Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ian B" wrote
Sorry, I don't own any cameras(!) so I can't supply a photo, but the
plant is quite unusual so if anyone has any ideas of what it *might*
be, I may be able to track it down by websearching etc. Any help
would be gratefully appreciated as I've no idea what it might be at
all, as I'm a gardening n00b

I found it in the long-abandoned garden next door, which is supposed
to be the garden of somebody in a council flat who isn't interested
(it's not outside their flat for a start) so they've never tended
it, so it was a dense overgrown thicket. Then the council chopped
the thicket down to make room for scaffolding for some building work
some time ago, and now it's a sort of no-mans land with weeds and
trees growing back, which everyone dumps their organic garden waste
in (leaves and twigs etc). So it's all just weeds, except I spotted
this nice-looking thing which appears to be a real plant that has
survived or seeded from when it was a garden. There is a main stem with a
couple of much smaller ones branching
off near the bottom, so it looks like it could if looked after have
many stems. The stem is a medium, clear mauve at the top (not
mauvish-green I mean, mauve from a paintbox) fading to very red at
the bottom. The leaves are long and thin, arranged in pairs up the
stem, on the stem, alternating quadrants (a North/South pair then an
East/West pair). They stand out horizontally. The leaves are a
medium green, with a paler vein in the middle. They get a bit
lighter green towards the top of the plant. Where each leaf joins
the main stem (this isn't happening on the two small branched off
stems) there is something poking out of the join that look like
buds, as if it's going to flower all the way up. At the top is a rosette
of five leaves, breaking the symmetry, which
are a bit broader (the couple of pairs of leaves below are broader
than average too) and emanating from the same point are five slim
mauve stems with clusters of leaves at the end (which have a red
vein on the underside) which look suspiciously like developing
flowers although they are green and, I've just looked again and
there are a pair of "buds" on little stalks coming from the joints
of the top pair of leaves below as well. The root system when I dug it up
seemed to be one sort of tap root
with finer roots off that and was not particularly extensive. The
whole thing is somewhere over a foot tall and the longest leaves are
about 3 1/2" long, and the thin leaves are under 1/2" wide.

It looks too nice to be a weed to me, and not native British, but I
know very little and could be wrong. Or maybe a wise head here will
say, "Egads, that's Japanese Toxic Spikeweed, burn it with fire!"

Anyway, I've transplanted it to a nice spot in my garden with some
home-made compost and a bit of organic chicken poo fertiliser to see
what happens. There are a few more smaller ones to be rescued if
they are "real plants". Any ideas anyone? Help will be most
appreciated!
Take a look at "Caper Spurge"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_lathyris

Very architectural plant but don't let it seed around, that said they
are easy to remove anyway when small.

Thanks, it certainly is. I've read enough up now about the toxicity that
it's now in the rubbish bin in two plastic sacks


Ian