Know what this plant is?

This plant volunteered in my Papaws garden. We first thought it may be a peanut plant. But my Papaw said it has gotten way to big. It is about 3.5 to 4 feet tall, about 2.5 to 3 feet wide. Stalk is at least an inch thick at the base. I want to think it may be a legume of some type, based off of the leaf structure. May be way out in left field with that assumption though.

We are dying to know what it is though. Really neat plant.

It has yellow blooms. There is one in the top of the first photo.

It's sickle pod, aka coffee weed. Considered a noxious weed. Also toxic, notice how nothing eats it?

Well hell. Thanks for clearing that up. It's in the garden, so nothing's had a chance to eat it.

Have you had this weed in your PawPaw's garden in previous years?

Have not. This the 3rd year he has had the garden in this spot. So it is really hard telling. But it looks very out of place. Looks like it's be in Florida.

ClinchValley86 said:

Have not. This the 3rd year he has had the garden in this spot. So it is really hard telling. But it looks very out of place. Looks like it's be in Florida.

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Florida? Not a chance.

Florida people might not know much but they know what coffee weed is.

ga.prime said:

Florida people might not know much but they know what coffee weed is.

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Who's a Florida person?

TennesseeTuxedo said:

ClinchValley86 said:

Have not. This the 3rd year he has had the garden in this spot. So it is really hard telling. But it looks very out of place. Looks like it's be in Florida.

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Florida? Not a chance.

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Have you seen them growing in your part of the state?

ClinchValley86 said:

TennesseeTuxedo said:

ClinchValley86 said:

Have not. This the 3rd year he has had the garden in this spot. So it is really hard telling. But it looks very out of place. Looks like it's be in Florida.

Click to expand...

Florida? Not a chance.

Click to expand...

Have you seen them growing in your part of the state?

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Don't believe so. Must be a transplant.

Coffee weed seed will last for years and years in the soil waiting for the right conditions to germinate. They're hard as a rock and nothing eats them. Just about anywhere you disturb the soil around here, coffee weeds will appear even though you've never seen them there before. I planted some deer food plots for some Florida people and coffee weeds came up in the food plots and they told me the fertilizer I used had coffee weed seed in it. :???:

Florida people are like that.

My dad used to have me pulling coffee weeds out of his peanut fields in the summers 40 years ago when I was still in school. They'll grow rather large and besides stealing water and nutrients from the peanuts, cause problems for the machinery used during the harvesting of the peanut crop. Like ClinchValley said, the leaves closely resemble peanut leaves. However, coffee weeds are not a legume and peanuts are a legume. The leaves would be shaded differently as a result. Dark green=peanuts, light green=coffee weeds. I was very good at picking them out even when they were no taller than the peanut plants. Some of those peanut rows were half a mile long. Me and another hand taking 4 rows at a time would walk the entire field. Amazing what you can do in your youth. The herbicide then used for coffee weeds in peanuts was toxaphene, since outlawed. It wasn't much good anyway, it only killed coffee weeds in the two leaf stage.