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-   -   Help identify this small white flower/weed (https://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/gardening/19428-re-help-identify-small-white-flower-weed.html)

SugarChile 30-04-2003 11:32 PM

Help identify this small white flower/weed
 
It sounds a lot like garlic mustard, which is in full bloom here right now.
Do a google search and look at some of the pictures. It might not be in the
wildflower guides because it is not a native, rather an escaped/naturalized
invasive brought from Europe in colonial times. Chopping it down will
prevent it from setting seed, which is good, but will not eradicate it. I
pull it from my flower beds, using a big screwdriver/dandelion weeder to
loosen the root first, and ignore/chop it in the marginal rough parts of the
yard. It's only obvious this time of year.

Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA


"Kim" wrote in message
...
We've got something growing out back that I'm trying to identify before
chopping it down.

I live in the Northern panhandle of WV. What the plant / flower looks

like:

The plants are currently 1 to 2 feet tall. They have clusters of small

white
flowers, approx. 1/8" in diameter, a few inches from the top of the plant

only.

The flower has 4 petals and yellowish 'centers'. The flowers are either
"arranged" around a bunch of little nubby things, or else the ones I see

now
are not fully flowered out and these are immature flowers that will later

open
up.

The most curious thing about the cluster of flowers I picked off is that

the
central cluster on the top of the stem has little "arms" going up from the

stem
to alongside the flowers. I can only describe the appearance of this as
"looking like a menorah" with the flowers clustered on what would be the

center
"candle" of it.

The leaves are pinnate and have slightly sawtoothed/dagged edges.

I have searched the enature.com database for wildflowers native to my area
(26041) and looked at over 600 photos of wildflowers and found little

white
flowers sort of similar but nothing exactly like it. (Cool site by the

way.
Have a look. I've looked up plants, birds and animals on it so far and

it's
cool!)

Does anyone have any idea what this may be? Weed or wildflower?

--

Kim

"We have done so much with so little for so long that now we can do

anything
with nothing." -- Dave Marcis




Rachel 30-04-2003 11:56 PM

Help identify this small white flower/weed
 
"Kim" wrote in message
...
We've got something growing out back that I'm trying to identify before
chopping it down.

I live in the Northern panhandle of WV. What the plant / flower looks

like:

The plants are currently 1 to 2 feet tall. They have clusters of small

white
flowers, approx. 1/8" in diameter, a few inches from the top of the plant

only.

The flower has 4 petals and yellowish 'centers'. The flowers are either
"arranged" around a bunch of little nubby things, or else the ones I see

now
are not fully flowered out and these are immature flowers that will later

open
up.

The most curious thing about the cluster of flowers I picked off is that

the
central cluster on the top of the stem has little "arms" going up from the

stem
to alongside the flowers. I can only describe the appearance of this as
"looking like a menorah" with the flowers clustered on what would be the

center
"candle" of it.

The leaves are pinnate and have slightly sawtoothed/dagged edges.

You have rather precisely described the European-origin invasive known as
garlic mustard - Alliaria petiolata.

http://webapps.lib.uconn.edu/ipane/j...ifier=uconn_ip
ane_alliapetio_08

That's a picture of it. I live where you do (western slope of Blue Ridge,
near Harpers Ferry), and it's popping out in the oak forest understory right
now. At the front of out lot, I'm trying to extirpate it and make way for
expansion of my Virginia bluebells (now three years old and splendid this
spring), and a new planting of partridgeberry, which looks like it has about
a chance in a zillion of surviving. ... Despite the garlic mustard, we do
also have an efflorescence of Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica),
Cut-leafed Toothwort, and Rue Anemone in the same woods.





Kim 01-05-2003 01:56 AM

Help identify this small white flower/weed
 
In article , says...

You have rather precisely described the European-origin invasive known as
garlic mustard - Alliaria petiolata.

http://webapps.lib.uconn.edu/ipane/j...ifier=uconn_ip
ane_alliapetio_08


This image was better than any I'd seen in searching for it and it is, indeed,
garlic mustard. The ones I have are taller than this example.

That's a picture of it. I live where you do (western slope of Blue Ridge,
near Harpers Ferry), and it's popping out in the oak forest understory right
now. At the front of out lot, I'm trying to extirpate it and make way for
expansion of my Virginia bluebells (now three years old and splendid this
spring), and a new planting of partridgeberry, which looks like it has about
a chance in a zillion of surviving. ... Despite the garlic mustard, we do
also have an efflorescence of Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica),
Cut-leafed Toothwort, and Rue Anemone in the same woods.


The rear of our lot borders a small ravine that's pretty full of trees, but
isn't actually "woods". The garlic mustard is growing under cover of the
canopy of trees, in partial sun.

What are you doing to try to get rid of it? Chopping it off at the roots
before it flowers, or digging it out? I read that it doesn't like acid soil,
so is there any way to add a soil suppliment to the area it grows in, in hope
of discouraging it?

--

Kim

"We have done so much with so little for so long that now we can do anything
with nothing." -- Dave Marcis


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