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Original poster

Plant ID help please!

38 replies

ArtichokeAardvark · 28/02/2022 07:35

Hello,

This beauty arrived in a wild (read: full of weeds!) corner of my garden last year but never flowered. I'm attempting to tame the patch before spring and wondering whether I should keep it or dig it out. I have one of those plant ID apps which has narrowed it down to a selfseeded foxglove or mullein, or possibly comfrey? Without flowers I'm having to go by leaf shape!

For context, it's seeded itself under a yew tree, in an area that currently gets lots of morning and then very late afternoon sun. We have very chalky soil.

Reason I'm asking is I have a toddler who likes to pick flowers and eat them... otherwise I'd quite enjoy a free foxglove, they're beautiful!

Plant ID help please!
OP posts:
goingtotown · 28/02/2022 07:44

Primula

Kelvingrove · 28/02/2022 07:48

I think this is a foxglove.

Original poster
ArtichokeAardvark · 28/02/2022 07:49

Think it's too big to be primula - the plant is around 30cm across.

OP posts:
PerseverancePays · 28/02/2022 07:52

Comfrey Very generous with spreading itself around Good for bees and other insects, harmless to children.

MereDintofPandiculation · 28/02/2022 09:40

Leaf tips too pointed for Primrose, Cowslip etc. leaf veining looks wrong to. Id go with foxglove rather than comfrey but not sure I can give a good reason for that - wait a minute, I can! Comfrey doesn’t have toothed leaves

Original poster
ArtichokeAardvark · 28/02/2022 10:46

So foxglove looking most likely - bother! Now to work out if I can toddler-proof the area or whether it sadly heads for my garden waste bin Sad

OP posts:
Poppins2016 · 28/02/2022 10:51

@MereDintofPandiculation

Leaf tips too pointed for Primrose, Cowslip etc. leaf veining looks wrong to. Id go with foxglove rather than comfrey but not sure I can give a good reason for that - wait a minute, I can! Comfrey doesn’t have toothed leaves
My first instinct was foxglove, and on further inspection I would confirm that it is, using the same logic as MereDint'.

If I had a young child who insists on eating any old plants in the garden, I'd be digging it up as it's not worth the risk.
(You may get people saying 'but, you can teach them not to touch/eat' and that's true (I've done it!), but you need eyes in the back of your head while you're doing it and your foxglove looks like it's in a very easily accessible place... so I'd be getting rid just so that I could relax a little).

Gardeningdream · 28/02/2022 10:55

I’m sure that’s primula. And time of year is right too.

Poppins2016 · 28/02/2022 10:55

@ArtichokeAardvark

So foxglove looking most likely - bother! Now to work out if I can toddler-proof the area or whether it sadly heads for my garden waste bin Sad
Do you have any reasonably deep borders? I felt comfortable leaving some foxgloves at the back of mine, out of reach of little arms! I guess it depends whether your toddler will stick to the lawn or go wandering in, though!
opinionminion · 28/02/2022 10:59

Definitely a foxglove

campion · 28/02/2022 11:12

I've just been to inspect my comfrey and foxglove progress and I'd lean towards foxglove. They can be very similar looking at this stage.

If you've got a flower eating toddler then you have to watch them all the time or just grow grass. I had one but he grew out of it fairly quickly. Bizarrely he was very fussy about actual food!

steppemum · 28/02/2022 11:19

there was a mn a few years ago whose daughter ate a foxglove leaf.
They were actually really lucky that they spotted she had eated a leaf. She atarted vomiting (that's when they saw the leaf) and collapsed.

The emergency paramedics had not a clue what a foxglove was, neither did the A&E department, but to be fair they belived her and reacted.
A long time in intensive care, and then regular checks over the next year. She nearly died. The poison is absorbed into the muscle/fat and then re- released over the following months, so it is not just a once off, it went on effeting her heart for months.

Please dig it up

AlisonDonut · 28/02/2022 11:20

@PerseverancePays

Comfrey Very generous with spreading itself around Good for bees and other insects, harmless to children.
Hi.

