Plant Identification

[DrHenley]

Searched Google, but didn't find anything exactly like it.

Does anyone know what this plant is? It looks like some kind of edible green. They volunteered in my old compost heap, or what's left of it, so it could have come from the kitchen.

 

[DrHenley]

On another site, someone suggested collards. They have a more delicate texture than collards, but maybe it's just because they are still young.

 

[SheilaT.]

Is there or has there been Oilseed Rape growing anywhere about? That stuff looks remarkably like your unknown and gets everywhere.

Here's a photo.

 

[WGregMiller]

Looks a lot like collards around here. Popping up all over the place.

 

[DrHenley]

Is there or has there been Oilseed Rape growing anywhere about? That stuff looks remarkably like your unknown and gets everywhere.

Thanks Sally. That does look a lot like it. We plant rape in our deer food plots in the Mississippi Delta, but the deer keep it closely cropped, so I have never seen a full mature leaf.

At any rate, I've narrowed down to several possibilities, all in the brassicas genus (mustard family, all edible.) My wife thinks it's turnip greens, but the stem is wrong. She says it doesn't smell like collards.

 

[Brent S]

Searched Google, but didn't find anything exactly like it.

Does anyone know what this plant is? It looks like some kind of edible green. They volunteered in my old compost heap, or what's left of it, so it could have come from the kitchen.

Looks a lot like kale. Just don't eat it off of my identification. I like you doc, I'd hate to be responsible for an ER trip!

 

[Maverick]

Looks like a broad leaf plantain or variation of but the white veins throws me off a bit.

 

[Maverick]

The test for plantain is to SLOWLY break the leaf in half across the middle. If the veins stay intact and are sticking out from the torn edges it's plantain, that may not work on all plantain. Their are over 200 varieties of plantain, if you have plantain you got a good herb, I use it for a lot of things here, lots of iron and vit-C

 

[DrHenley]

I thought plantain was a kind of banana.

And it's definitely not kale. Too delicate.

 

[DrHenley]

I just found out why I don't like turnip greens and kale.

Phenylthiocarbamide or PTC also known as phenylthiourea (PTU)

It's a bitter chemical found in members of the cabbage family. Some people can taste it, and some people can't. The ability to taste it is a dominant genetic trait. Smokers sometimes can't taste it, even if they have the gene. Those who can taste it generally don't like things like kale, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts and turnip greens.

I forced myself to like cabbage and broccoli, but I won't touch turnip greens. I'll force down brussel sprouts, but they are very bitter.

And kale? I'd rather eat sawdust!

 

[Maverick]

I thought plantain was a kind of banana.

No, out of the two hundred I mentioned above there are 5 different kinds of banana plantain but they grow where bananas grow fyi, bananas are plantain I have broad, narrowleaf, buckhorn and water plantain here (growing wild)

 

[Maverick]

Unfortunately I don't know the vegetation in your area

 

[DrHenley]

I don't think this is something local. They are all growing on the compost heap, so there had to be seeds in something I put in it from the kitchen garbage.

 

[DrHenley]

An update on the volunteer collards.

I've made three meals off of them so far by selectively picking leaves. I thought it was about played out, and at one point the leaves were half eaten by bugs, but the recent cool weather and rain has perked them up and I think I can get another meal before the bugs eat them up completely.

They are trying to bolt, and I keep picking the flowering ends off. One of the plants, which was the first to bolt, has different shaped leaves at the top now. All the other plants still have the same shaped leaves. Is this due to bolting?

OH and BTW, these are SOOOO much better than store bought collards!

I think after I get another meal, I'll let them all go to seed.

 

[DrHenley]

2019 Update on the volunteer collards:
Just to recap, a few collards volunteered in the back yard two years ago. I got four meals out of them before they went to seed. We don't know where they came from. My daughter suggested that maybe when I cleaned out the bird cage and dumped it in the yard, some of the bird seed had been collard seeds. That seems the only plausible explanation.

Last year, they came up again, same place, but too late in the year, and bolted before they were big enough to eat. So I let them go to seed and harvested the seeds. I intended to plant them last fall (2018) at first frost, but forgot all about it.

I remembered about them in the middle of January (2019) so I went ahead and made a small collard garden and sprinkled some seeds on the tops of the rows. I had no idea how many would germinate in mid January, so I put out quite a few seeds.

Well, they sprouted, and it seems like they ALL sprouted. Last count there were 131 collard plants. Hard to tell exactly because some are clumped together. And new ones are still popping up. I made three new rows and lengthened the existing rows, and transplanted some to get them spaced out better, but based on 18" spacing between plants and 36" spacing between rows, I only have enough room for 25 mature plants. So we'll be picking a lot of baby collards, LOL.

Here's what they look like now at approximately 6 weeks. About a fourth of the plants are this size (markings are spaced an inch apart)

 

[DrHenley]

I know what you are thinking....some collards are growing...big whoop! I suppose I should mention why I'm so excited about some collards growing.

Everywhere I have lived, I've always had a garden. But this place has some bad soil or something and I've never been able to get anything to grow. Everything grows a little while and then dies. Tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peppers, basil, onions, everything I planted. I did manage to get a handful of new potatoes, but that's about it. The potatoes never got over an inch big. Hell, the grass will hardly grow here. When I moved here, half the front yard was moss. I spent years watering, fertilizing, sodding, putting out soil from the compost heap to build up the topsoil, and there are still places where the grass just won't grow.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight when something tasty grew all on its own without me doing a darned thing. And when it came up a second year without me doing anything, well... So if it will grow without me doing anything, surely I can make a garden with it. If we get some eats from it, it will be my first successful vegetable garden in over 20 years. So yeah, to me it's a big deal!

 

[Brent S]

I know what you are thinking....some collards are growing...big whoop! I suppose I should mention why I'm so excited about some collards growing.

Everywhere I have lived, I've always had a garden. But this place has some bad soil or something and I've never been able to get anything to grow. Everything grows a little while and then dies. Tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peppers, basil, onions, everything I planted. I did manage to get a handful of new potatoes, but that's about it. The potatoes never got over an inch big. Hell, the grass will hardly grow here. When I moved here, half the front yard was moss. I spent years watering, fertilizing, sodding, putting out soil from the compost heap to build up the topsoil, and there are still places where the grass just won't grow.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight when something tasty grew all on its own without me doing a darned thing. And when it came up a second year without me doing anything, well... So if it will grow without me doing anything, surely I can make a garden with it. If we get some eats from it, it will be my first successful vegetable garden in over 20 years. So yeah, to me it's a big deal!

That really sucks about the lack of a garden Doc. Have you tried raised beds? I figured gardening was a big part of your life. Anyways, I’m glad you got something growing!

 

[Kevin L]

Putting in my 2 cents.....is there any chance the plant may be tobacco?

It almost looks like it, and there are many ornamental varieties that people grow for show.

 

[DrHenley]

That really sucks about the lack of a garden Doc. Have you tried raised beds? I figured gardening was a big part of your life. Anyways, I’m glad you got something growing!

Part of the problem is sun, or the lack thereof, but it can't be the whole problem. But since I lost the top of a tree in the back yard, there is a spot that gets full sun now. So that's a possibility.

These collards are growing right under an oak tree, and the spot only gets sun when there are no leaves. So a winter garden works there but not a summer garden. The volunteer collards were dead by summer both years.

 

[DrHenley]

Putting in my 2 cents.....is there any chance the plant may be tobacco?

It almost looks like it, and there are many ornamental varieties that people grow for show.

Nope, definitely collards.