A bunch of new plants found in the woods

[MarcP]

This is still blooming in the woods. Unfortunately, those large leaves have been chewed on and I couldn't find another example.
Plant 1:


Plant 2:
This is growing in a shady part of the meadow by the creek:



Plant 3:
This plant is in the woods and is just now losing its blooms



Plant 4:
Also growing in the woods and still blooming



Plant 5:
This little plant has been growing in the garden (clearly invasive). I thought maybe a wild onion?



Plant 6:
And finally, this is growing in the woods and seems to be the only one. While I wait to see what happens, does anyone want to speculate on what it might be?

[southjersey]

#2 looks like some kind of wild phlox.

[MarcP]

#2 looks like some kind of wild phlox.

I just looked up wild phlox and you are about them looking very much the same. I'll keep comparing mine to more wild phlox photos. Thank you very much for giving me that clue. I appreciate it.
Marc

[rainbowgardener]

#4 is another of my favorites, sweet cicely. Crush one of the leaves, it should be quite anise scented.

I am thinking #1 is appendaged waterleaf.

Agree with #2 as wild phlox

#5 is not wild onion. All alliums have fluffy spherical flowers like this



https://foreverindoors.files.wordpress.c ... c_1043.jpg

I was thinking maybe star of bethlehem, which is invasive, but I don't think that is right either.

Last one is maybe a daylily (surrounded by Virginia creeper).

[watermelonpunch]

Oh, sorry to horn in on your thread MarcP.

But I was just about to make my own thread about a plant I have that looks like your #2.

#2 looks a lot like something I saw last year and this, on the border of my yard and the field...

And I've been trying to find out if it's phlox of some type or if it's dame's rocket.

(Edit: This is growing in poor well draining soil where it gets huge amounts of sun in the afternoon & evening - probably close to 8hrs+)







And here's the shabby one I saw last year about 6 feet away from where this year's is...



And I was never able to confirm it last year. But I think as a precaution, I'd lopped the flower off before it made seeds. Just in case.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how you see the difference.

And I could not find anything official for Pennsylvania that noted how you would determine it... But I did come across a web page reporting 2 years ago, that said Michigan actually has some group that's actively asked volunteers to pull out dame's rocket.
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/ind ... e_dam.html

Note: I could put it on my list of things to take macros of the leaves, if that would help. ^^

[watermelonpunch]

I don't know about #5 & #6
But...

I have allium that looks like this:





I also have something my MIL refers to as "walking onion" that looks an awful lot like what rainbow posted a picture of. I mean the stem looks just like that. I haven't seen it this year yet... And I can't remember seeing it flower.

But it's in a bed that I'm planning to transplant EVERYTHING good out of... and then just smother it to start over eventually... (it's overrun with various aggressive weeds).
Anyway, I don't know if I should save that walking onion if I find it?

And #6 looks a lot like some bulb stuff I have growing that I have decided must be some kind of ornamental grass of some type. It never gets flowers, ever.
I don't have a proper picture of it because there's nothing picture worthy about it. LOL


Ooops. sorry for the double post, I meant to copy & paste it into edit and then forgot.

[purpleinopp]

How many petals does your #2 flower have?

#1 could be some type of Solanum.

#3 - are the flowers and that foliage connected?

#5 - if it's an Allium, it will smell like garlic/chives/onions if torn. The flower structure doesn't look like Allium.

#6 - I'd suspect orange "ditch lily"

[rainbowgardener]

@ watermelon:

Your picture would be dame's rocket. Dame's rocket has 4 petalled flowers, phlox has 5 petals. Also: Both dame's rocket and tall phlox have lance-shaped leaves, but the leaves of dame's rocket have toothed edges, while phlox leaves are smooth-edged. Phlox has opposite leaves, dame's rocket has alternate leaves.

I'm at work now and can't see Marc's pictures (lots of stuff is banned on work computers) to check them. But I really stand by appendaged water leaf and do not think it is a night shade plant. Check the leaves.

#3 I also wondered if those flowers really went with that foliage...

The orange ditch lily is what I was calling day lily, it's the common roadside daylily.

[purpleinopp]

Rainbow, sorry if I sounded like I was 2nd-guessing anyone or said the same thing (like I was saying it first,) absolutely didn't intend to do that. I have no idea what botanical name would be associated with appendaged waterleaf, so didn't know if my suggestion was the same or something else, still don't. I was agreeing with you about the daylily, and figured "ditch lily" would jog Marc's likely memory of seeing them like that. I remember them well from when I lived in OH and was assuming they may be prevalent in MI also. Just wanted to make the distinction that it's not something one would likely want in a cultivated garden.

