I had a name for this at one time, but I lost it. Hopefully it's familiar to someone. It just showed up by itself at my house in Utah (zone 5a), and I couldn't find any others growing in the area. I have since moved to Idaho, and I think I saw this same plant, or something similar but much taller, so I'd love to find out again what it is. It was about 2 feet tall when I took these pictures. Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

Gaura lindheimeri most likely, or a similar species ..

http://keyserver.lucidcentral....

http://www.vcmga.org/2009AGTHi...

Scrub that, I found Chamerion angustifolium which looks more like it!

http://www.wildflowerchild.inf...

http://www.ct-botanical-societ...

http://www.google.co.uk/search...

The Plant List gives it as a synonym of Epilobium angustifolium ..

http://www.theplantlist.org/tp...

ITIS says the opposite!

http://www.itis.gov/servlet/Si...

Also look at Epilobium angustifolium, it's in the same family as the Gaura.

well I took to long in the posting, I now agree with Janet

bootandall said:well I took to long in the posting, I now agree with Janet

Hi Valarie, your username sounds familiar!

Your post must have gone via pigeon.

That's a blast from the past!!! Great to see you Valarie!

Thanks Janet and Valarie! It's definitely Chamerion angustifolium (Fireweed)! When I saw the name fireweed, that sounded really familiar. I'm excited to have the name again! This one never grew over 3 feet tall, but I saw some along a road the other day that were at least 6 feet tall! Hopefully I can gather some seed!

It looks to be Chamerion angustifolium. Hope you will add some of your pic's to the database:

Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium subsp. angustifolium)

Lin, I added them as soon as I found out what it was!

Natalie said:Lin, I added them as soon as I found out what it was!

oops, I didn't see them there ... must be in the queue for approval.

They were approved just after I uploaded them, so they are there somewhere!

great sleuthing!
And now don't forget to mark this thread as 'Done'.

I marked it as "done" right before adding the plants to the database! It shows it as done when I look at it.

Whoops, my bad! I think I left the thread open too long, that, or I was blind and could use another cup of coffee.
That's my story and I am sticking to it!

Coffee always helps! I'm drinking some now!

I was beginning to think that I had a serious lag problem, so I grabbed another cup just in case!

whew, OK, so I am not alone!

Nope, not alone!!