I live on a mountain top in extreme western North Carolina, at about 2100 ft elevaton. I have a new house on freshly graded land, consisting of mostly red clay and shale. I have seeded the ground with fescue and put down wheat straw. The seed for this plant may have come from that or from a bird dropping, but we have no idea what it is. It just volunteered and seems to be very happy. The bees like it. It is about 24 inches tall and 18 inches wide. The central stalk with the yellow flowers has grown vertically about 10 inches in the past 3 days. I put a framing hammer in one shot to show the scale. It looks like a spinach or leak type of plant to us, but we are not sure. Can anyone help us identify it? Thanks
its not a leek, leeks are onion family, im very new to vegetables, so i wouldnt like to guess without being 100% sure, especially when it comes to edible plants........healthy looking specimen.....im sure someone will be along to give you an accurate ident.
Looks like "gai choi" (aka "Gai choy"), a Chinese mustard. There are many different varieties, with a wide variation of leaf and leaf stalk colours and shapes. A selection of Chinese Mustards
Thanks to most of you. With your help, I found what looks like a match. Pak Choy. Maybe one of the laborers working on my house brought Chinese takeout for lunch. http://www.evergreenseeds.com/pakchhyluch.html Thanks again.
I would have to agree that this is definitely a bok choy of some sort, there are a few that I have read about. It will self-seed if you let the flowers mature and you will find this everywhere next year. It is a great bee flower, I keep bees and they go crazy over the yellow flowers, so I allow them to self-seed everywhere. Bees also go nuts over the broccoli that I let go to flower too, everyone needs to know that bees are one of the most beneficials, they make our flowers and vegies grow strong and prolific, let the bees come in numbers. The leek flowers are another the bees love, (speaking of leeks). I always allow many leeks to stay for their second year in the garden to give forage to the girls. Have a great day!!!
As a regular consumer of these greens I would have to agree - most likely Bok Choy (Pak Choy). Flowers are delicious.
Ah ha!!! Never would have dreamed the flowers of pak choi (bak choi) would be good to eat, a new culinary treat for me for sure!!! I now would imagine that probably all the brassica flowers would be good, I have tons of broccoli going to flower right now too, I'll try them too. Thanks for this great new treat!!! Cindi
no doubt they will be great too. The stalk of the flower is a totally different texture to the regular stalks - more uniform texture a bit like an asparagus stalk. Enjoy!