[MarcP]

watermelonpunch, it's great that you entered the conversation.

Rainbow, why do you think your "star of bethlehem" guess is wrong? Looks to me like you nailed it. Also, you are probably right about the sweet cicely. I went out and crushed a leaf on a larger plant and couldn't detect the smell of anise, but on a young one, I definitely could smell it. I thought maybe it was water hemlock so I was reluctant to molest it too much.
The flowers on plant 3, are, indeed, coming from those leaves (photo below)


The first flower does look very much like appendaged (or great) waterleaf.

The pinks flower (2), must be dame's rocket since it has four leaves (better photo below).


I was very excited to see so many replies. Thank you all very much

[watermelonpunch]

Thanks ! MarcP I love your pictures & posts!!

I also like finding out what things are called. Even weeds!
I like to have names for all the plants.

(Like even now I'm wondering what are those leaves on the ground growing in #6?)

@ rainbow - That makes it simple - 4 petals & alternating toothed leaves = dame's rocket.

I guess this ought to be dug up because it's supposedly invasive, and it's on the property line adjacent to an open field.
I found this about it in Pennsylvania:
https://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/cs/groups/p ... 010282.pdf

Now I'm going to tangent even more and ask... why does it often seem like "alternating leaves" signals an invasive, foreign, unwanted, or otherwise undesirable version of something that's similar or easy to confuse it with??? Is that just a coincidence that the past few times I've looked stuff up, I've seen this? Does it have to do with my being in the NE US, and the native plants are mostly opposite by heritage, and plants from other continents are alternating?

[MarcP]

watermelonpunch, the groundcover in #6 is Virginia creeper. Rainbow is right about dame's rocket being invasive. OMG, on the way back from town, just now, I saw it all over the place. I planned on getting my camera and driving back but discover it taking over my own corner, across the street.


purpleinopp, don't apologize for anything. It's great to get ideas, even when they aren't right because it gives us something else to look up and consider in the future. Furthermore, voicing an opinion without first reading what others have said, simply adds weight to that opinion. I love that you help out so much

[MarcP]

rainbow, check this link. I was looking at different Hydrophyllum appendiculatum and found this. Doesn't it look just like my plant 3?
https://www.saylorplants.com/pd.asp?pid=2810
(Hydrophyllum virginianum)

[watermelonpunch]

I think I've seen some of that virginia creeper somewhere around here.

I'm overwhelmed in trying to get through all my "unidentifieds" ha ha
All the stuff I have pictures of, but haven't asked anyone yet to identify!

I just went out & uprooted the sad dame's rocket - the one from last year which was in the same location and looking even more sad this year, and lopped the bloom off the top of the healthy looking one. (Ironically I couldn't get to the root because it's embedded in a mess of vines, weeds, and blackberry bushes ... the blackberry bushes which I intend to make myself sick eating the blackberries in a couple of weeks. ha ha)

And as I walked back to the house (it's rainy out) I kept stopping to notice dozens of other plants that I hope to photograph and get identified. ha ha

[!potatoes!]

#4 in the original post looks like yellowroot (not goldenseal, which will come up if you search yellowroot)...xanthorhiza, not hydrastis...

[rainbowgardener]

Sorry, but I'm not seeing that.

xanthorhiza


xanthorhiza is a woody stemmed shrub, with completely different flowers




sweet cicely


osmorhiza claytonii

A hairy plant with small sparse compound umbels of white flowers. The 1-3 ft. stems are usually solitary and covered with long, soft hairs. Leaves are divided into threes, two or three times. Open clusters (compound umbel) of small, white flowers rise above the foliage on stalks from upper leaf axils.

The roots of this plant have an anise-like odor when bruised. Several species of this genus occur in the East, among them Anise Root (O. longistylis), which has styles to 1/4 inch (4 mm) long.
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result ... plant=OSCL

I'm frequently wrong on plant ID's and when I am, I'm glad to admit it, but I'm very familiar with sweet cicely (I said it was one of my favorites) and I stand behind my identification.

