Have you ever found any odd wild flowers on your yard or where you live? And where do you live?

I live in Ontario, Canada, Zone 5. There are tons of different kinds of wildflowers around here, I don't even know all the names of them. This spring, I found the weirdest flower up in my hill. It was near some moss, it was an orchid, called a Lady's Slipper. It was so weird looking, and nobody even planted it there. So weird. What about you?

Have you ever found any odd wild flowers on your yard or where you live? And where do you live?
The first time I saw "Indian Pipe" I thought it was a weird mushroom not a flowering plant - way too weird!! The most recent odd ball was a "porcupine tomato" or Solanum pyrocanthus, I uploaded a pic of it in my 'question' last week. I live in North Dakota, but saw the Indian Pipe in Virginia. RScott
Reply:I grew up in country NSW australia. On our property amidst the long dry yellow grass after rain often would pop up the tiniest little purple native orchids - and the most amazing thing about them, they seriously smelled just like chocolate. I never knew what they were called - my brother and I just named them "chocolate flowers".
Reply:I don't know that the plant itself is considered odd, but I think it's a peculiar coindence. In the first house we owned, I was out doing yardwork and noticed two little familiar leaves among the grass. A rose! I put stakes around the tiny leaves and let it sprout up. It turned out to be a beautiful burgundy mounding rosebush that a former owner had cut back and part of it survived.





In the home where we live now, the same exact thing happened only this rosebush is a wild rose. It blooms once in the springtime with tiny white blooms that resemble apple blossoms. The shrub is HUGE now. If I don't prune it down to the ground every fall it will take over the yard.





I live in northern Viriginia.
Reply:Hey "me again", I have cactus in my garden in New Hampshire, just north of you. It's a version of prickly pear that is hardy. It gets lovely large yellow flowers... definitely cactus flowers. I have it planted at the front of my front flower bed; people come up to the garden to look at it and blink in surprise. It survives the winter!





The lady's slipper is a lovely wildflower. In my state it's protected; you cannot collect it from the wild and you should not destroy it or its habitat.





I ended up with a couple purple loosestrife in my housefront garden. They're not unusual in New Hampshire, but there are not any in my neighborhood so I have no idea where they came from. They're pretty so I keep three of them in that garden, but I'm keeping them from spreading which they will do, voraciously choking out native plants; they're not native here.
Reply:I found a cactus. Granted it was a small one, but it just didn't belong in Massachusetts.
Reply:Yes, I had these weeds popping up all over my yard when I first moved here (Southern). On the otherside of my yard is open land loaded with vines and more vines of strange looking, but beautiful flowers. Almost tropical. Well, I went to the local garden shop and was about to purchase this vine (quite expensive!) and realized that it was the exact vine that wants to take over my yard. LOL Purple Passion Vine. Be careful watch you wish for. Now, every summer, I get to choose where I want this vine to grow and never have to plant or buy a thing.