We planted some spinach last year, they grew, we harvested them and died since they were out of season. But as we speak I checked the garden and these grew in place of them, Bird's Nest Fern is what they're called apparently and I'm wondering if they're edible or not since they were planted from the spinach seeds we sown last year. Thanks in advance for the help!
Still looks like spinach, albeit angry about spacing lol
since there's a lot of talk about plant ID apps: Please for the love of god don't use anything other than iNaturalist/Seek (basically the same thing), these apps are developed together with actual biologists and configured to be very very conservative about the ID they give you, so it doesn't give false positives.
A lot of the time it will just say something vague like "family Amaranthaceae", rather than forcing a more specific and incorrect answer, which is SUPER important!
iNaturalist also includes the ability to post your observation to their database, so other people can look at it and suggest their own identifications, which you can actually somewhat trust.
NEVER eat something just because your phone told you it was safe, that is how you die painfully.
The seed variety you originally planted may have been a hybrid and these are volunteers. The f2 generation won't be the same as f1 if it was a hybrid.
I’ve got a birds nest fern, and although it looks a little similar, these are quite different. The birds nest fern as like long, individual leaves that sprout in a circle pattern with other leaves. I see on the bottom of your picture, there’s one long stem that a bunch of leaves are coming off of. In my bird’s nest, the baby leaves as they come out, came from the center of this circle, and unfurled.
I’ll take a picture later if I remember!
Almost looks like a rats nest of dandelion, but it's hard to tell from these pictures. Try using the PlantNET app and see what it comes up with.
Gemini thinks it's peony...
Note: Gemini is usually very good at identifying plants but some plants are notoriously difficult for anyone to pin down except horticulturalists (e.g. experts). For example, Pothos vs. Heartleaf Philodendron or more dangerous, Queen Anne's Lace vs Poison Hemlock. AI also has trouble identifying grasses (in general) because many can look the same from a picture. Even close up! Yet a human (in person) would be like, "these two grasses are nothing alike!"
It's all about pattern matching. If two leaves from two different plants have the same appearance and growth pattern, AI can easily get it wrong. In general, though, it usually does a really good job.
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