Plant Identification … please [ Horticultural ]

Can anyone name this wretched weed, Please

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It has roots a metre or more long, and up to about 40mm diameter

… some spread horizontally, but it then appears to send down a tap-root every-so-often and start a new bush [####]
I worked for about six hours yesterday, and cleared maybe a tenth of it

… and I have clear ‘archaeological evidence’ that it was intentionally planted !!

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 12/09/2022 16:39:57

The old stems look a bit woody - the leaves are a bit immature, but hmm, could it be a Hydrangea? ..some of them will 'run'..

..what's the leaf arrangement, are they in opposed pairs?

Thanks, but certainly not an Hydrangea

If it stops “persisting it down” with rain, I will cut and photograph some leaves.

MichaelG.

It's difficult to tell from what I can see. Is it possibly a kind of vine or hop?

Cough-----

These might help:

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MichaelG.

Email the pictures to RHS Wisley……they may be willing to assist.

Ground Elder?

regards Martin

No Martin, the stems are all underground with that one.

According to Plant net there's an 18% chance it's a plum.

That being true, spot the nearest Plum / Damson tree and dig a trench about a foot deep (a mattock is a wonderful tool for this) as near as you can get to it. The closer you can get the shorter the trench need to be.

The damn things can sucker 40foot away from the parent tree and will keep it up for more years than we have left to us.

Edited By Dave Halford on 12/09/2022 19:08:59

I use Plant Net on my phone it has a high accuracy rate from what I can tell.

It's a plum rootstock sucker, probably quince A. The stump may be long gone but they can run for 30 ft or more.

A mix of glyphosate and diesel or paraffin painted on the cut stumps will get rid of it eventually

It looks like a fruit plant by the leaves, others have been more specific. Noel

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Interesting, thanks

My only reservation is that, as I mentioned, I have archaeological evidence [sweet wrappers and broken tiles] that at least a couple of these were intentionally planted … it all seems very strange.

The same man planted a front garden hedge of ‘snowberry’ which is running all over the place

MichaelG.

If the plum/gage trees are still there and you want to keep them then ignore my advice about the glyphosate.

The horizontal root growth you describe is typical of this type of rootstock, and there are epicormic buds along its length. If the scion dies, as may be the case here, then the rootstock will send up shoots along its length. If they radiate out from the wall someone probably had a trained plum which died back, leaving the rootstock to its own devices.

As for the snowberry, if you want to get rid of it I'd cut back and remove the top growth now, cover the whole area in thick black plastic, dug in at the edges, then top that with wood chippings from a tree surgeon. Leave the whole thing a year and it should be gone. On the plus side its roots are a great soil improver

Thanks again Tris

… it’s rather complicated: I’ve just had some concrete and slabs removed, with a view to levelling the area to the same height as the drive, and using grasscrete [or one of the plastic alternatives] to provide a small area of additional parking. … The monster roots are in the layer that I need to level.

MichaelG.

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Edited By Tris on 13/09/2022 00:51:12

Ah, ok, were the roots under the concrete and slabs? Do you need to dig down or build up?

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It was already evident that you had the right background, Tris !!

MichaelG.

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Here’s a quick snap of the guys removing the last of the concrete … I will try to find a ‘before’ picture tomorrow.

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By the time they had done this, they had more than earned what I paid them, so [unfortunately] we didn’t even discuss using the digger to remove soil and roots.

Bedtime now … Zzzz

MichaelG.