HOW HE SEES IT Beware invasive plants

By DAVID ANDERSON
MINUTEMAN MEDIA
I folded shut another large brown paper bag brimming with hundreds of garlic mustard plants pulled from the woodland floor in the ravine below my house. Despite an entire afternoon spent weeding and bagging, thousands of the biennial old world herb remained to flower, re-seed, and invade. I was grimly satisfied to find native trout lilies surviving underneath the intruding garlic mustard. Very carefully, I separated the invasive plants from the natives making sure that the trout lilies stayed anchored in the ground while I yanked out the weeds.
But at day's end when I stepped back to view the tiny furrow of clear space gained back from the garlic mustard, I despaired at ever eradicating it from our Midwestern woodlands.
Many of the weeds we consider to be invasive are plants that escaped domestic cultivation, adapted to our natural ecosystems, and crowded out native species. Bush honeysuckle from Turkey and Russia is another rampant invader that threatens native flora in the Midwest. The shrub's berries are a major food source for birds that in turn help disperse the invasive when they void the seeds. I attacked the numerous bush honeysuckle plants in the ravine with a handsaw, mattock, and poison. After cutting down the tree-like shrubs to their stumps, I hauled the limbs and branches into a huge brush pile in my yard and applied an over-the-counter herbicide to the stumps. Hopefully the effort will pay dividends in giving the native saplings a head start in their race against the quick-growing honeysuckle.
Pernicious invaders
Pulling up garlic mustard and cutting away bush honeysuckle revealed more pernicious invaders creeping through the woodland. English ivy and vinca, two old world groundcovers, were choking out native ferns and orchids. Dense mats of vinca smothered most low-growing vegetation. English ivy climbed trees blanketing limbs and branches in a tangle of vines. The battle against these two persistent groundcovers will be long and time-consuming.
Sadly, many nurseries continue to sell invasive plants for use in home gardens. In some local communities, neighborhoods have taken action to clean up invasives and not purchase any plants that might damage local flora. The best way to slow down and reverse damage from introduced plants gone bad is to stop the sale of invasive landscaping plants. If we encourage gardeners to choose native species instead of old world invasives, it will help restore our natural habitats and make spring cleanups much easier.
X David Anderson is a former public radio news producer and reporter in Columbus, Ohio. Distributed by MinutemanMedia.org.