What's this growing in my hydrangea pot?

[PenguinWaiting]

I'm thinking it's something the squirrels have buried? What are they?

They are probably “Lord-and-ladies” plant (weed). I have them popping up everywhere in our garden at the moment.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/lords-and-ladies

My 'picture this' plant app says it's beech. That might also fit with 🐿️

I agree lords and ladies

I'm looking forward to my baguette plant coming up, courtesy of the magpie who likes to bury bits of bread in my strawberry pots.

Here's a picture of beech seedlings

That’s definitely not beech, we have beech woods behind our house and the seedlings don’t look this like.

Another vote for lords and ladies. If you dig down, there should be long white roots coming from a fleshy tuber - don't try to pull it out as they can go quite deep. Be careful, all parts are poisonous and some people have an allergic reaction to touching them. I have thousands of the damn things every spring as they like damp, shady areas and I'm in an area with a very high water table🙄

It definitely is beech! I’ve known beech seedlings from a child, we had trees next to a garden. They are so characteristic. @Porridgeislife could it be that you’ve recognised the beech seedlings once they have their true leaves and assumed these seedlings were something else?

And it emphatically cannot be Lords and Ladies. Lords and Ladies is a monocot (like orchids, grasses, most bulbs- about a quarter of flowering plants) which means it has only one cotyledon (seed leaf). All the rest are dicots, with two cotyledons, which is clearly the case for OP’s seedling - you can see the beginnings of the true leaves emerging from between the two cotyledons.

And yes, you’re probably right, OP, almost certainly a squirrel.

Thanks everyone!

Doesn't look anything like beech to me.

These are beech seedlings

What are you basing that on? Are you basing that on beech trees that you have seen or on your knowledge of beech tree seedlings?

If you are basing it on your knowledge of beech trees - what you see in the photo are the cotyledons or seed leaves, which are formed in the seed and produced very quickly after germination to keep the plant going while it develops its first roots and true leaves. Because they’re a stop-gap, they’re very basic and not at all like the later leaves.

Beech cotyledons are unusual in shape, so beech seedlings are unmistakeable. If they don’t look like “beech” seedlings you have seen, all I can say was that you misinformed as to the identity of your seedlings.

Wow... I'd never realised that beech seedlings - at the seed leaf stage - look nothing like beech!

If you do an image search for 'beech seedling' you'll get a mix of these little things and then larger seedlings with recognisable beech leaves.

I guess we're used to it with other plants but mostly the seed leaves are much less distinctive.

(And of course squirrels are most likely to 'sow' nuts and large seeds - we get oaks in our pots)

This link shows different stages of growth of a beech seedling. Of particular interest is the second picture (you’ll have to click the link to see it), of a slightly older plant, showing both the cotyledons as on OP’s picture, and newly emerged “proper” beech leaves

I guess we're used to it with other plants but mostly the seed leaves are much less distinctive. I think we’re all used to it with courgettes, runner beans, carrots etc, but most people don’t look as closely at things that are growing in the countryside.

Blimey, I only said. There's no need to be patronising.They didn't look like normal beech leaves to me that's all. Now people have shown photos of the cotyledons I can see they are the same.

Sorry. After previous answers explaining why they were beech seedlings, and the picture of actual beech seedlings posted by @Sealtheenvelope (her first picture, not the one she posted in response to you) , you were surprisingly definite that they weren’t beech seedlings.

shrub hibiscus nearby?

their seedlings look similar

but slightly hairy and not shiny?

I don't think she was being patronising? She was explaining in detail because you'd ignored/not read her previous post which did explain why it wouldn't look like beech (ie., because these are seed leaves).

I'd replied earlier in the day but it didn't show up on the thread for several hours. In the meantime, other people had posted in between.

I have still never seen beech seedlings look like that, but that is probably because we don't live in an area with many beech trees. There are none at all in the woods near us, they are all alder, field maple, pine, willow and birch.