Plant identification help!

[telophase]

Asking for my mom. This is a plant that showed up randomly in her garden this year. It had big trumpet flowers earlier - she sent me a pic which is lost in my inbox somewhere, but this fall when it lost its leaves and developed a big spiky ball seed pod/fruit/whatsit, she pulled it up, to discover its root looks tuberous, sort of like horseradish.

Here's a photo I took of it on the patio, with my foot for scale.





And a bit closer on the spiky bit.



The root is that horizontal job at the bottom of the pic.

Anyway, it's been driving her nuts that she has no idea what it is. Any ideas?

Comments

[telophase]

Interesting! Wonder how it ended up in Mom's garden? (which consists of a concrete patio and a bunch of rocks on which she set pots.)

[settiai]

There was probably one nearby that nobody pulled up, and the seeds went flying everywhere. That's where they usually came from when I was growing up, at least.

[telophase]

Come to think of it, the elderly lady next door to her died this year and her son's been fixing up the house to sell. I can't remember when he started - maybe attacking the garden spread them.