f13.net

(http://myspace-494.vo.llnwd.net/01377/49/47/1377087494_l.jpg)

Question, because I honestly do not know.

Is this marijuana, and if so how the hell should I dispose of it?  For some reason I never noticed it before!  Its a huge plant and can be seen over my fence. 

I do not believe so.  I think you'd have 5 leaves.

But I know nothing of the marijawana aside from what the TV tells me, and what I see on college students' shirts.

(http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2027/potleavesmx2.jpg)

No, it's not. Marijuana has jagged leaf edges, the mainstem would be greenish, not brown.

The 5-leaf is the most common, but there can be up to 11-leafs, iirc.

If it is marijuana, the best way to dispose of it is with a big bonfire in the front yard. Make sure you stand almost directly over the fire for best results.

Rad.  I got worried because there are strange like buds on it, like what you see Signe and company sporting!

If it was marijuana, and it is visible over your fence, you would not have to worry about disposing of it.

My dad has these incredibly handy "plant finder" books that let you figure out what kind of plant something is by navigating a search tree based on its features, e.g. "if it has woody stems, go to page 4, if it has green stems, go to page 16, if it's some other kind of plant, go to page 20", etc.  Each book is limited in scope (only one general type of plant, like "berries", and they only cover wild plants of a particular area), but if what you're looking for is in the book, you'll find it pretty quickly.

WHY hasn't someone made a wiki-type thing that uses that concept?  Everything called "plant finder" that Google comes up with requires that you know the name of the plant already.  What use is that?

Yeah, I tried to research what it is, but could not pinpoint it.  I suck at plants, and would hate to cut it down if it is not marijuana.  Thanks for the help, guys!

Looks like a Triffid to me.

I can't believe you don't know what a pot plant looks like!  FAKER!  Anyway, I'm sure if you leave it be some sort of nasty, sneezy ragweed will pop out of it.  This is where V-Lily would come in handy, I think. 

Yeah, its not pot. See the difference in the leaves?



(http://uscgaviationhistory.aoptero.org/images/Marijuana%20Plant.jpg)

Only one way to find out if its pot or not; bring out the pipe and light up!

Thank you, Signe. A least someone remembers that I am a fucking botanist for a living!

It looks sort of like a Schleffera species, but with an acute leaf apex instead of a rounded one. If Cheddar could tell me in which region of the US he lives, and take a picture of the buds, I might be able to ID it.

(http://myspace-846.vo.llnwd.net/01387/64/89/1387149846_l.jpg)

Virginia.  Thanks for the help, VD!  What you been up to lately (besides getting married :P)?

I think it's sage, the stuff grows like a weed. Go find some sage in your spice cabinet and compare the smell of the spice to a bruised leaf of the plant.

Pretty sure it's not sage.  Sage (Salvia spp.) is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae), which means it ought to have squarish stems and leaves growing in decussate pairs.  Cheddar's plant definitely has palmately compound leaves.

(Integrative Biology 117L for teh win, baby!)

Shit, you guys get into the subtropicals down there, and the pictures are pretty fuzzy. I could ask you more questions, but it woud take you as long to figure out what the hell I am talking about as it would to just ask your neighbor what's growing on their side of the fence. I still suspect it's a Schefflera (umbrella-tree) of some kind, but I dunno for sure.

I've been up to work and playing Okami. I'm almost to the 70 hour mark! I love expansive console games.

I was going to say that the "buds" looked kinda like hops, but upon further research, that's totally not hops.

I can't tell from the picture if those are buds or berries. I thought it might even be a type of elderberry, because they bear racemes as well, but they're mostly pinnately compound. Is the plant a shrub or an herb (is it woody)?