Hello, I am new to this site and hoped someone could tell me what this plant is before my husband has me uproot it from our front walkway.I live in northern NJ. I enjoy light gardening around the home, but I did not plant anything in this plant's location this spring. At first I thought it might be something from last year coming back, and I was treating it like my other plants/flowers by fertilizing and spraying with micro nutrient. As it grew larger I noticed yellow flowers (1 or 2) close to the ground. The very large leaves cover them. the stems are prickly, and the leaves are fuzzy. There are also vines and what look like white roots shooting out of one of the large thick stems- some of which have ridges running lengthwise up them. I see another one growing in a different location- another bed- and I am just stumped as to what they can be. The closest thing I could find online were images of cucumber plants, but they also noted female flowers would grow with a small bump behind the bulb. I see none that resemble that, so if it were a cucumber plant, is it possible that it has only male plants? It is starting to crowd my other plants so one way or another it must come out. I just don't want to get rid of it without knowing if/how I should replant it elsewhere. Thanks so much for any help as this has been a great mystery for us.
Looks like a zucchini to me, or some other type of summer squash. Definitely leave it be - it will produce tasty edibles a bit later in the season. They'll produce only male flowers for the first little while, and then the female flowers and fruits will follow.
Thanks for your reply. I posted this question on another site and received a similar answer. They say it is definately a form of squash or pumpkin that was probably deposited via some form of critter who got it from a compost somewhere. Sounds plausible to me.
