Please help with some identification

Hi all... I'd really be most pleased if anyone could help me identify some "stuff" that I have coming up. I am quite stumped.

Plant 1: I get this coming up all over the place. I suspect it's a weed of sort, but nevertheless not unattractive. Any idea what it is?



Plant 2: I have a number of these coming up. They look like they're going to grow into trees and I'm cautoiously hopeful that they may be some variety of Malus. Any ideas?


Plant 3: This one has me completely stumped! It's so ugly, it's kind of pretty, in a real freak-show kind of way:



Look forward to your responses.

Cheers
Rob

 

The first one is a weed - but it does bloom with purple flowers in mid summer. You'll see them all over the place, in great swathes, especially on waste land.

Can't say about the other two, but the 2nd one looks familiar...

 

Third one looks like a type of Euphorbia =]

 

Aaah - that's possible. Let me see if I can find anything to substantiate that.

 

The second one looks like my honeysuckle ..... but as I am useless as Id'ing my own plants, I wouldnt believe myself either :hehe:

Have just come in from the garden and the steams and leaves look the same, but then I suppose next to each other they would probably look completely different!

 

Have a look at this: Pretty similar, innit? http://www.tournorfolk.co.uk/hovetonhall/euphorbia.jpg

 

ok - number 3 is definitely an euphorbia, but I have no idea which one. It looks similar to a number of pictures I've found, but there's nothing that's exactly the same. Maybe some weird sport that my garden cooked up all on its own

 

Euphorbias can self seed very easily - neighbour's garden?

 

The first one is Rose Bay Willow Herb. Pull it out.

 

Thanks Joyce - will do so. Funny, though, from reading the description, it actually sounds like a relatively useful plants with a number of culinary and medicinal applications... Still, I guess a weed is a weed

 

I'll go have a proper look in my books =]

 

I think the euphobia is the "mole plant" Euphorbia Lathyris.

No 2 looks like our old friend Goat willow, Salix Caprea

And No 1 does look a bit like rosebay willow herb.

 

Thanks Pete - you have number 3 spot on. So I see it's poisonous and basically an invasive weed. Looks like it's getting the old heave-ho. Pity - it had a unique charm. Now, if only it would repel squirells instead of moles

Goat willow, you say? Is it good for anything?

 

A weed is only a plant in the wrong place...

All Euphorbias are poisonous, as the sap is milky and can irritate the skin with some people. If you like it though, why not keep it, just under control?

I have a willow that seeded in a corner of the garden 3 years ago and gets cut back hard each autumn. Now I'm growing a Clematis Montana through it, so it has it's use. But the location is suitable - yours might not be in an ideal place!

 

I have 3 of them coming up in a pot on my patio... so they could end up anywhere or nowhere