Unknown hitchhiker

[Taliesin-DS]

This thing popped up in my Sanguinea pot.
It kinda looks like a tiny creeping fig
The whole plant is 8 cm tall.
The stem gets kinda woody at the bottom and branches off in 3 directions.
It also attracts scale like any other creeping fig

 

[Halt]

Weeed! Extinguish!

A Weed*

 

[Taliesin-DS]

But it's a nice weed

 

[swords]

I couldn't say what the little thing is but I use outdoor mosses in my vivariums and I always get tiny little NO ID plants that pop up, sometimes little mushrooms too. I like the tiny plants and let them grow and see what they become. Like mosses, some do well in enclosures and some will rot away very quickly.

 

[Taliesin-DS]

Same here, i love getting surprise visitors like that.
Everytime i'm in the garden i check my hedge for tree seedlings and when i find some i move them to my tree seedling rack

 

[scottychaos]

First gut reaction..some flavor of Elm Tree..

Scot

 

[Chomp]

Don't you ever wonder what some of these little weeds are called? We look at them, and pluck them out, just to throw them away! Their treated like garbage! Years ago, some botanist probably found a small weed, and said: holly cow!! Wait till the university sees what I discovered! Plus, I'm afraid to pick weeds... I'm sure someday when the world is going down the tube (not that it already isn't, LOL) and all living organisms are dieing, I'll be going: Sigh... I helped drive the clovers to extinction...

 

[Sig]

Clover is an interesting story. Most people grew clover on their lawns instead of grass, in addition to dandelions (For salad) and vegetables. "weeds" were permitted. Clover was grown because it fixes nitrogen into the soil, looks nice, produces flowers, and is very hardy.

Then came the scientist who discovered the herbicide that kills clover, not grass. Out launches a massive ad campaign that pressures the average person into growing grass, with aid of the herbicide, under threat of being basically shunned by society. Over time, it evolved into making the lawn that's greener and has fewer "weeds" than your neighbors, until it came to what it is today: Grass being the most pesticided, fertilized, and watered crop in the united states. For what? A lawn that never looks as good as your neighbors, kills wildlife and reduces biodiversity. A weed is not a weed. It's an organism trying to survive. Respect that and give it a chance.

 

[Chomp]

Ahh... Now I have an excuse for not weeding the garden!... I've always thought that way about them. They kill our grass, so we kill them. I can understand that, but why people look at them in disgust?!?! It's an amazing form of molecules that has actually formed a desire to live! That's no ordinary clump of molecules if you ask me. (As for tobacco, marijuana and all that, I say blame the person who does it, not the plant)

 

[scottychaos]

Clover is an interesting story. Most people grew clover on their lawns instead of grass, in addition to dandelions (For salad) and vegetables. "weeds" were permitted. Clover was grown because it fixes nitrogen into the soil, looks nice, produces flowers, and is very hardy.

Then came the scientist who discovered the herbicide that kills clover, not grass. Out launches a massive ad campaign that pressures the average person into growing grass, with aid of the herbicide, under threat of being basically shunned by society. Over time, it evolved into making the lawn that's greener and has fewer "weeds" than your neighbors, until it came to what it is today: Grass being the most pesticided, fertilized, and watered crop in the united states. For what? A lawn that never looks as good as your neighbors, kills wildlife and reduces biodiversity. A weed is not a weed. It's an organism trying to survive. Respect that and give it a chance.

thats not exactly right..but its close..
its not really true that "Most people grew clover on their lawns instead of grass,"

grass was always the main "lawn plant"..but clover with the grass was not considered a bad thing..it actually makes the grass healthier because it fixes nitrogen in the soil..so lawns were a healthy mix of grass and clover..

THEN came the invention of 2,4-D, a weed killer that kills "broadleaf plants"..but not grass..
but a problem..it does kill clover!
solution? re-brand clover as an "evil weed" that must be eliminated from your lawn..
(this was in the 1950's and 60's)
it worked! suburban lawn owners were successfully re-programed by the advertising, and today we consider anything *except* grass to be undesirable..which is handy for the companys selling lawn weed killer chemicals..

Scot

 

[Taliesin-DS]

I'm actually trying to kill the grass so the moss has more room to grow
And theres oaks in there, and all kinds of flowers.
I would love to have clovers in there too, there are way to few local butterfly friendly plants around.

 

[dashman]

It kind of looks like Rhexia virginica. This is a common hitchhiker in sphagnum moss. I have one growing in one of my pots. I didn't know what mine was until it flowered and the flower was dead up the same as Rhexia virginica.

 

[Taliesin-DS]

Hmm.. i googled Rhexia but it seems very different to me, different leaves and my weed has alternate leaves while Rhexia has them opposite.

 

[dashman]

It was just a guess so probably is wrong. I happened to identify mine when I found it available for sale in the meadowview catalog.

 

[Taliesin-DS]

I think it's something tropical, it sprouted from the little clump of topsoil/moss that was still attached to the Sanguinea when i got it.