Is this in your garden?
Take a photo and Garden Rescue will tell you what you actually have, and what it needs this week.
Get the iPhone app Browse the guideRosebay Willowherb
Chamaenerion angustifolium
Also called Fireweed, Bombweed, Great Willowherb
This is a weed
It spreads rapidly across bare soil by wind-blown fluff and underground roots.
How to get rid of it
- Cut off all the fluffy seed stems directly into a bag.
- Dig up the root system using a hand fork.
- Pull any tiny seedlings that sprout in the spring.
About Rosebay Willowherb
This native wildflower produces tall spikes of pink flowers in summer. In autumn its long pods split open to release masses of fluffy seeds. It colonises open garden beds very quickly if left unchecked.
- Type
- Herbaceous perennial weed
- Height
- 3–5 ft
- Spread
- 2–4 ft
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Low once established
- Soil
- Any moist, well-drained soil
- Hardiness
- Hardy to -20 °F
- Flowers
- July to September
- Growth
- Upright, spreads by runners
- Toxicity
- Not known to be toxic
- Native to
- Temperate Northern Hemisphere
How to recognise it
- Tall, unbranched upright stems
- Narrow lance-shaped leaves with pale midribs
- Slender seed capsules splitting into four curling valves
- Plentiful silky white seed hairs that drift in the wind
Reference photos
Compare what's in your garden with confirmed photos of Rosebay Willowherb.
Photos from iNaturalist contributors.
Written by Garden Rescue from photo identifications, in US units. Local advice from your extension service or garden centre beats a general guide.