It looks like Enchanter's Nightshade, Circaea lutetiana

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/enchanter_ns.htm

Thanks! That's it. I've never heard of it. I've been meaning to ask all summer but I finally remembered to take a picture today.

No, that‘s not it. The flowers are those of a Solanum, not Circaea. 100% sure on that. There’s even a green berry in the picture. One of the S nigrum complex imo. It‘ll be much easier to pull than Circaea which has a rampant network of roots and is a persistent spreading perennial.

Circaea is perennial?😲 Awesome! I hope my couple plants are persistent enough to persist. Those shape shifting Solanum nigrum are tricky.

I just googled for Solanum and the pictures I've seen (without knowing the species, just the genus) don't look like mine. The leaf shape is quite different and the flowers are bigger than I've ever seen on one in my yard. I'll keep looking into it this evening to see if I can find a species of Solanum that looks like mine. My weed only grows in my shady backyard but not in my sunnier front yard.

Circaea lutetiana is a persistent weed on my allotment. It’s definitely perennial and well nigh unbeatable.

Seegreen, Solanum is a big and varied genus. Look for Solanum nigrum, which I mentioned above. There’s one form of S nigrum sometimes called S americanum https://plantsam.com/solanum-nigrum/

But I’d bet anything you like its absolutely not Circaea.

If you search on Solanum nigrum seedlings you will see some images that match yours.

tj

seagreen_turtle compare the flowers::

Solanum nigrum flowers

Circaea lutetiana flowers

It really looks like the Circaea flowers after looking at the two pictures that winterberry provided. I have never seen big berries on any of the plants I have. I see rudimentary flowers. I will let one grow through its whole life cycle to see but I'm not a meticulous gardener who's out plucking every weed before it can reach maturity. So I think I would have seen large berries before. My back yard is fairly natural. I have a lot of shade or partial shade loving perennials that crowd out a lot of weeds.

So I let it go 3 weeks at a time without weeding; some weeds escape my pulling because they are under shrubs so I don't get around to it for a while. The cracks in my patio attracts weeds. I pull then when I see them if I feel like it :-P

Thank you so much everyone. I'll continue to observe to see its lifecycle.

What you say surprises me. To me it looks the opposite. How about posting here some more, better pics?

OK. Would it help if I pulled one out and took a picture from the side as well with roots attached? I'll try remember to do it tomorrow. I can't stress enough how tiny the flowers are. I've never seen any black berries or any color berries on them.

The Circaea lutiana flower has no yellow in it, and you see cleary this plant's flowers have yellow connivent anthers in the flower center. The leaves are different. Also a lot of pubescence in Circaea flower and fruit. Solanum has glabrous flower and fruit.

Nigrum has slightly winged petiole that tapers thinner as it meets the stem.

Circaea petioles are thin all the way between leaf and stem.

Solanum nigrum is so common that I forgot it's not native. Called Solanum nigrum complex because of all the different variations.

Jay has given you the botany but, bottom line, the two are just utterly different when you know them in person and your plant isn't Circaea in a million years.

Would there be an explanation why my weeds never get berries if they're Solanum sp.? I'm not arguing they're not I'm just trying to undersatnd why I've never seen berries. I've had this weed in my yard for years and I don't pull them all (yard too big and me too tired) so some have matured. The ones I pictured just grew in between patio pavers fairly recently.

I will be watching through the fall with interest to see how they change.

On a separate weed note, I do have "deadly nightshade" vines (so invasive) that I've been pulling for years. It gets red berries galore. Purple flowers, yellow centers, then berries green turning to red. Maybe I have the name wrong but I've always known them as that.

Deadly Nightshade, Atropa belladonna is not a vine, has dirty brownish mauve bell shaped flowers and has black berries. What you describe is Solanum dulcamara, Woody Nightshade or Bittersweet.

I may well be wrong but I thought I could see a couple of green berries in your pictures. They produce berries constantly, not just in fall. Any chance of those better pictures?