When we arrived back home this summer, we found this mystery plant growing where we had just put in the
stepping stones in the garden the city dug up for the water main/sewer repair.

It is huge. It is about 3 ft now, and that is fast for 2 months of growing!! Has small light orange flowers (that resemble squash flowers)...but they fade very quickly and form the seed pods I tried to get a picture of.

My wildflower book does not have this in it.
I think it came from the sacks of top soil we put down, along with sand for the stepping stones.

The plant is not attractive but the seed pods look very familiar to me. The leaves are huge and resemble Chinese Lanterns. Only they are much larger and lighter green.

I am saving the seed pods for across the street, for my wildflower area. But the plant I will cut down (not pull up) to see if it returns next season.

Anyone know what this is? I appreciate all responses!

from an Australian website...

I've been hunting for HOURS so I could decide whether to keep the seeds or destroy. ( we have the damaged areas across the street from the roadwork to mend )

Since this appears to be noxious... I now have my answer.
Where it came from? I have never seen this plant around here.
We do live along a creek.

But the fact that the seeds persist up to 50 yrs! leads me to believe it came in the topsoil we used to fix our front garden.

http://web.cotton.crc.org.au/content...elvetleaf.aspx

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/792/

when I ws a kid my folks moved out into some fram land area and that plant was alaready here, I thought we called it chinese latern but could be mistaken big time, I dont recall if it serve any purpose

The plant part not the seed pod tho.

Now that I finally found it I searched the name of it and
discovered it is very damaging to corn crops.

Because the seeds can live dormant up to 50 yrs, it can invade and be hard to get rid of.

We are having the repair from the construction done, finally this week. So there is a 36inch strip that is 200 ft long in front of our home on the city's side of the street, which I have planted with wild flowers and ground covers. I am planning some new
plants there, and wondered if this one would work. But after searching for DAYS I now know not to use this plant. I will be cutting it down, and putting it in the trash so the seeds do not get away.

My husband sent emails out over the weekend, and two of his colleagues who live in the western part of our state recognized it, but didn't know its name. They live in farm country. I guess it escaped from the farms into their yards.