[watermelonpunch]

#4 sure does look a lot like that sweet cicily picture.
Is this sweet cicily common in the woods in the NE US?
When I look at those, it somehow makes me think of memories of walking in the woods. The leaves only though. The flowers on them... well I was going to say the flowers don't ring any bells. But that's a bad pun perhaps. ha ha

[rainbowgardener]

Sweet cicely is a native and is common in the woods around me. I can't really speak to the rest.

Osmorhiza claytonii, the one I am familiar with is native through out the eastern US and west to the Dakotas and Kansas as well as much of eastern Canada.

https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?sym ... scl_1h.jpg

There are other Osmorhiza species including a western species.

[watermelonpunch]

Here's my unremarkable bulb-rooted grass-like leaves stuff that your #6 reminded me of...



No clue what it is.

I just know it has a spherical bulb root, that was and is growing rather shallow in soil in a rather poor situation one could have in flowerbeds...

The area it's growing:
mostly shade
underneath between a maple tree & fir trees
in soil that's just a bit of normal soil over the top of a highly sandy & rocky anthracite coal ash heap that's about 50+ years old (possibly dating back to 1930s)
If you dig down more than 6 inches here, you hit ash pockets & tree roots.

[rainbowgardener]

It is a bit non-descript at the moment. At some point it probably flowered or will flower and will be much more identifiable.

The daylilies mentioned above have rhizomes not bulbs.

Some of the alliums have strap like foliage like that, as well as spider lily and surprise lily/ pink lady and other things. Possibly even daffodil foliage after it has bloomed, but that would usually be more rounded tips and anyway it would have just bloomed so you would know that.

[watermelonpunch]

It is a bit non-descript at the moment. At some point it probably flowered or will flower and will be much more identifiable.

The daylilies mentioned above have rhizomes not bulbs.

Some of the alliums have strap like foliage like that, as well as spider lily and surprise lily/ pink lady and other things. Possibly even daffodil foliage after it has bloomed, but that would usually be more rounded tips and anyway it would have just bloomed so you would know that.

Hmmm... well what I have pictured is always nondescript, and has never ever bloomed.
They also never die back. They stay looking like that pretty much always.

Well, except in the winter snow they seem to either die back or at least hunker down or something. Here's the area they're in...


You can see them on either side here... tall grass like stuff on either side.

Here are some pictures same area from winter:







I know they have bulbs because I transplanted them from one side to the other, to make a path up through and thinned them out somewhat. They were even more crowded when I did this last spring.
It was last year when I just started into this ground gardening thing... so I really can't describe the bulbs accurately from memory.

I do have some allium in the same area, that bloomed recently. Those had much stronger sort of leaves, and larger more rounded bulbs maybe.
Not quite sure how to describe that. The alliums just seemed to have a bit more fortitude or something.

It could be that these have never gotten enough sun to bloom?
Could be at some point in the past they bloomed when the surrounding trees were not so big I suppose.

Only thing I can think of now to do would be to transplant a few of them to a sunny location and see what happens in the future at some point.
When I do that I'll try & remember to take a picture of the exposed bulbs.

[purpleinopp]

There are hundreds of Allium species. You could tear a leaf of your mystery bulbs to see if the scent provides any clues. Since there are plenty, maybe you want to dig one up and take its' picture? That foliage reminds me of Lycoris squamigera which, when mature and undisturbed, makes a pink flower very late in the season. Also called naked ladies because by the time the flower shows up, the foliage has died back. Whatever they are, moving to more sun could induce bloom if that area is usually shady throughout the day.

[rainbowgardener]

yeah, the naked ladies are what I was calling pink ladies/ surprise lily. AKA resurrection lily. All the surprise / resurrection names are because all the foliage dies back and then surprise! in August a tall flower spike jumps up very fast.

[watermelonpunch]

purpleinopp - thank you for giving me the latin name for those. LOL
Never saw blooms like that... (looked them up... by the latin name ha ha)
But it says it likes well draining soil with full sun for blooming.
It's got the well draining soil and almost no sun!

Tomorrow I will prepare a couple of areas to transplant some of them, where they might like it and get enough sun. And then we will see!!

It'd be rather funny if they are Naked Ladies... Because my husband was so adamant that I be careful with them when I started moving them around last spring. I remember him saying, "Those are bulbs! Be careful with the bulbs!" ha ha

[Mr_bobo_]

I stop by to solve mystery of number 5

...it is: Ornithogalum umbellatum
Familia: Asparagaceae


...so it is not related with onion... hehe