Good morning! This is my first post on this forum and I thought someone might be able to tell me what is going on with my old daylily (it's over 15 years old). Anyway, it has always grown a shoot in the middle of it that looks like a corn stalk, for lack of a better description. I always cut it out after it blooms but none of my other daylilies have done this. It is bizarre. I always comes back. Has anyone seen this or know what it is? Thanks for any suggestions or help. Gayle





And the stalk is the larger one just right of center in this photo:

Very interesting, but I have no idea what that might be. But you might want to post it over in the Plant Id forum, if you don't get a quick answer here. Maybe someone will recognize the plant.

I believe it is an obnoxious weed and would pull it ASAP!!

What kind of bloom does it have? I agree with Larry, post it on the Plant ID forum if you haven't already. It's not part of the daylily, the leaf structure is wrong.

floota said:I believe it is an obnoxious weed and would pull it ASAP!!

Julie, hi. I have pulled it every year and the plant is old. It keeps coming back and that counts moving across the state with it. I'm amazed that I pull it and think it's gone but it's almost like it's in the plant's DNA. Thanks for the suggestion. Gayle

Seedfork said:Very interesting, but I have no idea what that might be. But you might want to post it over in the Plant Id forum, if you don't get a quick answer here. Maybe someone will recognize the plant.

Larry and Sue, thanks for the suggestion. I thought about that also so I'll post it there. I've pulled it every year and think that it's gone but it crops up with the plant every year. Hum, even moving across the state with it didn't get rid of it.

Gayle

Is it actually in a daylily? The pictures may be misleading but the leaves around it look more like an iris. Have you tried dividing the plant it is in and separating it out?

Just let it grow and see if it blooms.

You might check out Johnson Grass. It would look similar and it would have the sort of root structure that would keep it coming back over and over and year to year. If that is what it is, though, you are lucky it hasn't escaped further away than a single daylily clump. It would have been easy to move from location to location without realizing it.

I'd expect that there are quite a few gardeners on NGA that have experience with it and can help. Good luck!

crawgarden said:Just let it grow and see if it blooms.

Just a word of caution. If it should prove to be Johnson Grass, the danger is letting it grow for any length of time because of the way it spreads underground. It will take advantage of reasonably good growing conditions and waiting to see it bloom is an advantage for the plant. If it can be identified prior to seeing it head out, it would be easier. It can be a real nuisance when it's growing where it isn't wanted.

looks like corn to me, do you feed birds?

I thinking it must not be Johnsongrass because it has been doing this for years and has not spread, but has come up in the same daylily year after year.

oh.

sorghum ??

let us know what you find out--I'm curious too, because I have a couple daylilies with similar invaders year after year.
I've not let them grow to the extent to see what they really are, but when trying to extract them it seems they are some kinda monster grass or grain type thing whose roots are intimately embedded and apparently perennial
one of these years I'm gonna have to dig 'em up and mangle the daylilies enough to tease them out...

I agree with that sentiment @Seedfork but anything else I can think of in the sorghum/corn family type plants would be annuals and not return in the same spot or after they were pulled out. There may be another plant, but knowing the trouble Johnson Grass can give a person, I'm not trusting her plant very much. It's been coming back for 15 years? It's not coming from birdseed if it's doing that.

Would you consider using a strong knife to cut out part of the daylily, including the oddity, so you can separate it further and also see the root structure of the offender? You can replant the daylily portion elsewhere (not in the same "problem" spot).

Do you have crinums in your areas where this daylily has been? Although it is big, it looks like a younger crinum which really would not care if the green gets cut and would be very difficult to pull out.
But I am known to be wrong.

May you be blessed with success!

The stem/leaf structure strongly suggests a grass. What's puzzling is that this thing hasn't spread in 15 years. It resembles millet, (Pennisetum), some of which are fairly large. In order to get a better ID, let it flower.

I was thinking millet from the flower description too Ken, but it would have to perennial and hardy and I didn't find one like that that had flowers as described, like a green corn cob.

sooby said:I was thinking millet from the flower description too Ken, but it would have to perennial and hardy and I didn't find one like that that had flowers as described, like a green corn cob.

I didn't see a flower description, but you're right, a lot of things just aren't adding up.

Last year I spread alfalfa pellets as mulch, and ended up with some volunteer grasses. I grew a couple of them in containers, and they turned out to be a form of millet commonly used as forage.

They really looked a lot like this plant, but they wouldn't be persistent in a cold climate.