A plea for help identifying a troublesome plant

I am locked in a pitched battle with the plant in the attached photos. It's appearance is similar to a bramble in as much as it has fine spikes on the stems and dark red/green serrated leaves. It sends up shoots across the lawn from rhizomes that lie sometimes feet deep, rise up and run for metres just beneath the surface before disappearing back down again. In my desperation I have resorted to glyphosphate to which it seems entirely resistant, other than scorching the leaves temporarily.

I'd be most grateful if someone could identify it for me and, even better, give me some tips on how to get rid of it.

I want to get back to the rest of my garden! Please help!

 

Hi Dan and welcome to GC.

I am sure I recognise this creature ... but for the life of me I cannot think what it is ... it is SO familiar, especially that second photo. Therefore, I am leaving it to the 'experts' here to come along and tell you and me what it is.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

Don't recognise it. Not a native plant by the looks of it.

 

Hmmm, maybe that's why I recognise it ... where are you Dan? Always helps when IDs are required.

 

Thanks. Any help gratefully received. I'm tearing my hair out...and my lawn up.

I'm in Kenilworth in the West Midlands.

 

You are still keeping your location a secret for some reason ...

 

I'm in Kenilworth in the West Midlands.

 

Hi Dan, welcome to GC I'd say that your mystery plant belongs to the Rubus family. Do you or your neighbours grow tayberries? http://www.google.fr/imgres?biw=923...15&start=17&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:24,s:0,i:157 I'm hopeless at doing tiny url thingies, but found this on Google...

 

Sorry, obviously was typing my posting as you were posting your posting ... ... I know nada about the West Midlands ....

Noisette, I do have my glasses on but cannot see the similarity as to me the leaves look completely different ...

 

Thanks Noisette, I think we're getting close, although the leaves on my nemesis are a little more divided. My father-in-law had suggested it might be a loganberry and he has seen it in the flesh but it doesn't seem to quite match with that either.

 

The plant looks very much like the suckers which come up from our thornless Blackberry, not sure of the species though.

 

Odd.
I suspect these are suckers coming from an adult plant much further away.
Have you had a look in the garden next door?
I would like to see the adult plant to see what the whole thing looks like.
Are the stems prickly/thorny?
How tall is it?
Does it have a woody stem?

Glyphosate works by being absorbed by the leaves and carried back to the roots.
It kills from the roots up.
It is not an instant death and may appear that nothing is happening for days even weeks.
You will have to allow this thing to grow much taller/develop more leaves before you have enough leaf area to spray.
Even this will fail IF the adult plant is further away and is huge.
Spraying leafless shoots will never kill it.
Always use the dose recommended on the product.
Never be tempted to make it stronger to work faster.... it doesn't work!
You may need to let it grow through the autumn/winter and start next spring when it is growing really vigorously.

Do please add more pic to this thread if possible.

 

Oregon Thornless? (although I'm sure mine had reddish stems)

 

Could be, but there is also another one, which we have too.

 

Thanks everyone for the tips, I think we're getting close. I've looked next door and can't find anything. The leaves on the larger shoots do look a lot like Scrungee's suggestion.