Can someone identify this plant/weed please

[Waltons]

I didn't get around to mowing the lawn last week and this is coming up absolutely everywhere.

Not Japanese Knotweed, thank goodness - that was the first thing I checked!

I think you might all be on to something with Leycesteria.

A couple more pics - the area I've snapped must be around 2 metres square and was mowed two weeks ago. There's clover and daisies and then dozens of these things, all round 5 - 6 inches high.

Shove, I think you've nailed it - Leycesteria it is! Thank you!

Mower out again tomorrow, Purple. It's obviously been keeping them at bay for a while now. Just hope they don't spread into the borders - that would be a nightmare!

Isn't it also called pheasant berry - I assume the berries could germinate everywhere, perhaps after the seed has passed through a pheasant?!

shove - I was going crazy about the Phuopsis too (damp plant thread) - I'll sleep better tonight.

Sorry about the double post - I thought I hadn't posted the first one, missed the second page! Glad the problem is solved!

Like booby I think you might have Japanese knotweed.
Bloody awful stuff and total pain to get rid of and I hope for your sake it isn't.

Waltons pheasant berry isn't that aggressive a plant at all, so you shouldn't worry. They do self seed, yes, but are easily pulled up.

There's no way that these plants, if they are pheasant berry (and I am not sure they are but will need to check on my laptop again) - there is no way that they are growing under the surface and only being kept in check by your mowing.

I will look again tonight but I have a lot of experience with pheasant berry.

I was on the point of going outdoors and taking a picture of the big one in my garden and saying 'THIS! Whatever THIS is!!'

They are actually really pretty plants. If you have some space in a border, it might be worth digging one up and popping it in. Does mean that you might need to pull out more seedlings in future years, but the pink flowers are lovely.

I find that the seedlings vary a lot in leaf colour, from a lime green through to a dark green.

MehsMum, confirmed as Leycesteria/Pheasant Berry, thankfully! I called in a friend who has one in her garden, and they are identical. It's the red colouration on new shoots that makes it different from Japanese Knotweed.

CuttedUp, not with you on the bit about the mowing not being the only thing keeping it in check? Could you explain what you mean when you have a moment?

called on, not in!

I imagine digging it up would be another solution, getting the roots out.

fudge, that's a good suggestion, and worth a go.

Sorry but I really think that it isn't Leycesteria. I'm a professional gardener and have worked in gardens with it in for 15 years.

I can't identify what it is at the moment, (sorry!) but my diagnosis comes from the fact that Leycesteria wouldn't be popping up all over a newly mowed lawn like that. It much prefers seeding about in gravel or dryish soil.

When I said about mowing keeping it in check, I meant that Leycesteria grows from individual dropped seeds (in fact they are berries) and wouldn't be able to germinate under a turfed surface. Nor does it has running roots, which is how your invader appears to propagate itself.

So I meant that your weed appears to be growing from running roots under the surface - ergo it is not Leycesteria.

Thanks, cutteduppear - I appreciate your thoughts.

I agree that it seems to be propagating itself via running roots, which does suggest that Leycesteria might not be the answer.

What is odd is that it reminds me of something we used to have in a border, but we "eliminated" years ago because it was throwing up runners everywhere.

I may have a plan of the garden dating back to then that we inherited from the previous owners, and that was done by a professional garden designer, so it should be definitive. It is just strange that it might have reappeared after a gap of maybe 10 years.

I do feel fairly happy that it isn't Japanese Knotweed though. I know that some was found a few miles away from here, but not near enough to have found its way to us, or so I would hope.

Anyway, I mowed on Saturday, so the Triffids have gone for now!

I have Leycesteria in my garden, self seeding everywhere and it doesn't look like those seedlings at all. They come in more grey-green with no red colouring at all. I really don't think it is pheasant berry

I think it might be Japanese knotweed. Some websites eg Devon county council talk about red tinged shoots and leaves.

I'm afraid it does look very much like Japanese Knotweed. OP - google images of Japanese Knotweed seedlings and compare with your photos. Don't attempt to dig it up and what are you doing with your grass clippings?

Gatekeeper - I think leycesteria must have different leaf colours. I have them from dark green to lime green leaves in my garden, and the latter do have the red colouring when young. It's too dark now to take a picture, but I think I found a seedling yesterday that looks very similar pigment wise to these. I'll try to snap it tomorrow and you can compare to the darker green ones. I'm on moist, north-facing heavy clay and I get lots of both kinds, so I don't know if they are genetic variants of the same plant, or if someone near me has one of the darker green varieties and birds are dropping the berries!

I don't the OP's plants look like JK, at least not the way it grows here when young - however, I'm not an expert so this doesn't count for much! However, I do absolutely agree that the way they are growing in lines in a lawn suggests a runner. (Or something that has obsessively cached them in the same place in the lawn??! Can that happen? I know I have all sorts of stuff growing in mine due to birds dropping seeds and squirrels burying things).

Even if an animal had buried the berries in the lawn, the first mowing would have killed off Leycesteria seedlings. They would not regenerate after that.

The habit certainly suggests something unpleasant like Japanese knotweed.

Am not an expert but I have some Himalayan Honeysuckle and it doesn't look quite like that when growing from seed.

Here are the pictures of a random leycesteria in my garden, as promised (please ignore the weeds!) for colour variation comparison (because that's interesting though not what the OP is asking, sorry).

I agree about habit, though. And speed of growth, actually. Because while waltons says that she hasn't mown that lawn for a bit, that grass is still short and those seedlings are rampaging. My leycesteria grows more slowly than that by a considerable way.

Shovetheholly, is that my back garden? What's the weed directly in front of the leycesteria in your second pic? We've got loads of it!

Shoot, I can't remember the name of it. It's one of the willowherbs though. It is the devil. I have thousands and thousands of the things springing up all over. I'm on an eradication mission this week before they flower and set seed and before MIL visits on Friday.

My garden has undergone an odd ecology of weeds since I started cultivating it from being wasteland. The first year I had loads of creeping buttercup. The next year, loads of chickweed. This year, willowherb is my bane. I don't know whether this is something about cultivation, or just the different conditions that have occurred in different years.

??Short fruited willowherb?? (Not sure about this).