Plant ID - Seedlings from Tall Black Eyed Susan Seeds Collected in 2018

May 6, 2019 7:08 AM

Out pheasant hunting in Central Michigan last Fall I came across a very tall, what looked to be Black Eyed Susan plant, growing in a field and I grabbed a handful of the blossoms and stuffed them in my coat pocket. This Spring I crushed up the blossoms between my hands and sprinkled them in a seed starting tray. These pics are the plants that sprouted.

Most of the seedlings look like these: Pic 1, Pic 2. In my experience, Black Eyed Susan seedlings are typically quite fuzzy. These aren't..

But some obvious other things sprouted too. Likely contamination from my pocket or hitchhikers on the Black Eyed Susan blossoms I grabbed. Pic 3. I'm pretty sure this is a burr or some other kind of stick-um...

Maybe someone here can help me ID these before I go planting them all over the neighborhood.

posted by bricksNmortar to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Best answer: It’s most likely something in the Asteraceae, but that’s not narrowing it down much. How tall is ‘tall’? I don’t know what time of year pheasant season is, what month was t blooming in?

At a guess, check out the ‘false sunflower’
Here is a key to the Asteraceae of MI but tbh those are hard to use unless you already know a fair amount of botanical nomenclature.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:19 AM on May 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Also there are at least four species of Rudbeckia native to MI, not all of them are super fuzzy.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:25 AM on May 6, 2019

Response by poster: They blossoms were about 6 feet off the ground in a field where most of the plants were about 5' tall. They stuck up from everything else, but just a little.

Great link to the uswildflowers site... Looking at that, these are probably the Rudbeckia laciniata. Another site I saw that the leaves on this one change as it grows.. So maybe they'll get fuzzy eventually. I may just have to wait and see what the leaves and blossoms do to know for sure though.

Thanks!
posted by bricksNmortar at 7:45 AM on May 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Good job spreading native wildflowers, glad to help!
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:25 AM on May 6, 2019

I'm growing some Rudbekia laciniata, and they look exactly like your Pic 3. Have fun!
posted by Drosera at 3:21 PM on May 6, 2019

Response by poster: "I'm growing some Rudbekia laciniata, and they look exactly like your Pic 3. Have fun!"

Now I'm worried... of the dozens of seedlings, there was only one that looked like Pic 3. That plant is wiry and fuzzy... The majority of them look like Pics 1 & 2.
posted by bricksNmortar at 6:47 AM on May 16, 2019

Response by poster: Seems to be Teasel. :(

https://www.nwcb.wa.gov/weeds/common-teasel
posted by bricksNmortar at 6:28 AM on May 30, 2019

Best answer: NOT Teasel... I let some of them grow in pots and they flowered.

looks to be Twiggy Mullein,

https://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/media/Html/verbascum_virgatum.htm
posted by bricksNmortar at 2:00 PM on June 28, 2019 [1 favorite]