Anyone help with ID?

paulbpmurphy · #1 (**permalink**) 15-08-2011, 07:27 PM

Found today in boggy ground in Southern Ireland. Have no idea what it is.

Johnny81 · #2 (**permalink**) 15-08-2011, 07:31 PM

Looks like a white Himalayan balsam Impatiens glandulifera.

paulbpmurphy · #3 (**permalink**) 15-08-2011, 07:52 PM

Thank-you very much. Plant has an interesting history too.

Mele · #4 (**permalink**) 15-08-2011, 08:05 PM

Interesting yes, but it's a darned nuisance

paulbpmurphy · #5 (**permalink**) 15-08-2011, 08:19 PM

I 've just noticed it's on Ireland's 'most unwanted' plant species list.

Mele · #6 (**permalink**) 15-08-2011, 10:17 PM

Not surprisingly. Spreads like stink down riparian corridors.

htcdude · #7 (**permalink**) 16-08-2011, 07:49 AM

It seems to be everywhere I go at the moment, adds a bit of colour to the place, but can't help think it's stemming the growth of a lot of other plants

Nige

Chris Yeates · #8 (**permalink**) 16-08-2011, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by htcdude

It seems to be everywhere I go at the moment, adds a bit of colour to the place, but can't help think it's stemming the growth of a lot of other plants

Nige

I tend to agree with the late Oliver Gilbert that we just have to get on with living with these sorts of alien invaders - the human race does not really have a good track record to decide to stigmatise (no pun intended

) these newcomers (or certain of them - most people, even botanists, tend to go into raptures about poppy-fields after all); you'd be surprised how many of our familiar 'wild'-flowers are not native

on the one hand we're encouraging people to make bumble-bee nests and then we vilify a plant which was made for them

and of course I'm inconsistent and rail against spanish bluebells

; I'm only human . . . .

. . . . . ah! that's where I came in

I'll get mi' coat

Chris