Just joined up to say - you can't say that a plant is harmless, particularly when the alternative is likely to kill them.

If you are unable to identify plants, then best to say you don't know.

User76745333 · 28/02/2022 11:23

It’s definitely a foxglove. I have millions of them

Poppins2016 · 28/02/2022 11:52

@steppemum

there was a mn a few years ago whose daughter ate a foxglove leaf. They were actually really lucky that they spotted she had eated a leaf. She atarted vomiting (that's when they saw the leaf) and collapsed.

The emergency paramedics had not a clue what a foxglove was, neither did the A&E department, but to be fair they belived her and reacted.
A long time in intensive care, and then regular checks over the next year. She nearly died. The poison is absorbed into the muscle/fat and then re- released over the following months, so it is not just a once off, it went on effeting her heart for months.

Please dig it up

This is a similar experience (it might have been linked to on MN before) and always comes to mind when I see children around foxgloves (I make sure to caution people about the risk if they seem unaware).
purplesequins · 28/02/2022 11:55

looks like foxglove.

if you dig it up and it has a root like a giant parsnip it's comfrey.

the good thing about foxglove is that it's emetic - i.e. tastes disgusting and the risk of ingesting is very very small. especially if you teachlittle ones 'no picking-no licking'

CrazyCatLady13 · 28/02/2022 12:03

Yew trees are highly toxic as well, a few leaves is enough to make a child unwell & the berries are even worse, so you might want to partition the area anyway

steppemum · 28/02/2022 12:06

Poppins2016

the author of that article may be a mn....

if you see what I mean...

WellTidy · 28/02/2022 12:07

Whereabouts are you? I ask as we have a lot of something that looks a lot like this. Ours is green alkanet, and, left untouched, it can completely take over gardens. It does flower though, a very pretty indeed blue flower, and it spreads rapidly. Many, many gardens near us (Bromley) are completely out of control with this. Same with verges etc. I differentiate it from foxgloves by looking at the underside of the leaf, a foxglove is soft, alkanet reacts with my skin and is itchy to touch.

HeadPain · 28/02/2022 12:08

Take a picture using Google Lens it can tell you

steppemum · 28/02/2022 12:09

the good thing about foxglove is that it's emetic - i.e. tastes disgusting and the risk of ingesting is very very small.

well, hmm, yes, except the 2 year old in this case ate it, vomited it back up, and very, very nearly died.
It is extrememly likely that if the parents had not realised it was a foxglove and could tell the paramedics, and tell them what tha name an effect of the poison was, the treatment would not have been quick enough and they child would have died.

KosherDill · 28/02/2022 12:25

I had comfrey for the first time last year and the leaves seemed darker.

Orangesarenottheonlyfruit · 28/02/2022 12:32

Looks like a foxglove, lovely but probably best to dig it up this year.
But it would be well worth really majoring in not letting your toddler eat anything in the garden. I know that's easier to say than do but loads of plants can make you poorly or are sprayed with things that are nasty.
I do appreciate that toddlers mouth everything but this is well worth focusing on.

Original poster
ArtichokeAardvark · 28/02/2022 14:03

I'm definitely working on not letting her eat things but it's a work in progress! She's particularly partial to snowdrops at the moment Hmm fortunately never swallows them but likes holding then in her mouth.

I'm in the south (Hampshire). I have a couple of foxgloves already at the very back of the border which I feel confident with as they are behind other plants and in the front garden which she can't access unsupervised. This self-seeded one is also in the front garden, but much closer to the driveway so easier for her to reach.

Looks like it's got to go! Thank you everyone for your help.

OP posts:
Original poster
ArtichokeAardvark · 28/02/2022 14:05

@CrazyCatLady13

Yew trees are highly toxic as well, a few leaves is enough to make a child unwell & the berries are even worse, so you might want to partition the area anyway
I know - I'm hyper conscious about the yew tree! Fortunately it's in the front garden which she can't access unsupervised.
OP posts: