Help with plant identification

 


Hi. Newbie here (both to the group and to gardening, really.) I live on
the
south coast of England and have a very small garden that I try to
get some food
out of. My wife grows some flowers & lavender. Last year I
grew (with my father
in law's help) some squashes and a few potatoes.
This year I have spuds, onions
and garlic going. I'm really enjoying it.
The whole garden is in danger of being
completely colonised by an
outrageously fecund fennel plant/ triffid that I put
in the ground a few
years back.

Anyway, I have all kinds of unknown weeds and things growing, but I
don't like
to dig stuff up unless I have to in case it turns out to be
something
interesting, something that has somehow propogated itself from
last years
plantings or even an escapee from the compost bin (I actually
have a brussel
sprout plant growing thanks to a discarded sprout stick
from the compost bin!).
Anyway, there's one particular plant growing in
my garden that has me really
curious. I'd love to know what it is but
don't know how to identify it. I was
hoping someone here could help.

The plant is a small collection of leaves coming out of the ground in a
shady
spot between some rubble and a fence. There is no appreciable
stalk that I can
see. The leaves are dark green on top, and some of them
have a red underside.
They are a bit jagged at the edges, quite soft to
the touch and probably only a
centimetre or so long. The really
interesting thing, however, is that they have
a really strong smell,
very much like citronella or lemongrass or something.

Does anyone have any ideas?




--
dogscoff

 


dogscoff;886490 Wrote:

shady spot between some rubble and a fence. There is no appreciable

> stalk that

I can see. The leaves are dark green on top, and some of them

> have a red

underside. They are a bit jagged at the edges, quite soft to

> the touch and

probably only a centimetre or so long. The really

> interesting thing, however,

is that they have a really strong smell,

> very much like citronella or

lemongrass or something.

It's very difficult to identify from that description. The only thing I
can
suggest, from the smell, is whether it's something in the mint
family. The usual
lemon-smelling thing is Lemon Balm, but the red leaves
are wrong for that. And
indeed the stalklessness would wipe out most of
the mint family.

I think your best bet would be to let it carry on growing for another
two or
three weeks and see if you get anything more definite in shape
for
identification. Flowers, of course, would be brilliant, since the
plant
classification system is largely based on flowering parts.

Meanwhile, can you tell us any more about the leaves? What is their
overall
shape, eg jaggedly oval, jaggedly heart-shaped?  1 cm long, but
how wide at the
widest part? How many leaves?? ((about) - ie have you
just got the first few
leaves of a new plant, or is this settling into
being a low stalkless plant?
Which leaves have the red undersides - is
there a pattern to it? ((like it being
the oldest leaves which are red)

I think you've got exactly the right approach,, of not pulling something
up
until you recognise it. Not only do you get a lot of interesting
plants, as
you've said, you also  learn an awful lot about plant
identification. In fact, I
reckon the best way to learn about gardening
is simply to watch what happens and
think about it.




--
kay

 


dogscoff;886496 Wrote:

probably is the

green all

detailed description. I might even take a photo and post it up

> somewhere, then

link you to a URL. That would probably make things a lot

OK, I finally got round to taking some photos and uploading them. They
can be
found at the addresses below:

'FreeImageHosting.net Hosting Service' (http://tinyurl.com/33vc797 )
'FreeImageHosting.net Hosting Service' (http://tinyurl.com/2vqkxcd )

You can get a sense of scale from my fingers in the pics, and you can
just about
see the reddish undersides.

It is growing quickly and has a definite stem now. Still no flowers
though.
It looks a bit like a miniature stinging nettle I suppose, but the
leaves are a
bit plumper. The smell of citronella is really strong if I
touch the leaves - it
smells like one of those mosquito repellent
candles.




--
dogscoff