Hairy Plant In The Woods - Can you help to ID, please!!!

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/485507/

I've posted pictures on the above thread. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Judy

I'm still holding out for some type of Mullein, Judy~ April

Gosh, I've looked at your photos and looked at your photos and I am pretty stumped. Not that I am any identification expert by any means but I do seem to be dealing with a disproportionately high number of "weedy" species over on my property. I'd love to see your plants when they mature and bloom. I am thinking they are some sort of a Hieracium though. A few Hieraciums are native (to the best of my knowledge not native to Tennessee though) but most are not indigenous to North America. If it isn't a Hieracium, I'm still thinking it may be some sort of a weed and then Verbascum or rather Common Mullein becomes a prime contender too. The vast majority of noxious weeds are polyploidy. This means they can triple their number of chromosomes before passing them on. If a plant generally reads a pair of genes that determines leaf pigmentation as being blue, a triploid plant reads the genes 3x hence the leaves are 3x bluer or harrier or rounder leaved. Bad news is that being polyploidy means a species can also quadruple its genes. This is an adaptive trait of noxious weeds that I find most annoying as just when you think you have ripped all of a particular species of weed out of your ground, along comes a mutation that escapes your eye and goes on to make you miserable. Noxious weeds have other adaptive traits capable of making the identification process absolutely a hair pulling and nail biting experience as I for one don't like ripping anything out of the ground until it has been identified properly. I'm not saying I'll let them go to seed, but I do hold out until the eleventh hour these days before pulling them up and burning them or bagging them to toss in the garbage.

I don't know what it is but it looks cute. It's definetly not mullein, I'm positive about that.

Email this person - he may know, he's a wildplant life specialist
That plant is interesting - Maybe you discovered a new plant!

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/

wildmansteve@bigfoot.com

Pictures taken today but there is little change.

Have you emailed your local university and consulted the botany department? Or a conservation group which works to protect native flora?

No my plan was to continue taking pictures, it's warmed up here so it should start growing. It should be easier to identify then. Someone asked for an updated picture.

Judy

I am not an indigenous plant expert at all. But I just had to comment that 'your' plant is about as bizarre as any I have ever seen. It is cute, but almost looks alien.

... I have another one that I found in the woods that is totally different. I dug it up and moved it to my flower bed last year because it was being nibbled on by something. I don't know what I'm talking about but it looks like a wild hosta. I'll have to take pictures.

I don't have a formal yard, we live in the woods and I like all the wild plants and grasses. When they get to be too much out comes the mower, otherwise I just let everything grow... like mounds or tuffs of grass, tiny plants with flowers. If I took pictures, people would probably think I had lost my mind. If I wasn't already a subscriber at DG, I would probably register as "weedyone". I just like to watch them grow to see what they become. Ever so often, one like the above really catches my attention.

Judy

It reminds me of hepatica. The young leaves are hairy like that before they unfold.

Judy, I to am a woodlant gardener and know what you mean about just letting things grow. When I moved here a couple of years ago, I came from an open, sunny area full of fescue and dandelions to the shady woods full of trillium, jack in the pulpit, hepatica, tiarella, duthchmans breeches, and ferns-it was like heaven! I could hardly stand to mow until I saw what might show up. Now I do"selective weeding"-it makes me feel like Mother Nature's garden helper! That is a funky plant-never seen anything like it around here.

You may want to post that pic on the id forum-Todd can id almost anything there!

Just reviewing some of my watched threads, Did you ever find out what this was? What does it look like now?

I hate to admit but between the ticks and chiggars I've had one allergic reaction after another so I am unable to go into the woods to find it, Drats!!!

Judy

Any chance of getting a photo now? Chiggers are probably still out there but maybe the ticks aren't so bad? I'm sort of curious myself to see what that plant has grown up to be. What about that wild hosta that you moved close to your house. Did it survive transplant?

Boy I'd sure like to know myself.That is the strangest thing.It looks like a fungi but I have no clue.What does it feel like besides hairy?Just curious.Jody