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Post by happyskunk on Apr 9, 2011 2:14:35 GMT -5
 It comes up from a small bulb that is all over part of my property. I was just hoping that it is not death camas. |
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Post by blueadzuki on Apr 9, 2011 7:28:15 GMT -5
Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) maybe? We have that all over our backyard, though I do not recall planting any.
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Post by happyskunk on Apr 9, 2011 12:31:32 GMT -5
Thanks! That looks like a close match. Now how do I get rid of most of it? I'm moving some of it to flower beds but do not really want it in my lettuce patch. I spread it around quite a bit when moving some dirt for some raised beds that did not work out.
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Post by blueadzuki on Apr 9, 2011 13:30:11 GMT -5
Your guess is as good as mine. As I said, I have no memory of ever planting the stuff, it just started showing up in the back one year. My best guess is that it came in with something I tossed out from my colledge days back when part of our class duties invovled occasionally cleaning up some of the experimental fields, and I was still in my "grab every seed I can, regardless of what it is" phase (on the downside this would suggest that the stuff can propigate from seed as easily as it can from bulb, so you may want to dock the plants before they go to seed (maybe make bouquets for anyone you know who has no pets or young children (SOB isn't death camas, but it's still poisonous). Actually in our backyaed it reallyt hasn't gotten any farther then the dirt patch at the base of the patio wall that is ostensably a flower garden, so if all else fails I would imagine constant mowing will keep it under control.
This reminds me a little of another semi-funny story from when I had just started on my "seeds from food bags" kick. One of the things I'd find with some degree of freqency in coriander were little capusules which divided in threes each cointaining six black wedged shaped seeds (sort of like onion seeds, but with ridges) thnaks to a book on weeds in the library I found out that these were seedpods of a plant called Asphodeles tenuifolia. Come spring I therfore loaded my flower garden with them, with visions of great masses of pretty asphodel flowers. It wasn't till they all grew and flowered that I found out that all aspodels are not created equal and while it is in the right genus, A tenuifolia actually has very tiny, very unimpressive flowers (it's common name (which I found out later) of "onion weed" is well deserved, it looks a lot like the wispy "spring onions" (actually crow garlic) that infest out lawn. I had a similar experiance a while earlier whne I tried to grow out the assorted mallow family members I had found in my searches. I still sometimes plant any Urena Lobata I get my hands on as it is reasonably attractive (a little gangly but otherwise pretty enough) but it turns out that Sida spinosa lives up to it's name very well, imagine the bastard lovechild of a hollyhock and a litchitomato! Later (if you want) I'll also tell you of what happened when I tried a similar experiment with the varios seeds I had found from the Convuvulacae (morning glory/bindweed/sweet potato family)
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Post by stevil on Apr 11, 2011 2:16:21 GMT -5
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Post by happyskunk on Apr 11, 2011 2:36:35 GMT -5
Thanks Stevil! I might try to take some more photos but I think that is it.
Blueadzuki, don't tell me you planted bindweed seeds! I only have one weed I dislike more than bindweed.
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Post by stevil on Apr 11, 2011 5:23:09 GMT -5
By the way, they aren't Death Camas kind of poisonous. In fact, Ornithogalum umbellatum has been a common wild foraged plant in the Mediterranean countries, but normally cooked or dried which is supposed to destroy the alkaloids in question.
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Post by blueadzuki on Apr 11, 2011 8:10:50 GMT -5
Blueadzuki, don't tell me you planted bindweed seeds! I only have one weed I dislike more than bindweed. Well yes and no. I have a sort of mad scientist mentality when it comes to seeds, as far as I'm concerned the only way to indefy and unknown seed is to plant it and see what comes up. I do this in controlled circumstances, with pre scarified,pre soaked pre swollen seeds (so there are no "sleeper" seeds) in pots that in a pinch can be dumped wholesale, and collect any seed produced daily (I'm crazy, not stupid). The actualy bindweed experiments were mostly dissapointing, most of the bindweed members of China are not adapted to here and nethier grew much nor flowered. The "bad" boy of the experiment was something called cottonleaf bindweed, which had all of regular bindweeds problems plus stiff itchy hairs all over the place and no while flowers (cottonleaf just makes little hard nodule in which the seed eventually forms, I suspect it is self pollinating). On the bright side, one of them preformed so well and so prettily that I have kept it as part of my garden. This one is slow growing (it never get longer than about three feet) has no tendrils or climbing ability (on the ground, it scrambles along, I usally plant it up high and let it just hang, very small vine, with odd elongated near sessile leaves (unless you pull one off it looks more like a grass blade than a bindweed leaf) and masses of small yellow and black flowers (they look a lot like those on a husk tomato). seed's a bit odd looking too, its very wide for bindweed seed and has both a pronouced ridge on the back and a very recessed hilum (from the side it looks like theres a notch over the scar). |
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