Mystery weed

[Suffolklad]

Hi all



Can anybody identify this mystery weed for me please ?
It won't help me to get rid of it, but will at least make me feel better to know what I'm fighting !

It was completely unknown on our lotties until a few years ago, when apparently the seeds turned up in a load of chicken muck. It has now rampaged across all the plots and is near impossible to get rid of ! The locals call it Gallant Soldier cos no many how many times you knock it down it just stands up again ! :(
Hoeing does no real good because it forms big root balls, and just sprouts again. It grows quite tall and chokes everything. If its growing among carrots you just have to try to cut it off at ground level, because if you hand pull it, it just drags your carrots out too !!

It forms up to 4 side stems at ground level, and has small yellow flowers........

Any ideas ?
Thanks
Mike  (who bl***y hates weeding)

[Suffolklad]

[terrace max]

Greater celandine?

[gayle]

never seen that weed before. looks like some kind of nettle! ???

[BAGGY]

It looks like some kind of dead nettle to me.  Does it smell funny when the stem breaks ?  If so I would say it is the same thing I get and have always called dead nettle.

[Suffolklad]

No its not Celandine, and I'm pretty sure its not a dead nettle.
I'll try to get a pic of an individual plant.

I have a few to choose from  :'(

[Twospot Ladybird]

Hi Allotmentchooks, found your weed in one of my Wildflower books. It is Galinsoga Parviflora, common name Gallant Soldier. It could of course be Galinsoga Quadriradiata, Shaggy Soldier, which is very similar but has hairy stems and more obvious teeth on the leaves. Both are members of the Daisy and Dandelion family, seed spreads in the same way as sticky w illies, they adhere to clothing and animal fur. It originally escaped from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew which has given it a local name of Kew Weed.

[Suffolklad]

Wow 2spot thats amazing ! I really thought it was just a local name.
It never occurred to me to do a search for the name !
And as for the Kew part.....if they do another "Year at Kew" I'll phone up Alan Titmarsh and give him a piece of my mind !
Thanks a lot
Mike

[terrace max]

Good work 2spot!

Apparently, 'Gallant Soldier' could also be a corruption of Galinsoga.

Anyone got any other weeds to i.d.? I like this game!

[Suffolklad]

Better yet.......

Does your little book tell you if anything uses this weed as a host ?
I'll go out and buy a bucketload !!

At least the chooks love the stuff, so it's free food........

Mike

[RSJK]

Just found this site with picture of Galinsoga parviflora and it does not look the same weed as to what your picture shows

                  http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/T50689.HTM

[Twospot Ladybird]

Unfortunately my book doesn't say what pests eat this weed but as the weed originates in the Andes then that means it has no natural predators in Britain. Glad your chooks like it though  :)

[RSJK]

Just done a search on

            http://www.reticule.co.uk/flora/content/species.asp?329

and came up,  after putting a bit info in, with Sinapis Arvensis
Well at least the leaf looks the same, but could be wrong.

Common names are  Wild mustard 
                                 Cherlock
                         and Ba***rd mustard  among others.

                         ;) ;)

[Suffolklad]

Hi Richard
I must admit that the gallant soldier pics you found don't look quite the same as my plant. It's very very close though
It def isn't the Sinapis.
Mike

[john_miller]

Definitely gallant soldier- want some of mine? Highly productive seed wise so get rid of it before it sets seeds. It will smother anything and its dense canopy will promote fungus if it is growing among crops. Roots at the nodes too making it more difficult to pull up. It germinates late, missing the spring flush, so just when you think your done with the heavy duty weeding you have it to deal with.

[Suffolklad]

That's the baby...................

Had to pull loads of it out of my carrots last night - tried to ignore it, but it was strangling them. Saved me the job of thinning them  >:(

One unused area of my plot has a solid impenetrable carpet of them.

God I hate it !

Mike

[flowerlady]

I have also found a photo of your weed, ( I think I might have the same book as twospot?) 

It would appear that the flowers heads stand clear above the foliage and when ripe the single seed fruits have tufts on them, making them like burrs that stick on your clothes, so easy to transport around you allotment. ???

This would necessitate getting rid of it before the flowers set to avoid infesting clean patches of soil.  Hope this helps.

... it would seem the only contented souls are the chooks! ;)

[Paulines7]

Hi,
I've just joined the site.  I found it when searching for "Shaggy Soldier".  It is definitely the weed shown in your picture:  see http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/R40418.HTM
They appeared in my vegetable patch this year in great numbers, especially where I had added compost from my rotted down store.  According to one website, 98% of seeds germinate!  I was pleased to read that chickens like it as I am always reluctant to throw any unknown weeds into their runs.   

Pauline
Salisbury

[Suffolklad]

I think chooks know what they can and can't eat Pauline.
I've had various breeds freeranging in my garden, where there undoubtedly things growing that are poisonous to them, and they have come to no harm.

On the allotment most of my weeds get disposed of through the chicken ccops. The only things they don't seem to eat are nettles, groundsel and some kind of bindweed.  I must admit that I don't take the risk of giving them belladonna (deadly nightshade).

Gallant soldier they loooooooooooooooooove ! They eat it stems and all  ;D

Mike

[Paulines7]

Mike
I still think they are "shaggy soldier" rather than "gallant soldier".  As regards chickens not eating poisonous plants, I agree with that.  The run I have housing my 10 week old chicks and surrogate mother became bare of any vegetation except for grounsel.  When I looked it up on the web, I found that it was poisonous to chickens.  I dug it all out just in case they ate it. 

I fed some of my "shaggy soldier" to my older hens this afternoon but they didn't seem very interested in it.  I haven't given any to my chicks yet as I read that it contains phenol and can cause diarrhoea (hope I've spelt that correctly!).  The website I gave you contains a number of photo's of "shaggy soldier".  Do they appear to be the same as those in your allotment?

Pauline

[Suffolklad]

They don't look quite the same to me.
I'm now off to feed the chooks - I'll take the camera !
Mike