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Tennessee Gardening

Possible Native Plant....invasive?

17 years ago

I had a couple of these pop up in some topsoil we had delivered back in the spring. At first I thought they were Empress Trees (Pawlownia tomentosa) but the leaves weren't right. Then I thought it might be a catalpa, but once it started blooming I decided that wasn't right either.

You can see the growth pattern in this first photo. It is approximately 3 ft tall already.

Here you can see one of the almost insignificant blooms...

Which are followed by rather interesting seed pods. Something tells me I might not want to let them mature as I might let loose a plague upon my lands...

Any help on ID'ing this would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (6)

farmerbell
17 years ago
I hope someone here on GW knows the answer! I too have these plants (weeds?) and at first I let them grow, bloom and set seeds. The next year I had tons of them, so I immediately pulled started them all up. What is interesting is that the foliage looks like it belongs to the hibiscus family.
Soeur
17 years ago
That's Velvetleaf, Abutilon theophrasti. Not native, but widely naturalized as a noxious weed. It's a big problem for farmers. You're right, it is a member of the mallow/hibiscus family.

Marty
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maternut
17 years ago
The cotton farmers around here call it wild cotton,
it allways shows up in cotton fields.
Norm
msbatt
17 years ago
What pictures?
tngreenthumb
Original Author
17 years ago
I had three images in the original message. Here is a direct link to the first one. Hit "next" to see the other two.

Abutilon theophrasti
sdrawkcab
17 years ago
the dreaded Abutilon (sp?)

dont let those seed pods mature or you'll have quite a bit of weeding to do for the next few years.

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