I am wondering what these large plants are in my yard?

Question

It has huge 5 point leaves with small jagged pointy edges. the underside of the leaves seem to be like tiny tiny thorns and are anywhere from 6 inches to 2 feet in length. It has thick hairy like stalks. its green. It just bloomed these really big orange/yellow colored flowers, star shaped. The size of the entire plant is around 5 foot at widest point, about 2 foot tall. Theres two of them. A neighbor said they are either squash, zuchinni (sp) or cucumbers....Any other suggestions?

it does seem to be like a vine growing close to the ground. the jagged edges are very tiny on the edge of the leaves.

Thank you all for your help. It is definetly squash. I looked at one of the plants and its grown about 7 feet wide..its just massive! Theres also 3 more plants scattered through the yard. I've got to get pictures of these things...do they normally grow that big?

Answer 1

Your description sounds like zucchinni or some other type of squash. Here's a picture of zucchini:http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/pests/msg0617272425519.jpg
Here's another zucchinni pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ppaatt/532700794
Here's a squash image (doesn't seem to be as deeply lobbed as the zucchinni):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kramerhawks/198141975/

It can't be cucumber, because it isn't quite as jagged or lobed into 5 points like the squash or zucchinni leaves. Look at the cucumber images:
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A9ibyGatPJJG3zIB.UKJzbkF?p=picture+of+cucumber++leaves&ei=UTF-8&fr=ush-ans&x=wrt

Squash plants do grow big!! :)

Answer 2

yea, sounds like squash or zucchini, but not cucumbers. Pumpkin, maybe, but doubtful. Pumpkin trails along the ground and is very long. You'll just have to wait and find out. The thorns are 2-6" in length?

Answer 3

your neighbor might be on the right track, it could be a wild pumpkin plant, I've seen them grow like weeds in the back of some peoples yard and even though they flower they never grew the vegetable. Someone told me that it basically grows from the remainder of a plant from years before so it isn't stable enough to product the vegetable. I don't know if the science is true or not but the one I saw never did produce the vegetables. They even pored gasoline on it to get rid of it, but it grew back every year.

Answer 4

If it's a vine, I'd think a squash of some kind, too.. Wait a week and you'll start to see fruit from the blooms and that should help identify what it is..

Answer 5

when i first starting reading this i was going to tell u that its those weeds they call "pickers" but your neightbor could be right

Answer 6

no clue