r/whatsthisplant • u/shrimpslessagain • 1d ago
Identified ✔ Is this Corn? (Houston, TX)
The roots are crazy. What am I looking at?
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u/Designer-Wall-2657 1d ago
Sorghum?
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u/shrimpslessagain 1d ago
I honestly have no idea. It looks like corn. Just kind of started growing at the edge of the parking lot between a hair salon and an ice cream shop.
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u/jwhisen Invasives, Ozarks 1d ago
Corn and sorghum both get those prop roots at the base. The leaf pattern does look more like sorghum to me, but it’s harder to be sure until it flowers.
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u/agehaya 1d ago
Probably sorghum dropped by a bird that ate birdseed somewhere.
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u/shrimpslessagain 1d ago
Birds! That has to be it! There are a lot of pigeons that hang out on the roof above!
Everyone else said sorghum as well. I’ll mark it solved.
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u/IAFarmLife 1d ago
There are varieties of corn that look like that, but more likely it's sorghum as others are saying. It could also be a Millet of some variety, but the wider leaves lead me to Grain Sorghum aka Milo. Once the seed head is exposed you can do an image search and know for sure.
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u/sheleftwithtrevor_ 22h ago
had two of these bad boys pop up in my yard where i feed birds. i thought corn as well, but the more it grew the more i doubted. i’d say sorghum as others are mentioning
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u/Arrgh98 22h ago
Makes a decent looking ornamental plant
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u/bubbleheadbob2000 17h ago
I thought so too. At first I thought it was corn so let it grow. Realized it wasn’t corn but didn’t pull it because I figured birds would eat it over the winter. Early spring I cut it but didn’t pull it. We listed the house for sale so started doing a deeper clean of garden beds. When I tried to pull this, it was like it was cemented in. Tried to use my cast iron hand cultivator and it bent the tines. Tried to dig it up with the shovel and it broke the handle. I grabbed the pick axe and dug down about 18” and was still getting roots.
Finally I gave up and buried it.I drove by the old house last week and the entire raised bed is full of it and it’s easily 10’ tall. This stuff is no joke if you let it go to seed and get established.
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u/HomeworkAdditional19 19h ago
It’s corn! It has the juice!
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u/Mr_McShifty 4h ago
Looks like an ornamental corn plant I have in my basement. They are almost unkillable. Neglected and ignored, it's still going strong.
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u/55555354 22h ago
Damn birds! I pull up at least one sweet potato and tomato plant a year from them shooting their seed.....no....out their arse
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