Garden weeds- masters of disguise
When I'm weeding, weeds often slip the net and go unplucked ready to get bigger and bigger by the day. You might think I get frustrated at overlooking these in the flower bed but actually I'm pretty much in awe. After all weeds have evolved into super survivors.
Weeds have an excellent ability of making themselves unnoticed. How? They go unnoticed by growing around plants that look superficially very much like them. Weeds are true masters of disguise. Here are five specimens I've observed this summer as a Yorkshire gardener.
Goosegrass and periwinkle
The finger-like leaves of goosegrass are significantly different to that of broad-leaved periwinkle nearby but the trailing growth habit is identical. Luckily when you've spotted goosegrass it's easy to pull out.
Buttercup and geranium
The darker leaves of the true geraniums make the weed interloper obvious but look at their leaf shape - so similar. Another weed goes unnoticed and is saved from my garden fork.
Snowberry and lilac
On the left is the prize plant - a miniature lilac. Here it's in bud ready to flower profusely. In the centre a trained eye will notice the leaves of snowberry, a pretty-enough shrub but not welcome here.
Ground elder and peony
The big giveaway here is that peony leaves are much bigger when mature than the leaves of the weed ground elder, which features here in the centre. Both peony and ground elder however have very similar leaf forms.
Wood avens and foxglove
The coveted plant here is foxglove and seedlings have leaves that are more rounded and paddle-shaped than nearby wood avens. Both plants are so numerous that the weed avens goes unnoticed.
