The Amazing Weed

A small weed began growing in my garden of succulents. In a strange (well, not strange, but new to me) climate and it being a weed I did not recognise, I thought I would wait and see before I removed it. Wait and see if it produced a recognisable flower so that I might identify it and decide whether it truly was a weed, or if it was some sort of unknown (to me) exotic plant.

So I left it and waited.

I waited and the weed grew.

No flower appeared on its promising top-knot.

 

It looks to be in the family of Hollyhocks, but there is no gorgeous Hollyhock flower blooming at its top – or even along its side.

The amazing weed now measures over a metre tall (it’s 41 inches) and has begun to attract some caterpillar-producing insects, as its lower leaves are being eaten. There are tiny white (insect) eggs under the leaves which have, in turn, attracted small black ants.

So now the amazing weed is providing food source for at least two varieties of insects.

And still it grows.

Now, I am reluctant to pull it out.

I guess it’s more of we’ll 'wait and see’.

But I'm starting to think of "Jack and the Beanstalk".