Is this Rhubarb or what?

[PineBurrowFarm]

We just moved into our house/farm over the winter so now we're discovering all sorts of plants and stuff.

This has come up and my sister in law and husband think it's Rhubarb.. I'm the cautious one, what do you all think?

The plants are huge with many, many leaves but no prescence of any center stalk with a bud for flowers yet or anything. Some of them are starting to turn redish at the very bottoms, others are still green.

Keeping my fingers crossed that these pics work, my first time putting pics in a post...

PS- The leaves are fuzzy...

 

[silkiechicken]

Could be a type of ruhbarb. They don't all make flower stalks. The really mature ones do, but you lop those off as soon as you see them so you can get more leaves. If it were me, I'd take a slice of the stem and suck on it to see what it tastes like. But I'm a bit more daring.

The stems do look a bit thin, and kind of "fuzzy" so maybe it's a more ornamental type? The ruhbarb I'm used to has glossy stems.

Here's part of mine from this year. I'm short so the leaf looks big. The thing on the right side is the flower stalk I lopped off.

 

[patandchickens]

I can understand your caution - there are certainly several ornamental rhubarbs out there and It Is Said that they oughtn't be eaten, I am not sure why (I would guess most likely the stalks have too high an oxalic acid content, but, dunno). If you feel brave you might try snapping off a medium-sized leaf and putting the cut end of the stalk to your tongue, see if it at least tastes *possibly* edible - I can't guarantee that won't cause you to keel over instantly dead but I'd be fairly surprised, and I'd do it myself if I was really curious

Pat

 

[mistylady]

Our neighbors where we lived years ago had rhubarb and I remember it having shiney stems. We have the same plants you have out in the pasture and even the goats leave them alone. So I never thought they were anything good! Goats tend to eat what you would want to keep! LOL

 

[patandchickens]

Apparently my browser just doesn't like your photos, sorry, they're still not working for me

Anyhow, if the stems are fuzzy not smooth I would suspect ornamental rather than culinary rhubarb. Or of course something entirely else.

Pat

 

[Tutter]

Here's part of mine from this year. I'm short so the leaf looks big.

That's beautiful! And it looks large to me, no matter how short you might be! (This from another vertically challenged individual.)

Very nice! :happy_flower

 

[PineBurrowFarm]

Oh well

I'll keep in mind that it's probably not supposed to be eaten and might just make a couple pies for those pesky uninvited guests un

Thanks for your input guys...

 

[silkiechicken]

Might try to take a specimin down to a local green house/agricultural exention office and see if it can be ID'd there. Best of luck!

 

[Cassandra]

My husband glanced over my shoulder & saw PineBurrow's pic. He asked me what it was and I said, "maybe rhubarb."

He said,
They better get it away from that router. It might wake up and starting eating stuff...

then he starts babbling about people eating aliens and stuff. Absolute nonsense and completely unrelated to your question. But it was so bizarre, I had to share.

:|

Cassandra

 

[bills]

It kind of looks like my horseradish plants...

I can kind of see where a goat might not like that if it is horseradish. If the root is creamy white, and clears your nose when you bite into it, it probably is horseradish.