Knowledgebase

Plant Identification #887163

Asked October 04, 2024, 2:34 PM EDT

Could you please identify this plant?

Montgomery County Maryland

Expert Response

It's some type of squash plant, but we can't be any more specific since they hybridize easily and "volunteer" squash can have any number of genetic combinations depending on what the parent plants were. (Fruits they form will be technically edible, but might not be very tasty or high-quality.)

Miri

The neighbor was told by the resident it was an Indian Pumpkin Plant and was worried it was invasive.  There was a tremendous amount of Lantern Flys present.  We were only standing a few minutes and we all had the fly land on us.

The Question Asker Replied October 04, 2024, 3:33 PM EDT
We are not aware of an invasive species by that name. If they have a botanical name to offer, we can check our resources to verify whether it's invasive or not. (Our guess is not, since we don't know of a locally-invasive plant that looks like a garden squash.) Spotted Lanternfly is present throughout most of the state, including Montgomery County, and they can feed on (or simply land on) a wide variety of plant species. (They were not drawn to the yard by this specific plant.) They will most likely be a nuisance for several more years as the population keeps growing, but then will probably follow the same pattern of other invasive insects and subside to background levels as predators learn to eat them and catch up to the population boom. Counties in Maryland and Pennsylvania closer to where the insect was first detected a decade ago have fortunately already experienced this so far.

Miri

Loading ...