Plant ID In South Louisiana needed

[TheBishop]

I planted a wisteria seed six months ago in a pot of fresh potting soil from the hardware store. The wisteria seed was from a plant I gave to a friend two years ago. That plant was from a seed I picked off of an abandoned house wisteria plant near the road while working for the telephone company six years ago.

The wisteria seed sprouted and was producing a great looking plant about three feet tall, still in the pot.
Two weeks ago I noticed another plant growing in the pot with the wisteria. It has taken over the pot and is growing at an alarming rate, but I don't know what it is. I don't want to kill it until I can ID the plant.

It might be a weed, but we have been living here for 20 years and we have 8 acres and this new plant is not native to my 8 acres. The is no way the new seed plant fell off another tree or bush since it's full sun above it.
Maybe a seed a wild goose dropped into the pot while flying south for the winter.

[KeyWee]

Welcome!
Could it be senna? I grow it and like it, and it is hard to find seeds or plants if you want to have it. If it eventually blooms with attractive yellow flowers at the top, then it's senna.

[rainbowgardener]

looks like it could be a black locust tree. Here's a picture



notice some of the leaves have that same little indent at the tip.

[!potatoes!]

my first thought was locust, too, but it seems like all the leaves have an even number of leaflets? black locust usually has that final single leaflet on the tip, giving an odd number. yr'eminence, can we get a close-up of the stem, please?

[!potatoes!]

oh, and cheers for the tale of long-running propagation!

[TheBishop]

It's got to be a Senna.

This evening I noticed all the leaves closed up and touch each other.

I looked at dozens of internet photos and it a Senna.

My mystery is where did it come from? There are no senna plants around here and a friend came by today to look at it. He's never seen a plant like this growing in a pot or wild in this part south Louisiana.

I had some wild Passion flower seeds a few years ago planted in a pot and for two years it showed nothing growing. When we returned from vacation I had a healthy wild passion plant 8 inches tall.

I set it on a 50 gal drum in a little sunny spot. The next day something knocked over the pot and dragged it 20 feet in to the woods, killing the plant. Two years waiting lost.

How long does a senna plant seed take to grow?

[KeyWee]

Senna can be slow to germinate (a month maybe). My plants get about 4' tall and bloom later (August or so). But mine are in shade.
Who knows where the seed came from? After the plant flowers, there are a lot of seed pods. Birds, maybe?
Oh, and I have tons of wild passion vine in my yard. If you want seeds, I will dry a pod for you. You can toss the seeds out in fall and you will surely have it next year. It's the purple and white flowered variety.
Glad we could help you!

[TheBishop]

I gave a friend a few passion flower I bought for him on his birthday from a garden store. He has wanted one for years. They took over his front yard and back yard garden. roots grew 20 feet under ground to his rabbit cages. It has ruined his flowers along the fence he had planted.

I had been watching three wild passion vines growing at the road just inside my fence, and I live in a forest. 90% shade year round, because it get hot down here in South Louisiana. Each plant sprouts a single vine and dies back every year. The squirrels got to the pods for years, and there was only a few made each year.
Finally two years ago I was able to secure a pod and let them dry. I waited two years and lost the plant.

I was hoping to plant a few wild passion vines in my 1/2 acre sunny spots, if they too act like the single plants at the road. The road plants makes great flowers with out invading the forest at all.

I don't know what happened the to store bought passion plant it went crazy. I think it was all the rabbit poop he used in his flower garden before he planted it there, but he does get thousands of blooms each year. I don't want the invasion he got.

[KeyWee]

Hmmm, well there are obviously a few varieties of passion vine. The roots on mine are shallow and easy to pull, so if it turns up where it's in my way, I just yank it out. Since we get cold enough in the winter, the vines are killed by frost, but the seeds overwinter and then I get new vines in the spring. I rummaged around and found a pod yesterday (I normally toss them out in the woods when I find them or I get TOO many vines next year) so I will dry that one out and save the seeds in case anyone wants them. They MUST be the wild variety because I never bought and/or planted any seeds.

[TheBishop]

I'll be watching the wild ones this year at the road. Tell me, I've always waited till they begin to shrivel up before I tried to collect a pod, I thought they were not mature enough to pick and successfully plant.

If the animals get to them first I'll check to see if you have any seed left.

The wild passion down here, 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, makes a simple single vine with enough flowers to make a patio or the rear deck more livable.

The three plants at the road have never wandered off. The same plant sprouts at the same spot every year. From a single pot, I'm hoping. I could grow it without it taking over the deck and backyard.

[KeyWee]

Yes, I too wait until the pods are a little soft and shrivel-ly before I collect them. Then I just set them aside on my work bench to dry out. I feel as though the wild vines you have noted probably are not killed off in your winter climate, so then re-grow from the root each spring. Animals may put paid to the pods, which explains why new vines don't get started from the dropped seeds (just guessing here). If that is the case, you could keep one in a pot and just cut it all the way back in fall and wait for it to reappear in spring. Cool!

[TheBishop]

The latest surprise change

[KeyWee]

Wheeee ~ well now we will definitely know more! If it develops a little yellow flower, it is senna for sure. Thanks for sharing the picture.

[TheBishop]

Another surprise today, there is another Senna plant about a foot tall under the wisteria growing there. Could it be two seeds somehow fell into the wisteria pot or does the Senna send sprouts from it's roots?

[KeyWee]

I have had more than one shoot from the same root before. I will have to go out and look at my plants. They are about 4' tall and have already flowered and gone to seed.

[TheBishop]

Ever since the Senna plant was identified, everywhere we go I'm searching for another Senna in someones yard. Over all I've driven several hundred miles around town to the store, gas station, food and visiting friends hoping to find another Senna.

Today I did. 30 miles away on the other side of town and farther south than we live. The homeowner has about 8 Sennas planted beside his house in the ground and they are all about the same height as the one I found in my wisteria plant pot.
The seed couldn't have come from a plant of the same age as mine, his is just now flowering, no seeds yet.

Still, a gift from above so I can't complain.

[Mr_bobo_]

I bet it will have yellow flowers