Please help identify this mystery plant taking over our property

April 18, 2015 1:35 PM

This plant is taking over. We first noticed it about three years ago growing in a patch about five square feet (near the hen house if that matters). Now it covers several hundred square feet (mostly in shady areas but it doesn't seem to mind the sun either).

I Googled the description and only came up with herb Robert. The pink flowers are very similar but the red stems are smooth not hairy. The leaves are rounded not feathery and pointed like herb Robert.

We are in rural Clackamas County, Oregon. This plant isn't as vicious as blackberries but it's just as invasive. Any suggestions for eco-friendly removal methods are appreciated, too. We have chickens and a dog that run around the areas it grows so nothing toxic please.

Thank you!

posted by Beti to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

Best answer: Looks like this invasive shiny geranium.
posted by Cuke at 1:44 PM on April 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Agreed. The images and the description are bang on. Thank you!
posted by Beti at 1:49 PM on April 18, 2015

My SO is also saying some kind of geranium. Geranium dalmaticum looks like one possibility but all our gardening books are for the UK so difficult to be precise.
posted by biffa at 1:53 PM on April 18, 2015

We have that down here in Eugene, too. I've always hand pulled and thrown to the chickens and they are still alive-fortunately, it's easy to pull. Not sure what do for larger scale removal though.
posted by purenitrous at 2:04 PM on April 19, 2015

Thank you for asking this - now I know what those are. (Washington side of the Columbia, opposite Hood River.)

They're not very successfully invasive in my yard, though. Just a few of them, enough to make me wonder what they were!
posted by stormyteal at 3:00 PM on April 19, 2015