Plant/weed identification please?

[Bluntness100]

I have these growing in pots, I’m fairly sure they are weeds, but we have no idea what they are, does anyone know please?

[PickAChew]

It might just be willowherb, though the leaves look a little close together.

[SunshineCake]

My app tells me they are dicots, but then it I often says that when I am sure it is a plant. It does look like a weed I had in my garden though.

The app is called Seek and is pretty good. Works better when taking a photo then asking rather than doing it live.

Dicots are weeds.

[Bluntness100]

Thanks I think dicot is a general term though, for many garden plants inc magnolia,

It does look a bit like Willowherbs, I just down loaded an app as suggested and it said bitter night shade, which isn’t ideal as toxic...

[BillywigSting]

It's only a weed if you don't want it there. I think it looks quite nice whatever it is and would be inclined to leave it alone unless it starts spreading all over the place. But then even some none weed plants are prone to that (looking at you forget me nots, violas, poppies lilly of the valley)

[Bluntness100]

Yes we have some empty pots what with lock down, and they suddenly started sprouting with this. It’s not ugly but we couldn’t work out what the heck it is

It could be bitter night shade, it does seem to be growing to a vine

Ignore the dead petunias next to it (thanks Sutton’s)

[SunshineCake]

That explains things but magnolias aren't weeds .

[Bluntness100]

No, I don’t think dicots are just weeds...google says they are the term for all flowering plants with two seed leaves.

[SunshineCake]

Yeah, I said that

[FromIbizaToTheNorfolkMaud]

Not all weeds are dicots and not all dicots are weeds and besides, as has been said, it's only a weed if it's growing in the wrong place or you don't want it. That said, it's not something I recognise as a cultivated garden plant and so it may well be a weed!

[Elieza]

Don’t think it’s rosebay willow herb as the leaves are too rounded?

Not sure what that is tbh!

[goingoverground]

Dicots aren't weeds @SunshineCake! I hope you haven't weeded out anything you didn't want to...

Cotyledons are the embryonic leaves, the first leaves that you get on a seedling. They are often very simple and don't look like the mature leaves that grow afterwards, which is why it is hard to identify seedlings. Plants can be divided into 2 groups, those that have 2 embryonic leaves (dicotyledons or dicots) and those that only have 1 (monocotyledons or monocots). The monocotyledons all have a parallel veins in the leave, like grass or lilies, dicotyledons have a network of veins.

Taxonomically speaking, describing something as a dicotyledon is pretty much the next step up from describing a plant as a "plant". I'm guessing your app defaults to dicot/monocot when it hasn't got a clue but wants to sound like it does

[FromIbizaToTheNorfolkMaud]

Another reason why people should step away from the apps, before innocent plants get hurt!

[SunshineCake]

Oh flipping heck. My info is wrong. So sorry everyone. I have pulled out a couple of things I thought I had planted but trusted the app . Dh can just look and know instantly if something is a weed. I have a couple I think are but have yellow flowers so leave as pretty but some have to go. I thought the two I have pulled out I had planted as well. Should have trusted myself. Sorry everyone. Explains why so many things come up as dicots on the app. I even held it against a plant I knew was a flower to test if it actually knew what it was doing.

[KedsAndTubeSocks]

I get lots of those, particularly in pots. I don't know what they're called but I'm pretty sure they are weeds. I always pull them up.

Seek calls everything a Dicot when it hasn't worked out what it actually is. It's just a higher taxonomic grouping, as PP said. I find it more useful for insects than plants. I always double check the answer with Google anyway, as it is so often wrong.

[Bluntness100]

Thanks everyone,

Fairly sure it might be the bitter night shade, no small kids or pets here, so going to leave them to see what they do, they haven’t flowered or got berries, and don’t seem to have them anywhere else in the garden, just in a couple of pots oddly enough.

So will leave them awhile to see how they progress, like a sort of weed growing experiment,,,😄

[MereDintofPandiculation]

I don't think it is willowherb 1) because the base of the leaf is truncate 2) because it appears to be of branched habit - both would be wrong for willowherb.

"Bitter nightshade" is what we call woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, and it's not that. It really isn't - the shape of the base of the leaf is wrong, the growth habit is wrong.

That said, it's not something I recognise as a cultivated garden plant and so it may well be a weed! I don't recognise it as a UK wildflower, so that said, it may well be a garden plant . I think you need to leave it a little longer until it flowers.

Hard to see from the photo but those look like pansies around it - could they have arrived with the petunias? Or maybe with the compost - I've a fine crop of field pansies with my latest compost.

[ErrolTheDragon]

The ones in front definitely look like pansies or violas. I get random self-seeded ones springing up in my garden, especially in pots.

I want to know what the mystery plant is! please do keep it and update when it flowers.

[SunshineCake]

@KedsAndTubeSocks

I get lots of those, particularly in pots. I don't know what they're called but I'm pretty sure they are weeds. I always pull them up.

Seek calls everything a Dicot when it hasn't worked out what it actually is. It's just a higher taxonomic grouping, as PP said. I find it more useful for insects than plants. I always double check the answer with Google anyway, as it is so often wrong.

How do you check with google if seek only says dicots?

[Bluntness100]

They are dying petunias that arrived from Sutton’s, which I’m trying to revive,,🤪

Defo didn’t come with them. I also have another pot of it, attached, and it’s growing like wild fire. Sees this mornings shot of the one I posted yesterday,

I’m glad if it’s not night shade, but then the mystery remains,,maybe the different image will help.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

How do you check with google if seek only says dicots? If that's all it says, you can't do much. The only way it could give you less information is for it to say "it's a plant".

Monocots usually have linear or oval leaves, they don't have leaflets or deeply indented leaves. And any veins in the leaves run longitudinally, without any branching. Armed with that info, if you get the "dicot" answer, you're now in the position that it hasn't told you anything you don't know.

But I think Keds was warning you to check with google when it says "Asiaticus tuberosus" with that air of total confidence.

post edited by MNHQ, to avoid confusion, as requested by the poster.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

The little things definitely are not petunias, they're pansies, very characteristic leaf shape. It's actually more likely that your well-growing "weed" is the petunia, although the leaf bases aren't as tapering as I would have expected.

[Bluntness100]

Yes, it’s very odd. I’m wondering if Sutton’s sent the wrong thing, they were pretty much dead when they arrived, some were beyond hope but one has a tiny flower and I think it’s a sodden pansy!

[SunshineCake]

at it's a plant.

[goingoverground]

I think you're mixing up monocots and dicots @MereDintofPandiculation. Monocots are things like grasses, lilies, daffodils that have veins that are linear/parallel and usually narrow, linear leaves, dicots have a wide variety of leaf shapes and branched (reticulate) veins.

I agree with you that those are definitely not petunias, dead or alive, they look like pansies to me.

[goingoverground]

If you app doesn't work SunshineCake, you can try using an online key for UK plants but unless the plant has unusual leaves or other distinctive features or it is in flower, you might not have enough information to identify the plant.