reclamation for many years, but I knew it by the common name "horsetail". To me, dog fennel meant another plant entirely. In the minds of the others who garden here horsetail means Equisetum arvense, so dog fennel it is. Common names can get confusing when people from different parts of the country garden together.
Mk*


This message was edited Sep 5, 2013 9:01 AM

I am sure what they called dog fennel is the same as what I know as dog fennel. Equisetum is horsetail for me also, or scouring rushes.
The Reagan incident reminds me of something my daughter said when she was living in China. She spoke of Machin as a small town of several million people.

Melissa Kay, Amargia sounds like a true paradise! Old dogs and fantastic sights and smells, oh my. :)

The true Texas "mustang grape" is here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/58364/ I'm not very versed in differentiating on exact types so that wouldn't be my specialty, but since the vines have taken over the fence, it would be nice to have one that produced! :)

Since it sounds like Amargia is a place that specializes in texture and scent, let me hunt around to find some good options for you. I know of one that might be perfect to start - Texas has a few native Monarda, and one is very common here! It's listed as "Purple Horsemint" but is also known as wild bergamot and natives used it to make tea. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/301/

Also, another one of my favorite natives is Blackfoot Daisy. The plant isn't much to look at, but, oh my do the flowers just push their scent! Probably one of my absolute favorites: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/259/ It is out of bloom, but we just had some lovely rain so it will be opening some new ones soon. :)