# Anyone Know What This Is? (flower)



## Alex H (13 Jun 2021)

I live in a new development on what was a sheep field. This appeared at the top of a retaining wall at the end of the garden. I don't think it's an orchid as there was no bulb when I pulled it up (wind broke the stalk the other day). Google images (picture comparison) is of no help.







I did have the idea that it may be seeded from our neighbour's bird table?


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## mudsticks (13 Jun 2021)

Alex H said:


> I live in a new development on what was a sheep field. This appeared at the top of a retaining wall at the end of the garden. I don't think it's an orchid as there was no bulb when I pulled it up (wind broke the stalk the other day). Google images (picture comparison) is of no help.
> 
> View attachment 593598
> 
> ...


Fumitory. I think.

Its a native weed.
Pretty though isn't it??


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## mudsticks (13 Jun 2021)

Like this..

Its a fairly common wildplant, usually seen in arable crops, because it responds to soil disturbance.

It shouldn't become a nuisance, it only spreads via seed, and is easy to pull up once the flowers are done .


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## Tail End Charlie (13 Jun 2021)

It is indeed a fumitory (strange name isn't it). I am trying to encourage it and others into a wild part of my garden. I don't think it'll have come from your neighbour's bird table. It's in the poppy family so seed can be in the soil for years before germinating. (Interesting fact - a mammoth, something like 50000 years old, was once found frozen solid in ice and the contents of its stomach was analysed and found to contain seeds which were successfully germinated and were poppies!)


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## mudsticks (13 Jun 2021)

Tail End Charlie said:


> It is indeed a fumitory (strange name isn't it). I am trying to encourage it and others into a wild part of my garden. I don't think it'll have come from your neighbour's bird table. It's in the poppy family so seed can be in the soil for years before germinating. (Interesting fact - a mammoth, something like 50000 years old, was once found frozen solid in ice and the contents of its stomach was analysed and found to contain seeds which were successfully germinated and were poppies!)


I've heard that the name is due to the massed foliage looking like hazy smoke from a distance.

I'm always quite happy to see it as a weed on the farm..
Even if I in the process of taking it out.


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## numbnuts (13 Jun 2021)

Trifid


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## dave r (13 Jun 2021)

mudsticks said:


> View attachment 593599
> 
> 
> Like this..
> ...



The thing looks pretty, I'd be inclined to dead head it before it sets seed and apart from that I'd leave it alone.


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## welsh dragon (13 Jun 2021)

This is what it is.


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## mudsticks (13 Jun 2021)

Gadzooks WD ..
You may well have cracked it.

They do look very similar though..


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## Poacher (13 Jun 2021)

welsh dragon said:


> This is what it is.
> 
> View attachment 593626


This is what it isn't, although that photo looks suspiciously like the OP's, even down to the fence!
Loose Flowered Orchid has thin strap-like leaves, not the finely dissected leaves shown by the OP,
and Alnwick is a long, long way from the Channel Islands.
Almost certainly a Fumitory, I reckon, but not sure which one of several very similar species.

Edit: tentatively identified as White Ramping Fumitory, Fumaria capreolata


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## mudsticks (13 Jun 2021)

There are some grass leaves in the original pic, which could mislead the unwary .

The other leaves do look like fumitory though..

Can we have more pics please OP ??


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## Alex H (13 Jun 2021)

Poacher said:


> This is what it isn't, although that photo looks suspiciously like the OP's, even down to the fence!



Errr............... a little time with a photo editing tool and

Welsh Dragon's






My original







OK - who stole it?

I did recover the corpse from the green bin and took another photo, so here it is


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## welsh dragon (13 Jun 2021)

It wasn't stolen . I used an ap that identifies plants. You take a photo of the plant and the ap identifies it. No photo editing done. Happy now?


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## mudsticks (13 Jun 2021)

Alex H said:


> Errr............... a little time with a photo editing tool and
> 
> Welsh Dragon's
> 
> ...


Any leaves??

Was it multi stemmed, or single stalked ??


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## Alex H (13 Jun 2021)

welsh dragon said:


> It wasn't stolen . I used an ap that identifies plants. You take a photo of the plant and the ap identifies it. No photo editing done. Happy now?



I tried that with Google images and it went just as well as your app


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## mudsticks (13 Jun 2021)

Alex H said:


> I tried that with Google images and it went just as well as your app



I don't understand what happened here.

But are we any closer to a positive id.??

My money's back on a form of fumitory.


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## Alex H (13 Jun 2021)

mudsticks said:


> Any leaves??
> 
> Was it multi stemmed, or single stalked ??



Single stalk, leaves are the light green ones you can see in the original photo.


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## mudsticks (13 Jun 2021)

If it's the segmented leaves.

Then I'd be pretty sure is a variety of fumitory as detailed above.

The disturbance of the building work will have brought its dormant seeds close enough to the soil surface to germinate.

Its not a troublesome weed.


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