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Plant ID please

Discussion

5 replies
Posted by Philip Hodgkins on April 21, 2010 at 9:46 AM
Plant ID please
Found these growing in an unkempt yard in Tullahoma, TN last week. Does anyone know what they are?
Posted by Robin Neville on April 21, 2010 at 7:10 PM
Nice. My unkempt yard isn't producing anything quite so nice...
Posted by Philip Hodgkins on April 22, 2010 at 6:38 AM
No fragrance that I smelled.
Posted by Bill Stice on April 22, 2010 at 9:53 AM
Philip, they look like a mint of some sort to me. They have classic mint characteristics. Square stem, opposite leaves, and zygomorphic flowers ( sorry for the technical term but it means the flowers are bilaterally symetrical and not radially symetrical like a daisy). Together these almost always point to a member of the mint family. I don't know specifically however what this is.
Posted by Jack Riley on April 22, 2010 at 10:59 PM
It looks kinda like something I saw recently, Ajuga sp(?) which is a "rare escape" known to NC,Ga, and WVa according to Radford (Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas). Has basal rosette and trailing sterile stems.
Posted by Philip Hodgkins on April 24, 2010 at 6:41 AM
That's it! Thanks, Jack and Bill. Ajuga reptans (bugleweed, common bugle). It is planted as ground cover, but known to escape to lawns. It spreads by runner. It is also a member of the mint family. This plant is native to Europe.