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?

I'm pretty sure the collective wisdom of MN (well, MereDint alone would probably suffice) beat most apps hands down.
People are very good at shape recognition but can also use real rather than artificial intelligence to factor in other details which an app may not have in its training data.

Old-fashioned books are far better than any app. Not very popular in these digital times, though.
I have bookshelves full of books on garden plants, wild flowers, and insects which are at least 30 or 40 years old, and frequently check them if I'm not sure. The wildflower books have a very useful key to flower colour, shape and leaf shape which give a starting point.

I do feel that people these days younger than me at 73, have much less knowledge about plants, which is a great shame. I grew up knowing all the common garden plants by name, and especially wild flowers, and was a very keen amateur naturalist in past years.

I do of course, exclude from what may seem a sweeping generalisation, the many MNers on the gardening board who really do know their stuff - MereDint in particular!

Old-fashioned books are far better than any app

Drawings are often clearer than photos IMO, for plants and birds etc - a skilled illustrator shows what needs to be shown rather than what nature provides at a given instant.

Another thread that proves how shit these apps are

I do have a good gardening book but assumed it didn't have weeds in. I could use it backwards and see if they are listed as plants or flowers I suppose.

@SunshineCake, as "weeds" are really wild flowers, a good book on native wild flowers should be a good guide.

I have an old Collins book - "Wild flowers of Britain and Northern Europe" illustrated by Marjorie Blamey (one of the best botanical artists) which is really comprehensive with a good key, and find it so useful for identifying weeds and wild plants.

Thank you *@NanTheWiser. I'll have a look for it.

@NanTheWiser MereDint in particular - that's because MereDint is the same age as you! You're right, my mother left school at 14, but was able to tell me the names of all the wild flowers and garden flowers in the garden - a wonderful foundation to start learning.

Add to that various rites of passage - nature table in the primary school, nature walks every time the teacher had an urge to get out of the classroom and into the fresh air, prizes for best pressed flower collection, every year my mother took me out to pick violets, then to pick wild daffodils (the farmers made money on the side by allowing people into their fields), then to pick bluebells. And just past the end of rationing, everyone went blackberrying. I know this is an idealised picture of small town education, but even in small towns, the National Curriculum doesn't leave time for this sort of activity, and what parents don't know, they can't teach their children.

I think you're mixing up monocots and dicots @MereDintofPandiculation. Oops! Not in my head I'm not. I thought "monocots and wrote dicots. I wonder if MN would change it for me?

Trying again:

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.

If you can get a secondhand copy of Roger Phillips "Weeds" (out of print for years) it's excellent, with pictures of seedlings as well as grown plants
www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30525806375&searchurl=an%3Droger%2Bphillips%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dweeds&cm_sp=snippet--srp1--title2

As Nan says, any of the books by Blamey and Fitter are worth getting. Margaret Blamey (who was still working well into her nineties) is one of the best illustrators around. It's how I started seriously learning about wild flowers. I also made a point of never pulling anything up until I knew what it was.

Oh yes, Mere, the nature table at school! As a townie (west London) countryside was an enormous treat to visit, I can still remember the scent of bluebell woods we visited near Dorking when I was about 8.

But even our local parks were good places to investigate, and I sometimes had a jar of Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars in the hope they would metamorphose into butterflies!

There were many good books available years ago - probably still available from book dealers, and very nice to browse through.

(I guessed you are probably a similar age to me )

prizes for best pressed flower collection

DH said he won one of those (back in the 60s) - he went out with his grandfather who knew what everything was. The information didn't stick too well, unfortunately... he once pointed at a small blue flower and asked what it was. "A forget-me-not" ...

Sorry - haven't RTFT but my app says Common Selfheal (Prunella Vulgaris)

Thank you, I’m not sure it’s self heal, there is none in the grass although I can see why the app would say that, the leaves seem more clusters together, it’s very bushy,,,

I wonder if MN would change it for me? They did. Thanks, MNHQ!

OP - are the stems square in section?

Vinosaurus I hope the app didn't have a capital v for vulgaris. That would demonstrate a lack of plant identification knowledge of the designer.

Nan I gave up trying to rear caterpillars when it became obvious that an ichneumon wasp had got there first.

I wonder if MN would change it for me? They did. Thanks, MNHQ!

Now I look like I'm talking nonsense or can't read, @MereDintofPandiculation

Nan I gave up trying to rear caterpillars when it became obvious that an ichneumon wasp had got there first.

Me too!! It was HORRID!

OP - are the stems square in section

No they are round,,,

goingoverground Sorry! If you report your post, they'll delete it for you, if you wish.

No they are round That rules out Self heal, then, and pretty well everything else in the mint/dead nettle family.

Me too!! It was HORRID! In theory, we should have been delighted at seing yet another fascinating creature with a more advanced solution to the food problem. But that's a bit lost on primary school children.