its a perennial... and can generate horseradish sized roots... which will be hard to kill ... the poisonous deep purple berries are an attractant to kids who like to stick things in their mouths... use the G W search for thousands of posts about such ... kill it now.. or you will spend the next decade pulling seedlings out of your garden ... and try to dig up the root.. all of it.. or drip round up on the cut stalk ... ken

I missed that you had come back with a reply, Coach! It sounds like you have some species of Asclepias! One of the common names is butterfly weed, and people pay money for the stuff you're trying to get rid of! Like dandelions, the seeds "float" in the air, and my guess is that some neighbor pretty close has one/some they're cultivating to attract butterflies! The most common species is A. incarnata--but I really have no way to know if that's the species that's showing up in your yard or not. Some info at the link below if you're interested in more! In terms of getting rid of it, I recommend Weed-B-Gon. You can use that in the grass--it kills only broad leaf plants, and you can use it where there is no grass too. From my experience it works better than Roundup, and it's what I use anywhere I need an herbicide these days--works quite well at getting rid of cottonwood and aspen suckers in the grass! As far as I know all, or at least most, milkweeds have taproots, so the sooner you get rid of them the easier it will be. If you decide to try to pull them, you'll need to get all of the root out or they'll come back from anything you leave behind! If you have a place where you want to grow some to attract butterflies (it's also a host plant for the caterpillars), you can just deadhead the flowers before any seeds form to help keep them from "filling up your yard!" Can't help with "the neighbor" if I'm right that that's where the seeds are coming from! Skybird P.S. The "plant" you were getting into as a kid was most likely dandelions! Here is a link that might be useful: Asclepias incarnata

Since you don't want it, shovel up the roots to get rid of whatever it is. If there are orange/purple potatoes, it's sweet potato. I doubt that's what it is since they are still dormant here. If it's Houttuynia, you can't garden that spot until you get rid of this. Little pieces of root not found/removed can keep growing new plants. Smothering might work for you. Can you add a pic of the whole area?

Discoqueen - it's an elder bush. Sambucus nigra - a very common self sowing native. You will need to cut it right down and then, if you can't dig out the roots, apply some sort of brush killer to the stumps. Before anyone says, why destroy an edible, these things are native here and sprout all over the place. They are a bit too common and a bit too large to tolerate in our small gardens.