Help with plant identification
 

Hi. Newbie here (both to the group and to gardening, really.) I live on the south coast of England and have a very small garden that I try to get some food out of. My wife grows some flowers & lavender. Last year I grew (with my father in law's help) some squashes and a few potatoes. This year I have spuds, onions and garlic going. I'm really enjoying it. The whole garden is in danger of being completely colonised by an outrageously fecund fennel plant/ triffid that I put in the ground a few years back.

Anyway, I have all kinds of unknown weeds and things growing, but I don't like to dig stuff up unless I have to in case it turns out to be something interesting, something that has somehow propogated itself from last years plantings or even an escapee from the compost bin (I actually have a brussel sprout plant growing thanks to a discarded sprout stick from the compost bin!). Anyway, there's one particular plant growing in my garden that has me really curious. I'd love to know what it is but don't know how to identify it. I was hoping someone here could help.

The plant is a small collection of leaves coming out of the ground in a shady spot between some rubble and a fence. There is no appreciable stalk that I can see. The leaves are dark green on top, and some of them have a red underside. They are a bit jagged at the edges, quite soft to the touch and probably only a centimetre or so long. The really interesting thing, however, is that they have a really strong smell, very much like citronella or lemongrass or something.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Forgot to mention - there no no flowers on this plant.

It's very difficult to identify from that description. The only thing I can suggest, from the smell, is whether it's something in the mint family. The usual lemon-smelling thing is Lemon Balm, but the red leaves are wrong for that. And indeed the stalklessness would wipe out most of the mint family.

I think your best bet would be to let it carry on growing for another two or three weeks and see if you get anything more definite in shape for identification. Flowers, of course, would be brilliant, since the plant classification system is largely based on flowering parts.

Meanwhile, can you tell us any more about the leaves? What is their overall shape, eg jaggedly oval, jaggedly heart-shaped? 1 cm long, but how wide at the widest part? How many leaves?? ((about) - ie have you just got the first few leaves of a new plant, or is this settling into being a low stalkless plant? Which leaves have the red undersides - is there a pattern to it? ((like it being the oldest leaves which are red)

I think you've got exactly the right approach,, of not pulling something up until you recognise it. Not only do you get a lot of interesting plants, as you've said, you also learn an awful lot about plant identification. In fact, I reckon the best way to learn about gardening is simply to watch what happens and think about it.

Thanks for the quick reply. I think you are right, it probably is the older leaves with the red undersides, and those that are still green all over will soon change colour.

I will take a closer look over the weekend and report back with a more detailed description. I might even take a photo and post it up somewhere, then link you to a URL. That would probably make things a lot easier.

OK, I finally got round to taking some photos and uploading them. They can be found at the addresses below:

FreeImageHosting.net Hosting Service
FreeImageHosting.net Hosting Service

You can get a sense of scale from my fingers in the pics, and you can just about see the reddish undersides.

It is growing quickly and has a definite stem now. Still no flowers though.
It looks a bit like a miniature stinging nettle I suppose, but the leaves are a bit plumper. The smell of citronella is really strong if I touch the leaves - it smells like one of those mosquito repellent candles.

It's almost certainly a labiate - mint family - same family too as many of our herbs, thyme, marjoram, savory etc, and also dead nettle (but stinging nettle has completely different flowers and is in a different family). You can see the square stems typical of the labiate family.

It could be Melissa officianalis, lemon balm.

In any case, it's unlikely to be invasive, so you can safely leave it till it flowers.

Thanks for the info. If it is lemon balm, my wife will be very pleased- she's an aromatherapist and always interested in seeing where the oils come from.

If it turns out to be edible, I will be very pleased as well=-)

I wonder where it came from...