my hunch is rather some kind of golden rod, Solidago, the foliage would fit. It would be an Asteraceae,

the degree of of the "gooseneck" can vary, I am just not sure about the shape of the flower buds

did you have a chance to take a look a the roots? With Solidago, it would be dense roots and some rhizomes

they do spread by seeds very successfully, and develop very fast, around here in Europe an invasive species

Linaria_gw, that makes sense because when I initially noticed it I thought it was a goldenrod until I saw those flowers. I tried to pull it out of the ground but the stem snapped in half, so it’s rooted and anchored much better than any goldenrod I’ve had show up before. Stockier stem too. I’ll try to get the rest out and see about the roots…..

My first thought was Epipactis.

Foliage is wrong for Epipactis. That's a monocot with alternate foliage, semi clasping leaves with entire margins and also it's not 4ft tall. I assumed the drooping was due to the plant being wilted, not a natural growth habit. Is that incorrect? I'd go with Asteraceae.

Thank you all for your help! I love this forum!

I’m doing a lot of searches here… so Epipactis is a type of orchid? I had a wild orchid show up here many years ago (ID’d on this forum) and though that had a tiny flower that looked like a cattleya orchid and this unknown’s flower doesn’t, the plants somehow seem very similar to me.

floral, Your answer is over my head and will require many searches to really understand. lol! Until I can research more, the drooping top seems to be natural. I kept it freshly cut in water over night and the tip still curls like that:

The new picture confirms definitely not Epipactis.

Can you recall if it was drooping when it was growing?

Floral, it was definitely “drooping” (gooseneck, but not limp) when I first saw it and it’s been in water since then and still droops, though not quite as much. Current pics :

I'm pretty confident it's Solidago...possibly with the beginnings of one of the gall midge infestations that commonly affect them (and cause all sorts of "distortions".)

Lithospermum officinale Boraginaceae

European Gromwell

Sah_upstate4, What about the green flowers on my plant? Every Solidago image that I’ve seen shows a plant with the expected sprays of tiny yellow flowers all clustered together. My plant has much larger green flowers that hang down like frilly bells — each flower on its own stem. Which Solidago would it be?

Jay, same as my comments above, I don’t see how my green-flowered plant has any likeness to a European Gromwell that has small white flowers.

Am I wrong about my plant having green flowers?! What I perceive as a flower is in the center of this pic:

No, those are not flowers. They are just the foliage around the buds. The flowers are yet to appear.

Wow, ok. They look like flowers to me, especially because they’re a much lighter color than the other foliage. I’ll keep it in water then and wait for the actual flowers to open and hope it doesn’t die before it blooms. lol! ty!

The other common names are Common Gromwell and Stoneseed. Gromwell is derived from the Old English words grow and well. So it's growwell because it grew well. Some people think there's a French connection because 'well' in Old French means millet. The seeds do resemble millet. I lean more to the Old English origin. The creased leaves are another charecteristic of Lithospermum.

Thank you, Jay! I am amazed — I’ve never seen anything growing around here that looks like Gromwell! I researched for info and photos and found it listed for all New England states, and not for NY (considered an Atlantic state). I hope I can keep the cut stem long enough to see some of its actual flowers. :)

funny, those IDs are time and time again so interesting... and you only see what you know... I was so dead set in my inner eye on Solidago,

that I had trouble to find details that would fit with the Lithospermum. I got hung up on the leaf margins blablabla, it is really a light bulb moment to stay critical with one owns findings... thanks for being patient with us, Jay

Still waiting for it to flower and it’s already rooting in water. lol!

That's good to know. I think I might try rooting some Hairy and Hoary Pucoon. Maybe Marbleseed and latifolium too, if I can hunt them down.

@Jay 6a Chicago hold that thought! I just went to look at the ”roots” and it turned out to be torn plant fiber and new stem/leaf growth. It’s not new root growth, as I originally thought.

Yes. I was dubious about the "rooting" on a soft herbaceous subject.

It really did look like roots from 5 feet away and through somewhat murky water. lol! Sorry for the false start. I still haven’t dug the rest of the plant out. I couldn’t pull it out and it clearly had a robust root system, so I’m waiting for a soaking rain to make it easier. :)

21 days since my last post and I’m still waiting for this cutting to bloom and we still need a soaking rain.

Why do the leaves look so bluish in the original photo?

The first photo was taken indoors -- ignore that bluish color -- I thought it looked odd so I moved it outdoors. All other photos were taken outdoors.

The flowers are finally opening. Solidago, right? and the stem rooted in water.

Kudos to Linaria.

Here it is in full bloom! The other piece that I still haven’t removed from the parched garden is blooming now too. lol!

Maybe Solidago juncea, Early Goldenrod? The most common species in New York state barring canadensis and nemoralis are juncea, sempervirens, rugosa, odora, and arguta.

Thanks, Jay. I searched for images on all that you listed and S. juncea looks like it might be right.

Jay, do you agree with S. juncea? Its flower clusters are very different from the goldenrod I normally see around here. Here are two fresh pics…

The entire cutting:

A close-up of the leaves:

I don't think it's S. juncea because juncea has leaves with 1 main vein. Im not sure which species it is.

It may be Tall Goldenrod, S. altissima. The leaves match. The stem looks smooth but is covered in short pubescence that doesn't show up in photos. S. altissima, S. gigantea and S. canadensis make up the Solidago canadensis complex. Solidago canadensis is not an agressive spreader, but Solidago altissima is. Solidago atissima var. altissima is my guess. I did actually ID a real Lithospermum parviflorum a few days ago. Luckilly it was in bloom.

Solidago altissima var. altissima

Thanks, Jay. The reason I asked is that the leaf veining didn’t match the images I found for S. juncea… but the veining does seem to match S. altissima. Somehow, the single stems of flower clusters that mine has don’t seem to match any images I find for any Solidago. It’s still too dark out for me to go inspect the stem more closely. :)

Omg, I forgot that I still haven’t ripped out the original plant! The cutting has been misleading. :)

Drought watch conditions here: