Plant ID

September 15, 2012 12:19 PM

Horticurious: Please help me identify this plant that was growing among the catnip.

Image here. The surface of the plant was kind of, uh, fuzzy, and handling it left an oily residue on my fingers.

This guy sprouted along with some catnip seeds that I planted in a small planter on the fire escape a few months ago. I trashed it once it became evident that it was NOT catnip, but I'm curious about what kind of plant I inadvertently nurtured in the intervening few weeks.

I'm in Brooklyn, NY, USA. I can't find anything resembling this plant on my go-to list of NYC weeds.

posted by aparrish to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

It sure looks like N. cataria or one of its close relatives. It didn't bloom, by chance, did it?
posted by jquinby at 12:25 PM on September 15, 2012

Looks to me like a Paulownia tree seedling. Very invasive here in NC.
posted by kirst27 at 12:44 PM on September 15, 2012

Do you have any pictures of the stem?
posted by VelveteenBabbitt at 5:44 PM on September 15, 2012

I think it is a velvetleaf. It does not appear to be a nepeta in my opinion.
posted by sciencegeek at 6:11 PM on September 15, 2012

It's a baby Paulownia tomentosa - I have several big ones here (in Virginia), and yes, they can be invasive...The plant is kind of cool though, and can be kept in a big pot for years - if you prune it severely each spring, you'll just get the big fuzzy leaves, but no flowers, and hence no seeds.
posted by PlantGoddess at 10:38 PM on September 15, 2012

Yup, looks like it was a paulownia seedling. Thanks for the answers, everyone!
posted by aparrish at 4:21 PM on September 16, 2012