I've had no luck identifying this plant/weed. It's a ground cover kind of thing with 3 or so heart-shaped leaves that grow by stem (both by long stem e.g. through juniper or short) directly from a ground level node, and seems to spread by rhizome. The patch or colony I'm trying to remove is very established. Many plants have humungous and deep (12") roots. After online searches as a last resort, the info desk at the local nursery is usually very helpful, but we didn't find any match in their weed reference books.
It looks like creeping bellflower to me. Nasty. It spreads by rhizome and seed. To eradicate you have to remove all flower heads, all root hairs, and dig down...way down, to get the bulbous roots (8-12" below the surface. We are having some success using a couple of layers of landscape fabric over a patch of it to block the light...for 2 Years!
Oh, thanks! The ones in the yard haven't flowered, so I didn't have that hint. They're just spreading like crazy from, as you say, every root hair. (And there is no scent to the root or leaf, thank you.)
If it is creeping bellflower, it blooms with a stalk of pretty purple bells. Nurseries still sell it as an ornamental perennial But it is so invasive that it is prohibited in some provinces (not yet here in BC). I've seen it referred to as a zombie plant. Mine were contained but ineradicable for several years, but now they've exploded!
It's an older property. I think they've been there for decades, must be, with the size of the roots. I've rooted it before, but never have I seen such giant vegetable-looking things. I wonder too if it's like some weeds, where when stems and leaves are stripped, the root system's just strengthened? Well, it's heading for the lilacs, so I think containment is a great idea, like dig a trench! And I'm pondering taking out the junipers, removing the (creeping bellflower) root, then putting the junipers back in. To be honest, the plant is nice enough and the bees like its flowers. It might be okay for a back alley or certain little areas, but I would never plant one. Thanks for your help.
Arthur Lee Jacobson thinks it's edible. Campanula: Edible Bellflowers - GoodFood World It is one of those weeds where the root system seems to get stronger when the upper vegetation is removed. One fall, I took all the plants out of the bed, removed all of the bellflower plants, bulbs and root hairs (or so I thought), and replanted the other plants. Two years later, the bed is filled with it again and it's heading into the surrounding lawn. I suggest not letting it go to seed. Good luck!
