What is this plant please?

[AllTheWeatherAllTheTime]

Hello there, I moved to Scotland last autumn, and now I am having a lovely time discovering what's already in my garden before I start any heavy duty replanting. Have been very lucky with existing shrubs so far, but I don't know what this is, and Google images is having a hard time with it - any suggestions?

It's growing in the clear spaces underneath small trees, wet clay soils. There's flipping loads of it, and I think it's also got pink roots under the soil that go for miles about it. Do I pull it up or submit meekly to its dominion?

I’ve got something that looks the same. I don’t know what it is, but it has spires of yellow flowers in the summer and spreads like crazy! Watching thread with interest to see whether I need to dig it out.

Large yellow loosestrife according to my app! Wild flower. Bees like it. So do slugs and snails!

Yellow loosestrife. I have loads. It spreads!

@Neverknowinglysensible is it possibly Evening Primrose you have (spires of yellow flowers)? But not sure that is what is in the Op's picture- similar but leaves of EP are less pointed I think?

I'd guess Yellow Loosestrife

Oh, happy to be quite wrong and discover another plant - yellow loosestrife is fab!

It’s pretty certainly Lysimachia. It’s much more likely to be Dotted Loosestrife, Lysimachia punctata (which, just to be confusing, gardeners tend to call, wrongly, yellow loosestrife).

Lysimachia punctata has glandular hairs (hairs with knobs on top) along the edges of the petals. This page has a picture showing this. There are other differences, but this is the easiest to be sure about. Of course, this page introduces yet another common name, thus demonstrating why it’s best to stick to scientific names

@PaperBlinds I’ve just googled and I’m not sure, l’ll have to wait until the flowers come out. I’m pretty sure there’s no scent on mine, but it doesn’t look like the loosestrife pics either. Await another identification thread later in the year!

Try Solidago, Golden Rod.

Why do you need to wait to see if you need to dig it out? Surely you keep it if you like it, dig it up if you’re fed up with it?

Ooh, thank you all very much, I knew you would be the right people to ask! I think it might be the punctata species, it looks about right from the dead ones we cleared back last winter, but I won't know for sure until it flowers - not there yet. How exciting! I think I will let it flower for the bees/ bugs this year and see if I like it or not. Presumably I'd need to dig it up before it self seeds all over the place?

Ive not found it a prolific seeder, it spreads more vegetatively

Thanks, I don’t think it’s Goldenrod and, after a google search for hairy leaved, yellow spired perennials, I’m sure it’s not mullein either. The mystery plant is in a forgotten corner of the garden where all my unloved plants go to sulk/die/fight it out for world domination so I haven’t bothered about it too much. However, l don’t want to create another monster like the Chinese Lanterns which are currently rampaging through my garden.

No, not goldenrod if the leaves are hairy. I think you’ll just have to wait till it flowers, when it will turn out to besomething obvious that we should all have realised immediately!

Hello all, you'll probably have forgotten this thread but just to fill in the end of the story, mystery plant has flowered now, and I think it is Lysimachia punctata, the dotted loosestrife. Thanks everyone for helping me identify it! It's very pretty so it can stay this year for all the bees and bugs to enjoy, but I'll haul some of it out after it's flowered, otherwise it will take over the garden and trample all before it. Thanks again for your help!

Neverknowinglysensible - Could your plant be phlomis russelliana? It flowers about now.