Knowledgebase

plant ID #885543

Asked September 17, 2024, 11:00 AM EDT

Please help me identify this plant. I think it may have some value.

Baltimore City County Maryland

Expert Response

Unfortunately we can't see enough detail to ID the plant. Can you share more pictures of it growing in the ground (so we can see its growth habit and relative size), and where we can clearly see its leaf characteristics and arrangement? The flowers pictured aren't in focus or are dimly-lit, so another close-up of them would also help, since blooms can be key to plant ID. Image files at least 1MB in size would allow us to enlarge them to see more detail.

A rough guess based on the features we can make out is Common Three-seeded Mercury, also called Common Copperleaf (Acalypha rhomboidea), a native annual that is often considered a weed in garden settings. iNaturalist notes that Mourning Doves (and other unspecified birds) can eat the seeds, but we don't have information about other wildlife uses of the plant. One site does list a couple caterpillar species that use the plant, though those caterpillars tend to be garden pests. The blooms are thought to be wind-pollinated.

Miri

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