Help! We've Been Invaded

Kudzu

While we enjoy the spring wildflowers, I hope you all notice some other plants that sprout in spring too - plants we call invasives. Historically, an "invasion" occurs when someone enters a country uninvited, for the purpose of taking it over. Unfortunately, many of our invasives were actually invited in, their use recommended by the US Dept of Agriculture and spread by landscapers.  Kudzu is native to Asia and was first introduced into the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. It was widely planted throughout the eastern United States in an attempt to control erosion. (Oh, I found this photo on the Web, and it was taken in Floyd County, KY.) I searched for a good definition, and found this at Invasive.org: 

An invasive species is a non-native species (including seeds, eggs, spores, or other propagules) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic harm, environmental harm, or harm to human health. The term "invasive" is used for the most aggressive species. These species grow and reproduce rapidly, causing major disturbance to the areas in which they are present. 

Multiflora Rose

• Invasive species, if left uncontrolled, can and will limit land use now and into the future.
• The longer we ignore the problem the harder and more expensive the battle for control will become.
• Invasive species can decrease your ability to enjoy hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, boating and other outdoor recreational activities.
• The United States suffers from $1.1-120 billion per year in economic losses due to exotic, invasive species.
• Approximately 42% of Threatened or Endangered species are at risk due to non-native, invasive species.



Garlic Mustard

As you walk through the Preserve, you will see this green plant with small white flowers growing along the trails. Garlic Mustard can be easily recognized by a garlic odor that is present when any part of the plant is crushed and by the strongly toothed, triangular leaves. A high shade tolerance allows this plant to invade high-quality, mature woodlands, where it can form dense stands. These stands not only shade out native understory flora but also produce allelopathic (chemical) compounds that inhibit seed germination of other species. Garlic mustard is native to Europe and was first introduced into New England during the 1800s for medicinal and culinary purposes. I've spent hours pulling Garlic Mustard, which can be easily done now while it's small before the seeds set, then turned around to see ten times as much remaining.  It's highly frustrating. It spreads quickly by floods or animals, and requires continuous monitoring for five years.  Please feel free to yank as many handfuls as you can as you hike the Preserve. 



Autumn Olive

Autumn Olive is a shrub that can grow to 20 feet tall, with silvery undersides on the leaves and small fragrant white blossoms.  Fruits are red, juicy, and edible, ripening from September to November. Autumn Olive invades old fields, woodland edges, and other disturbed areas. It can form a dense shrub layer which displaces native species and closes open areas. Autumn Olive is native to China and Japan and was introduced into North America in 1830. Since then, it has been widely planted for wildlife habitat, mine reclamation, and shelterbelts. When the Preserve opened, it was recommended, and now we are trying to get rid of it since it inhibits the growth of native plants.  When our Grounds Manager removed a large stand, I went to see what would happen the next spring, and found wonderful growth of native wildflowers which had been waiting for their chance all those years.

Poison Hemlock Blossom and Leaves

Watch for a carrot-y looking plants growing along the trails in dense clusters. The blossoms resemble Queen Anne's Lace (another invasive), and it can grow up to 10 feet tall by summer. One plant can produce over 30,000 seeds. These plants, when eaten, are poisonous to most animals. Poison hemlock is native to Europe and was introduced into North America in the 1800s as an ornamental.

Poison Hemlock Stem

The Poison Hemlock stems are mottled purple in color, and hollow in the middle. All plant parts are poisonous; however, the seeds contain the highest concentration of poison, highly poisonous alkaloids toxic to all classes of livestock and humans. (It was probably used to poison Socrates in ancient Greece.)  Human deaths have occurred from harvesting and consuming the roots as wild carrots or parsnips. It may act as a pioneer species quickly colonizing disturbed sites and displacing natives during early successional areas.

Winter Creeper

Winter Creeper (Euonymus) is an evergreen vine that can form a dense ground cover, but also climbs 40-70 feet up a tree, covering the tree and eventually killing it. Flowers are inconspicuous, yellow-green, five petaled and develop in mid-summer. Plants usually only flower when climbing and almost never when trailing along the ground. Fruit are pinkish-red capsules that open to show orange seeds.

Winter Creeper in Tree

Winter Creeper aggressively invades open forests, forest margins, and openings. The dense ground cover often resulting from an infestation can displace native understory species and restrict tree seedling establishment. Winter Creeper can also smother and kill shrubs and small trees. Winter Creeper is native to Asia and was first introduced into the United States in 1907 as an ornamental ground cover plant.

Bush Honeysuckle

Soon you will notice a wonderful fragrance around the Preserve - Honeysuckle; another highly invasive plant. Often it is one of the first shrubs to leaf out in the spring. The fragrant flowers are tubular, white to yellow in color, thin-petaled and develop in May to June. In September abundant, fleshy berries ripen to red in color and often persist into the winter. Berries are 1/4 in in diameter. Amur honeysuckle readily invades open woodlands, old fields and other disturbed sites.

Honeysuckle Berries

It can spread rapidly due to birds and mammals dispersing the seeds and can form a dense understory thicket which restricts native plant growth and tree seedling establishment. Amur honeysuckle is a native of eastern Asia and was first introduced into North America in 1855. It has been planted widely as an ornamental and for wildlife food and cover. It releases a chemical that prohibits the growth of other native plants. There is also a vine Honeysuckle which is an invasive. The native Honeysuckle (yes, there is one) has a red flower that hummingbirds love.

