footballfangb said: This is growing in a bed. Doesn't look like a weed. Any idea what this is? Thank you.
From what I understand, there are a few good indicators of telling whether or not a plant is in the mint family. The first and most obvious one is if it smells minty or at least herbal (think thyme, sage, lavender, etc). That isn't however always the case, some mints smell rather noxious or don't have much smell at all (for example hemp nettles and some dead nettles). Another good way to tell is the square stem. Most mints will have a square shaped stem. You can more easily tell by cutting it. If you look closely at the stem from above and it has four sides, it's probably mint. Also look for opposite leaves, leaves directly across from each other. Hope that helps!
Seems like the stem is round. It's not smelling like mint rather a very neutral smell more like a weed. The stem was covered with some hairy soft small spikes but not thorny.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
Could be a young thistle.
I have something similar in my yard. They sprout from tiniest piece of tap root. So if you pull them out, they are very difficult to eradicate. Tap root is very tapered and creamy white on my invasive thistle.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Another possibility would be California Mugwort – Artemisia douglasiana. A mature plant would have more deeply lobed leaves but being so young the leaves may not have reached their characteristic shape.
