Thanks to GardenerBarb, who stumbled upon this site while searching for her own weed ID, as did I, the big weed or probably the 'tall' weed is now identified as a SowThistle. Back on the original thread, I posted some links from other sites that support this ID. It is apparently considered a noxious weed to to it's invasive behavior in pastures. Which is odd since it is also a feed weed for livestock in Eurasia and Northern Africa -mostly to feed rabbits. It was also brought here by early Europeans as a garden vegetable! It is not a real thistle but more a dandelion. Those who guessed Giant Dandelion are also probably correct, except I couldn't find any info to support that guess. The best news for me is that it is edible! which makes sense since it was considered garden veg 400 years ago! A woman on Squido created a wonderful page: http://www.squidoo.com/sonchus I also found a recipe page, apparently it tastes like swiss chard and older leaves are prepared the same! The onion, goat cheese and pine nuts recipe will be my lunch today! http://www.foragingfoodie.net/all-sow-t ... cipes.html It seems from what I read, they way to determine annual or perrenial is the annual has a tap root and the perrenial spreads via rhizomes. This, of course, prompted my husband to eagerly volunteer to pull it up! No way is he pulling up anything that tastes like my favorite veg and rare treat: swiss chard! cool, huh? and thank you to GardenerBarb -should have made this a contest, since I feel guilty getting the prize (lunch)!
Yay! Great news. I've never heard of that plant before now. I think... *checks* Nope, doesn't grow here, but seems to be common to southern Europe. Enjoy your meal.
Droopy, I am excited, I love swiss chard but it's an expensive treat that doesn't grow well here. Even if it did, I have so little sun!
Glad I happened to know it, and kind of ironic that I was actually trying to identify MY mystery weed (pics posted in another thread - hint, hint)! But I ended up at this great website which is already a lot of fun.
I discovered this site when I was looking for an answer to my big weed ID, and it is a lot of fun and I've learned a lot! Lots of inspiring gardeners here. I saw your question, you are using similar search terms to mine! I looked at some of the sites I bookmarked -I was using similar terms. Nothing clicked but it looks familiar.
