unknown creeping plant

[Bart]

An unknown little plant appeared in a tray of sphagnum - and other moss in which I grow my son's venus fly traps:







The leaves aren't so clear but you can see them on the right hand corner of the last picture. The leaves are about 3mm across, as are the flowers. Interesting little thing, quite elegant with the exploding seed pods... Would that be of interest for the exchange or is this a weed to be avoided at all cost?

[Matt T]

Your wee plant is an Epilobium. There are a number of these creeping willowherbs, some native and others introduced from New Zealand. Yours looks like the New Zealander E. brunnescens to me. Probably not one for the seed exchange.

[Bart]

Thank you Matt, yes that looks about right. Makes you wonder where it came from? Maybe a trace of spagnum moss in the bale of moss I got from a local florist for my Pleione ( years ago). I was convinced that moss was European forest moss because it wasn't sphagnum and full of bilberry roots...

[David Lyttle]

It is an Epilobium possibly Epilobium neteroides from New Zealand. New Zealand does supply sphagnum moss to the international horticultural trade so this may well have been the source of your plant. I cannot conclusively identify it from your photos so I will post a couple of photos for you to compare it with. It can be a bit of a pest in pots and spreads though it is not as bad as the related species Epilobium nummularifolium. Epilobiums are generally bad news for the gardener even the alpine ones that can be quite attractive so I avoid growing them.