New weed in my garden

Hi - I wonder if anyone can help me identify this plant please? It looks a bit like Elderberry, but I've not seen it lke this before and seems to be aggressively establishing itself in a shaded area. There are 'bramble' type thorns on the stem (not easy to see on photos).

Should I be concerned or is it easy to control?

Many thanks

Robert
(West Yorkshire)

 

Hi Robert, welcome to the site.

That looks like an Aralia Elata sucker. There must be a parent plant around nearby.

See: http://www.nccpg.com/gloucestershire/plantweek23c.html

If you don't want it, dig down and cut it out as deep as possible, but it may well come back again. If there is no shrub like it anywhere around, you could zap it with Glyphosate, but don't do this if the parent plant is, say, in the neighbour's garden because it will kill that too.

 

Thanks - that looks like it (I haven't seen the flowers / fruits yet). I have no neighbours at that end of the garden (road then railway) so I'll have a snoop around to find the parent. In the meantime I'll try cooking the shoots - sounds like fun!

Thanks again
Robert