[norfolkchucks]

Hi all !!! I have recently taken over an allotment and everything is going fine, however I have these strange plants growing everywhere !!!!!
Can anyone help ID these they mainly grow on the recently cultivated parts and smell like some kind of cabbage





All your help would be greatly appreciated.

[DD.]

Look like 'Fat Hen' - a rather rampant weed!

[norfolkchucks]

Hi, thanks for that, had a quick google on it and not only is it edible but it seems it was grown as food for Chickens !!!!  Great news....Thanks

[DD.]

If you've got chickens - good - I was afraid you'd ask me to try it!

[lincspoacher]

FAT HEN - CHENOPODIUM ALBUM

Features to aid identification at early stage of growth

Cotyledons fleshy, much longer than wide, mealy white, purplish
underside, stalk absent, flat to the ground

Hypocotyl slender, medium long (1 cm), purplish

First true leaves oblong, mealy with toothed margins, purplish
underside

Later leaf shape is variable

Similar to orache but orache seedlings have broader, thinner leaves
and lack the purplish colour on both hypocotyl and the underside of
cotyledons and leaves

Significant features of the weed

A branching annual of erect habit (up to 1 metre tall) with dense
clusters of small green flowers

A very competitive widespread weed common on arable land that
removes great quantities of nutrient from the soil

Can germinate close to the surface or from depth (8 cm)

Can produce anything from 3000-20,000 seeds per plant

A Food source for aphid predator the Common earwig
(Forficula auricularia)

May act as host for Black-bean aphid (Aphis fabae) a carrier of Beet
mosaic virus (BMV9), common green capsid (Lygocoris pabulinus)  and several capsid and leafhopper species



Ive got a really good little handbook for farmers on weeds, buts its too many pages to scan in...............

[Aunt Sally]

Pop a reference in for the book lincspoacher, so we stay on the right side of copyright  

[lincspoacher]

Ummm.........

'Weed Identification Guide'

(c) Horticultural Development Council, East Malling, Kent

I dont think there bothered tho, its a quango.

[Aunt Sally]

I used to work there.