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To Weed-Eat or Not to Weed-eat

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twitchy

twitchy

Rising Star
About five or six years ago, I purchased some Phalaris arundinacea seeds and planted a few in a rock lined raised bed. Long story short, life threw me some serious curveballs in the form of a disabling injury and I wasn't able to take care of them as I would have liked and for all I knew, they were overtaken by some native weeds and vanished. This last two years, not being able to take care of the yard as one might, I noticed an extraordinarily tall and wide bladed grass that had come up about six to eight feet away from where I planted the P. arundinacea and I suspect that it might be the Phalaris but I suck at identifying grasses. I thought maybe one of you guys might be able to help id it for sure. If not, it's going to get weed-ate.
I don't know if these pics will suffice for identification, but I can take better or closer shots if needed. It's about eight to nine feet tall, the base is super thick and it spreads from rhizomes, dies back in the winter and comes back with a vengeance in early summer, zone 7b. The blades are broad and average about two to three feet long. The last pic is the flowering parts as they attach to the stalk.

Note: I used imagebb to host the pics and they make the pics link to ads for which I apologize.


https://poetandpoem.com/analysis-of-lines-written-in-early-spring-by-william-wordsworth



 
There's also a common plant/weed here in Western North Carolina that at first I thought was was immature Albizia julibrissin, but I'm pretty sure these don't get tree sized and if I remember correctly they get little yellow flowers on them, but unless I can ID them, they are going to suffer the same fate with the weed-eater.

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Also if it turns out to be to be phalaris, and the other being some kind of untested mimosae, I'm open to any suggestions as to how to handle telling the 'un-cool seeming' guy that we were going to hire to do our yard work not to mow the 9 foot tall stand of grass next to the herb bed or the mimosa looking weeds near the garden LOL
I guess I could just act like a nut and tell him I just really like the tall grass, and the weeds remind me of some chick I met in Guyana. :shock:
 
twitchy said:
I guess I could just act like a nut and tell him I just really like the tall grass, and the weeds remind me of some chick I met in Guyana. :shock:
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haha, I dont think he will ask much questions 😅 beautiful crop! Cant identify it but it looks good.
 
FranLover said:
twitchy said:
I guess I could just act like a nut and tell him I just really like the tall grass, and the weeds remind me of some chick I met in Guyana. :shock:
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haha, I dont think he will ask much questions 😅 beautiful crop! Cant identify it but it looks good.
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😁

The second one looks so much like hostilis it's uncanny, I've got it figured for something in the Mimosae genus but it's all over the yard. I've seen it hundreds of times but never paid it much attention until recently, I'm hoping it's a common temperate zone weed that has been overlooked and turns out to be a tryptamine containing specimen. A feller can dream can't he? Maybe a new alk, if so can we call it twitchine? lol
 
Bumping this thread in hopes of getting some help soon, the lawnmower man cometh soon...
 
If you are in western NC, I would guess the second one is either black locust or honey locust, though the leaflets look unusually long. It's not albizia. While it looks similar, I strongly doubt it's a mimosa hostilis based on climate, one winter would kill them.
 
arcologist said:
If you are in western NC, I would guess the second one is either black locust or honey locust, though the leaflets look unusually long. It's not albizia. While it looks similar, I strongly doubt it's a mimosa hostilis based on climate, one winter would kill them.
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I really appreciate the reply. It's hard to tell by the pics, but the foliage is pretty tiny. I'm very familiar with locust and this is closer in size and structure to a mimosa of some sort. I know it's not hostilis as I am in zone 7b and whatever these are, they are really common here. I'm going to try to save one of the larger specimens and let it flower to see if that helps identify it. Mimosa microphylla looks really close but I still think I remember seeing yellow flowers on them.
 
I've been looking around the net trying to come up with an id for that second one and just came across an interesting 'journal article' that has a pretty extensive list of North American Mimosa. Some of these are pretty darn obscure plants, and there's not much information floating around. Was kind of surprised at how little is known about some of the species in the Mimosa family here in North America really. I'd be willing to be there's a temperate zone spice plant just waiting to be discovered. :thumb_up:

"Revision of the North American and Mexican Species of Mimosa"

Revision of the North American and Mexican Species of Mimosa on JSTOR

B. L. Robinson, Revision of the North American and Mexican Species of Mimosa, Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 33, No. 17 (May, 1898), pp. 305-331
www.jstor.org www.jstor.org
 
arcologist said:
I came across a plant that looks very similar to the second plant and fits your description of yellow flowers. Maybe it could be
Sesbania herbacea - Coffeeweed.
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That does look very close, and they are really common so it's a definite maybe. I did find a couple of these that are making pods at another location, will try to get some pictures of them with the seed pods soon and get them posted.

Edit:
Looks to be a fairly widespread genus with a lot of similar looking specimens, found this site...

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If that's the one and it's in the Sesbania genus, then it's in the Fabaceae family which features so many of our 'favorites'... Some of the other members of the genus are apparently toxic like grandifola, but I wasn't able to find much of anything on the alkaloid content for herbacea, but it's late here and I haven't really started digging yet. I'd be willing to dig some up or save some seeds from them if there's any medicinal or entheogenic cause, but it's not one I'm familiar with.
 
Jupitor said:
Some possibilities-

Abrus furticulosus
Abrus precatorius
Abrus laevigatus
Mimosa Pigra
Scarlet Wisteria
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I can rule out Abrus furticulosus, Abrus precatorius, and Abrus laevigatus as it forms a seed pod, very similar to mimosa and has tiny yellow flowers. I'm familiar with Pigra and wisteria as well and am pretty sure those aren't it. I definitely appreciate the effort though! I am leaning towards arcologist's suggestion of Sesbania, but I haven't ruled out one of the northern types of mimosa yet either. May sound odd, and could be just hopeful thinking, but I get a vibe from this plant...
 
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