[HoofPick]

We get one of these plants showing up every year. It usually get killed before I get a chance to see it matured but this year it was left alone. Every year it is in a different spot and we don't move it. The plant is about 3.5 feet tall. I'm guessing the spikey parts are the fruits but I've never opened them. This is the largest plant I've seen.

I'm in zone 8b in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.

 

[dizzy]

Jimson weed. It's a member of the nightshade family and is poisonous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium

 

[handymama]

Kill that sucker

 

[HoofPick]

Good to know. We'll be killing that one now. Thanks for the quick ID from both of you!

 

[idigbeets]

Yea those seed pods are big enough to have viable seed, pull it and trash it.

 

[haypoint]

The only place I've ever seen it was in a potato field. Since it is in the Nightshade family as is the potato plant, I'll bet any selective weed killer used on potato fields won't touch this weed; That explains a lot.

 

[handymama]

They're annuals, but they do grow right back when cut. Just have to make sure you get it before the seed pods bust open and it will be gone next spring.

 

[GrannyG]

They are called Moon Flowers around here...POISONOUS to animals....the moths love them, they bloom at night, beautiful white flowers with a wonderful smell but they are dangerous plants

 

[handymama]

That's weird... I have moon flowers that are in the morning glory family that only open at night. They're a vine growing up a trellis out back...

 

[secuono]

I have these, they bloom for days on end. Moths love them, had some giant black/orange moths come by last year to only these plants.
Poisonous, rip out with root, otherwise, they grow back.

 

[handymama]

Hummingbirds love them too.