Help me identify a plant!

Bagginses

So I have three plants growing in a row in my garden. I have no idea what they are. They may be regrowth from a previous year, or they may be a weed. What the hell is this, and what should I do about it?

Burtletoy

Looks like a mint of some type.


Is the stem a square?

Bagginses

Burtletoy wrote: »

Looks like a mint of some type.


Is the stem a square?

It does. It also seems to have those little irritant hairs on the stem.

bowen

Where do you live @bagginses?

Bagginses

bowen wrote: »

Where do you live @bagginses?

Boston area.

bowen

Yeah I'd have to go with mint to. Maybe like a wild mint or spearmint.

Bagginses

Are there any dangerous plants that look like mint? If not, the simplest way for me to test it is to simply eat some.

bowen

Haha no I wouldn't eat it. Most of the tetragonal stemmed plants like mint are edible but I wouldn't risk it.

spool32

If it's mint, can't you crush several leaves and smell it? My nose doesn't work but people tell me mint has a strong odor...

Donkey Kong

Yeah, if it's mint, you'll know just by smelling it. Ripping open a leaf will smell like opening a pack of gum.

Edit: Keep in mind that mint is a crazy weed and likes partial shade. So if it's been there a log time, hasn't spread and is in the direct sun, it's probably not mint.

JebusUD

Could be catnip. What does it smell like?

DisruptedCapitalist

look an awful lot like spearmint, because of the rippled texture on the leaves, though I didn't think spearmint grew in New England. Peppermint tends to have more shiny leaves than spearmint, so I don't think it's that.

bowen

It does grow here, it's a god damned weed though. At least in NY anyways, I imagine it has made it's way to the greater MA area. That scaled-armor texture made me think spearmint almost immediately.

saggio

Mint, in whatever variety, is incredibly vigorous. If you want to be rid of it, you will have to very thoroughly dig it up and get rid of any roots. Or else you'll soon have mint absolutely everywhere in your garden.

Gafoto

Looks strongly like a mint. Like saggio says, it's very invasive in your garden. End its life or put it in a pot (but still keep an eye on it).

Bagginses

I planted one chocolate mint a long while back, but this is the first mint I've seen since then. I suspect it's from the neighbors, as we also got some rhubarb from them.
I'll probably try potting them and giving them away (I don't really like mint) or transferring them to the blighted patch of earth that nothing but weeds grow in (I was originally planning on trying to get horseradish to take it over, but the neighbors would probably murder me).

BaghdadBean

If you have a blighted yard, plant mammoth red clover in that area instead of mint. Mint is super invasive, and there's no reason to intentionally let it spread. Mammoth red clover is pretty, attracts butterflies, and will add nitrogen to your soil, so that eventually you can actually plant something else there that you like. If you really want to go all crazy, you can plant mammoth red clover and sweet peas at the same time, so that you get some prettier flowers and a vine that also helps put nitrogen back into the soil. Best part of clover--end of the growing season, you can just mow it, leave it in place, and it'll add mulch back into the ground over the winter.

Invisible

That looks almost exactly like the spearmint my mom grows.

Bagginses

So me and my dad moved the plant to a weed-blighted area behind the garage. Hopefully the various stuff back there will fight to a standstill.

My dad also thinks it's catmint, which seems to look similar in pictures. As he's seen both in person, I'll probably be deferring to him.

JebusUD

You mean catnip? Get a cat quick and find out. If they love the plant then it is.

Edit. Wikipedia says people do call it catmint.never heard that before.

JaysonFour

You could also snip a few leaves and take them to a garden store or greenhouse, but I'd be willing to wager that you've got a couple of sizable catnip plants. If it is catnip, consider donating them to a friend that has a feline or three. Dried catnip gets expensive, and it'll be a nice treat for thier cats.