I found this weed. The only other one I have ever noticed was growing in the same place last year which I pulled up. It was about 4 feet tall before I cut it up. Growing in some wood chips. The root was like a skinny brown carrot. In the picture the top is on the left and the stem cross section is in the center. It is hollow and white inside.
Since everybody in VT seems to be paranoid about invasives I thought it would be good to find out what this is. The closest I could come so far was some kind of wild parsnip.
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks
gg
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I attached a file above called weed.doc which is a picture because I could not figure out how to do a JPG file. Sorry for the cumbersome method.
What does the flower look like?
If you can't figure out how to post the jpg, send it to me to jeff at forestryforum.com and I'll put it here for you. I can't allow the pictures posted via the document uploader as the file size would displace at lease 20 future photos.
Sounds like it could possibly be water hemlock. If it is the root is extremely poison. Better do a search on water hemlock and in the meanwhile, be real cautious.
Good job on getting it into your gallery, I just posted the following code that appears under your photo in the gallery to have the picture appear here.
[IMG] https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21065/2935/weed.JPG [/IMG]
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21065/2935/weed.JPG)
Looks like it is in the Composite (Sunflower) family. Do the flowering heads produce thistle like fruit that float in the air like little parachutes?
I am almost certain that it is a domestic plant, not an invasive.
Well, It's not water hemlock. Looks like a weed that was asked about recently by Doug in Utah if I remember right. Wasn't it idintified as sowthistle?
Thanks for the help with photo Jeff.
I dont know what the flower looks like. I must have missed them while I was away for a week.
I think you might be right Noble. Here is that thread.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,44418.0.html
It is similar to sow thistle with the deeply cut leaves, but it is not sow thistle. However, I bet that it has the same parachute-like-dandelion-like-float-in-the-wind type fruit as sow thistle and dandelion. This is a hall mark of the Composite family of plants.
The thistles have very sticky (in will stick in you) leaves that you would not want to crush in your hand unless you like to get stuck by sharp things, but the subject plant does not look similarly sticky.
Danny I agree withe the fruiting, and will add another genus to the mix. It looks a lot like Prenanthes of the wild lettuce family. The leaves of the genus are quite variable. They grow in wet places or dryer sites as well, but usually pretty fertile soil. We found some white lettuce up at Jeff's place in the UP. We also call one specimen here 3-leaf rattlesnake root (3 leaf forms on one plant), which is P. trifoliolata. White lettuce is P. alba