Well, I thought it was spearmint. "It's [just] a weed," a strongly influential-in-my-life lady informed me. Wikipedia seems to be on her side. Furthermore, when I felt the stem to see if this were a mint, I didn't detect the tell-tale corners of a typical mint's square stem. This plant might have square-ish stems, but not really. So what might these plants be? We have a few. Thank you.
Looks more like a young willowherb (http://leavesofplants.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/willowherb.html) than a mint.
Well, I'm familiar with Epilobium angustifolium, but E. parviflorum is a new one for me. And I'm sure you are right. So, these little guys stay. They are welcome additions to our balcony garden, eight storeys above the alleyway dumpsters. In fact, we'd be only too happy if we re-acquired some fireweed. Birds gave us fireweed a few years ago, and we had it for at least three years. The birds hadn't planted it in exactly the right spot, however, and I think it was too exposed for such a long-stemmed plant. Thanks for the identification. So far we haven't found a single weed. Just a wonderful variety of beautiful plants that have settled themselves in on our little concrete refuge in the core of downtown Vancouver's West End. "Strangers are the friends you haven't met yet."
I wouldn't guarantee that's the right species. You'll need to wait and see how they develop; they may well turn out to be one of the weedy types.
Okay. We'll take good care of them in the meantime. Later we'll see whether they are Epilobium weeditypum. Thanks again.
