These are growing in what used to be a vegetable garden. Wondering whether it's a vegetable coming back or just a weed.
Be careful to remove as much of the underground rhizomes as you can. It is mostly those rhizomes that make the plant invasive.
Thank you for the information. I had a similar dreaded experience with mint several years ago (not in this location).
In your original post you ask if this is a vegetable coming back or a weed. While it is hard to imagine anyone planting most Petasites species on purpose, Petasites japonica, introduced to SW BC by Japanese immigrants decades ago does have culinary uses. It's hard to know if many Japanese still prepare shoots of this plant according to traditional methods because it sounds like a lot of trouble. Wikipedia has a description of the process. Further information from Wikipedia: "Like other Petasites species, [this] contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) which have been associated with cumulative damage to the liver and tumor formation. It also contains the carcinogenic PA petasitenine. The concentration of hepatotoxic PAs can be reduced to a concentration below detection limits with a proper extraction process." Petasites japonicus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Even if this plant is P. japonica (which I doubt) and even if it is a vegetable in Japanese culture, you would be well advised to treat it as a weed . . . a very nasty weed.
Thank you for the added information. Planting dandelions for culinary use is one thing, with this plant, I think I'll give it a miss. :-D
