Plant ID please

[Elouera]

We've bought a derelict home and had the garden cleared. These are popping up all over though and have a really thick root. Any idea what they are?

The one on the right looks like some kind of plantain. They are a persistent weed. Digging them up works, but you need to get all the root. Or you can use some kind of treatment.

Looks a bit like ground elder, a very invasive plant (weed). Tips on how to get rid :
gardening.which.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/360000358265-How-to-kill-ground-elder

Looks like young leaves on a foxglove plant

It’s definitely not ground elder. I also think foxgloves.

Thanks for the ideas. The plant leaves were larger during the summer- these are just starting to grow back after the land was cleared. There were no flowers that looked like a foxglove in summer though.

Possibly comfrey. Foxgloves don’t have woody roots.

Plantains have parallel leaf veins and a different shape to the leaves. Ground elder has compound leaves - each leaf is made up of several leaflets - so not that either.

Top one looks like foxglove. Lower one looks more like something in the forget-me-not family, so comfrey, alkanet or lungwort (Pulmonaria).

Can't see enough in the second picture to hazard a guess as to what they are.

Foxgloves don’t have woody roots. OP said "really thick" not "woody". Thick root would be right for a biennial (grows one year, dormand over winter, flowers the next) - it's doubling up as a food storage organ. That's why carrots and parsnips are worth eating.

Is it Valerian?

I think it is comfrey.

Sorry to drip feed. The roots are really thick and ALSO woody. The pic shows new growth and the thick roots. Approx 2-3cm thick. I've looked back at photos from June, but cannot see any flowers that resemble foxgloves, hence don't think its them. Valerian leaves look very different, so any other ideas?

Not sure but it could be pulmonaria or maybe green alkanet, as it has a few whitish spots on the leaves.

Agree with comfrey.

I've looked back at photos from June, but cannot see any flowers that resemble foxgloves, hence don't think its them Foxgloves are biennial, they flower in the second year, and then very often die, so if you didn't have any flowers (rather than flowers which didn't look like foxgloves) that would be consistent with the top one being a foxglove.

Is it Valerian? No, Red Valerian has shiny leaves and Valerian has compound leaves, although a few of the basal leaves my be simple. But the veins look very different.

Thanks for the ideas. The woody roots certainly look more like comfrey than anything else- especially as they are black on the outside and woody inside. Interesting that foxgloves are biennial too.

I thought comfrey, Green alkanet, foxglove or mullein.

I thought comfrey, Green alkanet, foxglove or mullein. Which mullein? It's not woolly enough for Verbascum thapsus which is the usual self-seeder.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know which... I have two which self seed around my garden - the huge yellow candelabra like one and the thin one with white flowers and hairy purple stamens (?). But I also have loads of the other things mentioned that also self seed about the place so probably not too hot on knowing which is which before it becomes obvious

Probably Verbascum thapsus for the first, if it has white woolly leaves, and V. chaixii for the second.

Oh yes - those look like the ones thanks!