redwildgeeza wrote:
Hi,

Please forgive me if I've posted in the wrong area, but I couldn't
find a "what's this plant" type forum area...

But does anyone know what this plant could turn out to be? You can see
pic at http://tinyurl.com/yaveuun

We’ve just moved into a new house and have no idea what this could be.
It’s just started to push through with spring coming a bit late in the
UK, and it kind looks like a black snakes head!

Because there’s so many of them, I snipped one open to reveal what
kinda looked like sweet corn inside the tip? Im guessing it's some
form of bulb, as it has only just started to shoot.

I wonder if I’m being thrown off the scent of what it could be because
it could be frost damaged through a harsh cold winter?

Any ideas?

Looks like Mare's tail (or Horse tail: people argue) to me. A pernicious
weed which can, I've heard, cross a road underground. Others may well
have better ideas, but my two penn'orth: crush it and then spray with
glyphosate: you'll need to do it several times, but if you shirk it you
may be sorry. Easy if it isn't in a garden bed, but for ones among your
garden plants, try covering the plants with plastic bags or cardboard
shields to keep the herbicide off. It's rendered inactive by contact
with clay particles in the soil, so it won't do any harm to the roots.

I really don't think there's any option but chemical warfa I wouldn't
suggest it if I knew an alternative. Follow the instructions on the
bottle, of course. I seem to have killed off a small colony of the stuff
growing through the path outside my house, so don't despair.

--
Mike.