Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with garden and identification

What are you, little green thing?

Scientist — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 12:06:41 -0800

Plant identification filter! What is this plant that's growing in my garden? Do I want it? I found this guy growing in my community garden plot. Anybody know what it is and if it's something I should keep? It's about five inches tall, seven wide, and is growing near the base of the papaya tree that we inherited from the plot's previous gardener. It's been here for a few weeks now. Hope someone can tell me what it is!

What are these pods in my garden?

soplerfo — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:12:45 -0800

What are these pods in my garden? I've posted some pictures of the pods here.

I found these pods in our garden this afternoon. At first I thought they were free-standing bee cells, as when I squished one, what looked like a honey-bee butt came out, but upon further inspection it looks as though it's actually a seed pod of some sort.

The pods are cylindrical, about 8mm in diameter and are very firmly attached to the soil. They form a point where they attach to the ground.

Evil Weed

The Carolingian — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:28:37 -0800

Please help me identify this garden weed: evil weed. It is growing all over the garden (London, UK) and has very long roots. Suggestions for removing/reducing it would also be very welcome!

PlantID filter

a robot made out of meat — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:06:21 -0800

PlantID filter: what's this growing in my onions? I got the onions from a nursery, so I'm curious if it's something interesting or a random weed.

Plant identification: eat it, nurture it, or kill it with fire?

misskaz — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:24:49 -0800

Please help me identify the plants - flowers, weeds, veggies, herbs - in the garden of the house we just bought. There are several plants that I don't recognize, so I'd really appreciate any clues you might have! My husband and I bought a house in Chicago a little while ago, and the previous owners liked to garden a lot. The backyard is full of all kinds of flowers and vegetables. But they didn't label anything and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of organization in the beds. Add to that a busy schedule for the past month during the height of the growing season, and the garden is also being overtaken by weeds. While eventually we will probably rip a lot of it out (it's poorly laid out for our needs), we'd like to know what a lot of the plants are so we can figure out what to eat, what to save, and what to get rid of.

I've loosely categorized what needs to be identified but it is possible or even likely that I mis-categorized a flower as a veggie or vice-versa. I also apologize for the bad photography and that the plants are all very close together so it's pretty impossible to get a shot of *just* the plant in question.

Category 1. Weed or plant? There are a couple things that look pretty weedy and have gotten quite huge, so we need to know if these are something to save or get rid of.

Weed or plant 1a
Weed or plant 1b
Weed or plant 1c

Weed or plant 2

Weed or plant 3

Weed or plant 4

Category 2: Should I eat it? The previous owners grew lots of food (we are overloaded with chard, lettuce, garlic, parsley and tomatoes) but it's hard to tell what is edible and what isn't.
Little sprout-y looking things 1
Little sprout-y looking things 2

Long beans 1
Long beans 2
Long beans 3

Cabbage?

Category 3: Flowers, ground cover, shrubs
Puff balls
Little flowers
Mums?
7 toothy leaflets
Butterflies love these
Giant shrub and giant shrub closeup
This is pretty but is everywhere and seems to be quite invasive I think via runners or roots. It is even growing out of cracks in concrete. Here it is growing out of the side of our house. We may need tips on how to contain this one, since the main plant seems to belong to our neighbor. There will be a 6ft wood fence between us and the neighbor in the future.

Thanks!

Name this plant/suggest similar ones

melissasaurus — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:00:24 -0800

What kind of tree/plant is this? Someone dug out and stole this little tree from in front of my building. I'd like to replace it with the same or something similar.

Any ideas on what it is?

Any ideas on other plants that don't take up too much space (probably about a 2ft radius for the plant), survive year-round in NYC, in partial shade, and are generally safe for dogs (i.e. no poisonous berries)?

Thanks!

What kind of bush is this?

cocoagirl — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 06:23:07 -0800

Any help identifying this plant? It's a shrub about 10' high and the photo shows what it looks like in October in New England. Bonus points if you can provide a reference about whether it's poisonous or not.