We have a saying; a weed is a plant in the wrong place. If you don't like it or don't want it, it's a weed.

Could be ragwort, in which case you certainly don't want it.

I'll never forget when I posted a picture of a noxious 'weed' I have in my garden. A certain member on here would 'hound' me daily to send her seeds in spite of the international regulations about sending plants in the mail. This girl fell in love with my noxious weed and wanted to grow it as a houseplant. She would'n't leave me alone. Finally, for the sake of peace and to get this girl out of my hair, I caved in and shipped her a couple dozen seed pods - violating every regulation known to man. Now she's a happy girl because she has my noxious weeds and I'm at peace. I know this sounds weird, but it actually happened. lol!

Yes, I know the saying "a weed is only..." but I would just like to know what it is, please!

Stera already suggested ragwort. She's usually right on the money!

Thank you!

If I had answered first I would have suggested ragwort. Definitely in the wrong place in a garden.

Hi, I agree with Steragram, ragwort, or Senecio jacobaea, this is a biennial plant, and this 1 appears to be in it's first year, if you remove it now it will regenerate, if you leave it alone it will stay there as it is now, until the main stem develops next year, at which time it will die back, leaving the main stem to develop and flower, the best time to remove these is when they're in flower, as you don't have to worry about getting all the root out, but whatever you do, do not let it go to seed, each plant can produce about 150,000 seeds, which remain viable for 15 years in the soil they produce quite nice looking daisy like flowers, but can be invasive due to the number of seeds they produce, Derek.

Internationally, this is now known as Jacobaea vulgaris but the RHS still clings to Senecio jacobaea.

It's an important native plant and, given the way it is demonised by the horsey set, I would be happy to have it in my garden.

The '150,000 seeds' claim is a huge overstatement. It's more likely 30,000-50,000 and those seeds don't travel easily.

The toxins it contains are present in 3% of all plant species and I'm willing to bet you all have some of those species in your garden.

My advice to Canalhopper would be to leave it alone and wait to see the huge number of pollinators that will flock to the flowers.

And it is only poisonous to horses when dried. They will not eat a live plant as it is too unpleasant tasting for them. The bitterness goes when it is dried, but not the toxins.

Thanks very much!

It a host plant for little black and yellow striped caterpillars that turn into very pretty little red and grey cinnabar moths. Sometimes there are scores of them on one plant.