About three months ago I began to see this plant everywhere. I did not see it earlier in the year at all.
It is in all my flower beds so it's definitely invasive. The question is: What is it? Is it a type of wildflower with a pretty bloom or a weed with no bloom to speak of? So far I haven't seen any sign that it is trying to bloom.
It is about 8-10" tall in this pic.
I'm going to guess that it's a Vicia (vetch) of some sort. Here are the ones that occur in AL: http://plants.usda.gov/java/stateSearch?searchTxt=vicia&searchType=Sciname&stateSelect=01&searchOrder=1&imageField.x=52&imageField.y=4 Many of them do have rather pretty flowers, but they start to lose their charm after you've been trying to get rid of them for a while! They start to pop up in the fall/winter, then bloom sometime in the spring.
ecrane3,
I think it's this one. What do you think? I've not seen it bloom, but this pic sure looks like the foliage including the little "grabber" ends, which a lot of the vetch photos didn't have.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=VISAN2&photoID=visan2_007_avp.tif
Odd that I didn't see it anywhere last year, not in the flower beds where it is now and not out in the uncultivated areas either.
Thanks,
Karen
That one does look like it in the pictures, although that's one we have a lot out here too and for some reason when I looked at your picture initially, I was thinking your leaves looked a bit skinnier than mine. But maybe mine's a different sub-species, I didn't bother ID'ing it to that level! It's not one of those weeds that you necessarily see tons of everywhere--if you get some and you let it go then it can take over your garden eventually, but out in fields and things I don't tend to notice it that, there are other weeds that are much more aggressive and seem to dominate the fields. I think birds probably eat the seeds, so that could explain why it popped up out of nowhere. It's also an annual, so you won't see plants sticking around from year to year like you do with some weeds, that could also explain why you didn't see it before--if you weren't looking in the right place at the right time of year you might have missed it.
ecrane3,
Apparently, this one is in all but about four states. I've got absolutely hundreds of these coming up, so when it stops raining, I'll go out and start pulling them up. The flower looks pretty and if is was on the uncultivated slope, not my raised flower beds, I would leave it alone. I expect it will be back.
I'm going to consider this one solved. Thanks.
Karen
