Is this Rhubarb or what?

[Farmer Kitty]

It kind of looks like the "hitch hiker" plants we get here. If that is what it is they will get taller and they will get little balls on them with quills sticking out. If that turns out to be what it is kill it ASAP or it will spread.

 

[patandchickens]

Aha. Now that I can finally see the pics for some reason, I would say it does NOT look much like any rhubarb I've seen. (Taste a cut stem, that will resolve any lingering doubts). I am skeptical that it's horseradish either, as the horseradish I'm familiar with generally has rufflier leaves. As Kitty says it looks very very very much like burdock. Are the leaves slightly suede-y as well as the stems?

Burdock is more or less a biennial; if the leaves are that size in the springtime yours are clearly on their second year, and in a month or two they will send up a tall flowerstalk with small lavendar vaguely thistle-like flowers that will turn into the nasty evil burrs that Kitty describes.

IF it is burdock (if it's not, ignore the entire rest of this post ):

You have sort of two choices to control it. You can try to dig it out by the roots (it has a loooooong very stout taproot), and you won't get all the roots and it will resprout every five minutes for the next three or four years. Or, you can grit your teeth, let it flower and form burrs. Once the burrs are starting to dry and harden but *before* they get to the point of shattering off the plant when you brush against it, remove the plants (put the stalks with the burrs in the trash or burn them). I recommend waiting til after several rainy days and manually pulling them, as at least around here the stalks will severely challenge (and possibly damage) even a good sharp pair of loppers.

Burdock is theoretically edible ("gobo" in japanese cuisine) but I have tried cooking it according to several recipes, both store-boughten gobo and burdocks dug up at home, and either there is some secret the cookbooks don't mention, or it is an acquired taste. I would eat it if I were starving to death but basically it was like soggy wood

Look for small new plants of it lurking in your grass and cut them out (deeply) NOW, while they're easier to kill

Good luck,

Pat

 

[PineBurrowFarm]

Thanks! I will keep my eyes on it...

It tastes horrid, not something I would want to eat.

It is suedy feeling on both the leaves and stalks.

I have a lot of the stuff in this one patch too, but also two or three others willy nilly on my property.

Ick.

 

[Reinbeau]

The root of the burdock, while tough to dig, is edible, some say it tastes like artichokes, you can eat it raw or cooked. I like the flowers myself, they're very attractive to bees.