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The 'name that weed' thread.

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  • 29-01-2018 9:15pm
    #1
    Worztron
    Registered Users Posts: 8,681 ✭✭✭


    Hi.

    Can anyone name this weed?

    The Latin and common names?

    Thanks.

    440154.jpg

    Mitch Hedberg: "Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something."

    Tagged:


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    #2
    my3cents
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,764 ✭✭✭my3cents


    Given its location and overall look then I'd take a guess you have a couple of buddleja plants coming up there.


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    #3
    JJayoo
    Registered Users Posts: 6,561 ✭✭✭JJayoo


    John and Paul


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    #4
    PermaC
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11 ✭PermaC


    Buddleja or buddlea - also known as Butterfly Bush. A weed is a plant growing in the wrong place.

    Buddlea is not a weed if grown for show in a grden. It comes in a number of very attractive colour variations and can be bought in garden centres. Butterflies love it, so many gardeners actually cultivate it for that purpose - attracting bees.


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    #5
    Worztron
    Registered Users Posts: 8,681 ✭✭✭Worztron


    PermaC wrote: »
    Buddleja or buddlea - also known as Butterfly Bush. A weed is a plant growing in the wrong place.

    Buddlea is not a weed if grown for show in a grden. It comes in a number of very attractive colour variations and can be bought in garden centres. Butterflies love it, so many gardeners actually cultivate it for that purpose - attracting bees.

    I do like the Buddlea alright.

    Mitch Hedberg: "Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something."



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    #6
    PermaC
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11 ✭PermaC


    Buddlea can grow into a sizeable bush, but it's easy enough to control. The branches have very soft wood and can easily be cut back individually with a secateurs or larger tool.


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    #7
    littlecbear
    Registered Users Posts: 109 ✭✭littlecbear


    Just to add, it's not a native plant and is highly invasive, hence it's unexpected appearance in your garden.
    It can actually cause problems for butterflies.
    Hear is more further information if you are interested:
    https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/never-plant-butterfly-bush?amp


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    #8
    my3cents
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,764 ✭✭✭my3cents


    In the OP's pictures it looks like its growing out of a curb. Typical location for buddleja and not one you can transplant them from so I would have said its Roundup or the sharp edge of a hoe for them.


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    #9
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,428 ✭✭✭macraignil


    littlecbear wrote: »
    Just to add, it's not a native plant and is highly invasive, hence it's unexpected appearance in your garden.
    It can actually cause problems for butterflies.
    Hear is more further information if you are interested:
    https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/never-plant-butterfly-bush?amp

    Thanks for the link to that US website. I just read also in the wikipedia page that budleja is classed as a noxious weed in Oregon and Washington. While it is a plant that spreads by setting it's own seed, the article you provide a link to does admit that it does provide nectar to provide food for butterflies and one of the points of the article seems to be that gardeners should be planting more plants for food for caterpillars and growing native species. Unless you are going to fill your garden with wild native plants (that are not readily available in garden centres) the publisher of this article will not be happy and I'd like to express my view that growing a garden to provide caterpillar food would not be aesthetically pleasing to many gardeners.

    While budleja does fill in waste ground in urban areas I think it is relatively easy to control and it is not as much of an environmental problem here in Ireland as in parts of the USA where it may be a more recent introduction. Land in Ireland is used more intensively than in parts of the USA and I think this contributes to it being less of a problem here. I have seen great numbers of butterflies on my budleja plants in the summer and don't think it is causing them any major problems in my garden where many other plants are also available.

    I also think that the farmland near where I live is managed too intensively to allow budleja become a problem and would still think it is of benefit to the ecosystem I'm trying to improve in my garden. Unlike some ecologists I think it is a natural process that nice plants have spread around the world through people transporting them when people like seeing them in their surroundings. I do not want to have a garden of just native plants and will continue to grow budleja as I think it will contribute to more beneficial insects in the garden even if they are not living in a ecosystem completely unchanged by mankind which in most of this country was only available hundreds of years ago.


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