Help unidentified weed!

Can you wonderful gardening people please help me identify the latest abomination to appear in my new garden/weed patch







It comes out of the ground as a curled leaf. I know it's wild as I keep seeing it in fields and hedgerows, worried it is bindweed, please tell me it's not! Never had it last year in the garden so very strange we have dug over everywhere though. Just need to know the best way of dealing with it, digging up or weedkiller. Thanks in advance for any replies xx

 

Lords and Ladies and many many other common names too. Arum maculatum. It grows from a bulb and round each bulb are lots of baby ones. So when you dig them out it is hard not to leave some behind. Weedkiller does work but it takes time.

 

Thank you, thank you! Now I have googled it, I do remember seeing a few of the red berry spikes last year, seems they are also poisonous which with a toddler and a dog isn't ideal, will start pulling them out, so pleased it's not bind weed! Thanks again!
xx

 

The berries are poisonous,, but there have been no reported deaths from eating them. The effect is supposed to be like chewing a mouthful of needles, so no one, not even the most determined of child or animal is going to eat more than one. Still, all you need to do is remove the flowers when they appear.

 

Also nicknamed Willy Lily because the flowers are rather rude. I'd dig it up and offer it on Freecycle, or even Ebay if you have the brass neck, as many people think it is a very decorative native species, good for shade gardens. Plenty of people selling the seed on Ebay.

 

You'll need to dig them out rather than try to pull them up.
If you pull them up, the leaves will just break off, leaving the bulbs behind to produce more growth.

They're not too difficult to dig up, but the bulbs can be quite deep in the ground, usually about 6 to 8 inches in my experience.

We dug several of these out of our borders at work last spring, I found the best method is to sink a spade vertically in the ground to full depth alongside the plant, then gently lever the bulb out of the ground to avoid snapping off the leaves (which makes it much harder to find the bulb).

As Palustris says, you will find a number of smaller bulbs attached to the main bulb, so make sure you get rid of these too.

Any small ones you do leave behind will try to regrow, but just hoe them off as soon as the leaves re-appear throughout the spring and that should get rid of them.

 

Thanks all, I'll have a go at digging them up this weekend - if you want them send me your address!

 

They may not be invasive in your garden Shiney, but they are in mine. The variegated ones are just as bad at self seeding as the plain ones.
This plant is the one reckoned to have the most common names of all the native plants. Most of them refer to the shape of the spathe and calyx.

 

Shiney, they look lovely there but not under my apple tree! I did actually think the berry spikes looked quite interesting last year but not happy to have them around in the garden, sound nasty, might stop the dog eating plants though

 

I've liked them ever since I inherited them at my last house. I lacked the courage to bring any with me when I moved though!

 

I agree, I have a patch or two in a shady woody part of the garden and kept in check they are quite handsome. Yours look really nice.
I've a few 'weeds' that I like in my garden including a matricara of some sort and Centurea Montana. They both spread if you let them but a good hoeing and a bit of pulling keeps them within bounds and looking quite nice.

 

Arum italicum subsp. italicum 'Marmoratum'



Spear shaped leaves with silvery white veins from winter through to spring. A lovely winter foliage plant - mixes well with Hellebores and early bulbs - snowdrops etc.
Grows in sun or partial shade. A good filler when other plants are dormant.
Height up to approximately 30cm.
Pricing

Item nameCodePrice (GBP)Price shown includes VAT @ 20.%Arum italicum subsp. italicum 'Marmoratum'9cm£3.25

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That can give you an idea of what to do with it.........ebay ; )