Japanese Stilt Grass

I'm sorry to rain on your parade like this. I try to encourage people to get out and enjoy nature, and know it's depressing to think about invasives. (At least, I find it to be depressing) But you will see these plants at the Preserve. They are difficult to get rid of. Heck, they are almost impossible just to control, let alone eliminate. Think of these plants as bullies. They come up early in the spring and grow quickly, stunting or preventing the growth of other plants that might compete with them. They reproduce profusely.  Nothing here eats them, so the only enemy they have are humans, who brought them to begin with. The people who introduced them intended no harm, I'm sure, but they just didn't think what would happen if these plants escaped cultivation. The story goes on with animals, insects, etc., all of which cause multiple billions of dollars in damage each year. The damage they cause to native plants and animals is incalculable. If you are landscaping this year, ask about using a native plant as an alternative to something foreign. There are several nurseries in the area which promote natives, such as Margaret Shea's Dropseed Nursery. The presence of these plants makes me enjoy our native wildflowers even more.

The Birds are Singing!

Spring is here and the birds are singing everywhere!  It's too cool!  I like to bird by ear, since I can be binocular challenged sometimes. It's especially wonderful when a bird that otherwise skulks in the brush lands on an open branch right where I can see it.  Today, this Towhee is joined by Cardinals, Tree Swallows, Chipping Sparrows, Mocking Birds, Gold Finches, Blue Birds and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, just to name a few. If you can't make it out to the woods, just open your windows and enjoy the birdsong in your back yard.

Naturally yours,

~denapple

What is that Purple Patch?

"What in the world are all those purple flowers growing in that field?"  When we drive along country fields that have not yet been sown in a crop, we often see patches of purple or purple-red flowers growing in them. (Deciding the correct color for wildflowers is an issue I intend to address in another post. For now, please indulge me in this.)

This field has, without a doubt, the darkest, purplest color growing in a large area I've ever seen! Assuming it to be a gigantic field of Violets, I pull the car to the side of the road and get out. In Texas, I saw fields this color, filled with Texas Bluebonnets.

Ohmigosh! They are Grape Hyacinths!  I've never seen that many growing together in the wild! Tavia says they were introduced from Europe and thrive in abandoned lawns and waste places, after escaping from cultivation.  Can't you just hear them singing, "Free at last! Thank God, I'm free at last!"

This is the Purple Patch I find in suburban lawns where the residents refuse to pay a lawn service to kill their wildflowers.  April 15 Tax Day is one of the best days to see these splendid gatherings of Common Violets.

When I was a Girl Scout we sang a song about Sweet Violets, sweeter than all the roses. Covered all over from head to toe, covered all over in sweet violets.  Does anyone else remember that song? Tavia likes to eat them in salads and says they have loads of vitamin C.

Look at the first picture again.  Abandoned or unplanted fields will also be covered in this reddish-purple flower growing close to the ground, and I've always been confused about what that might be.  The most likely candidate is Purple Dead Nettle aka Red Dead Nettle, which is neither red, nor dead, nor a nettle at all!  As you have guessed by now, it is an invasive from Eurasia, thriving in open areas, fields, lawns and waste places, and very difficult to remove once established. This genus has nettle-like leaves, but they lack the sting.  The overlapping leaf and flower pattern somewhat resembles a Japanese pagoda.  If you peer closely at the small flowers, they are quite lovely and delicate.

A flower similar to the Dead Nettle (well, it is to me at least, and very confusing) is the Henbit, another low to the ground plant with small, delicate purple blooms, found in the same open areas as the Dead Nettle. But look at the leaves on this plant.  Notice the bare stem between the leaves, and the way they all cling to the stem.  The small blossom points up as well.

The third weedy plant that I find to be confusing is Ground Ivy, or, as my mother-in-law said, Charlie Weed.  This is the one that will cover your lawn and flower beds in long mats.  You pull one end, and can find four feet of plant with a distinctive odor in your hand. Tavia notes that this species has been used to make ale, reportedly helping those who drank it to extend their lives, cure headaches, pains, inflammations, coughs, and many other ailments.  The only thing we know for sure about Charlie Weed is that bees make good honey from its nectar.

Ah, at last, a purple flower that is not a weed!  This is the Dwarf Larkspur, or Delphinium. The flowers may be blue, white or bicolored - mixtures of both.  Tavia says they are found in damp to dry woods and barrens, preferring calcareous soil. In other words, they like to grow on limestone, which is precisely where we found them along the cliffs of the Ohio River. They are called Dwarf to be distinguished from the Tall Larkspur, but I think the Dwarfs actually resemble little purple men with big hats and white beards! Next time you see a hillside of Larkspur, kneel down for a close look, squint your eyes just so,  and see if you agree!

My final entry is the Virginia Bluebell, which isn't purple, but close enough. The buds look dark pink and turn blue as they open. This plant is also called Virginia Cowslip, and was named when the English still referred to Massachusetts as North Virginia. They form spectacular colonies of blue flowers where ever they are found. So many of the early wildflowers are white or yellow that I especially enjoy those of a blue or purple hue, and hope you do too!

Naturally Yours,

~denapple

It's a Bloomin' Flower!

Wood Poppy

We tend to take flowers for granted.  They are pretty and smell nice in the spring. We like to have them in our gardens.We know that flowers must bloom before the fruits can develop, but most people don't consider the miracle of flowers.

Corn Blossom

In fact, flowering plants are by far the largest group of plants and the most important from an ecological standpoint. They inhabit all sorts of environments. They make up the majority of a lot of different habitats, such as grasslands (all the grasses are flowering plants), most forests (except for the boreal forests), and most terrestrial habitats on the face of the planet. They provide food sources and shelters for the organisms that live in these habitats. On a more personal note to humans, they provide us with most of our food and a lot of our shelter materials, such as wood. Different species of insects and mammals may rely on only one flowering plant for food, and that plant relies on the insect/mammal to reproduce. In fact, there would be no people without flowering plants. NOVA has a wonderful discussion of plant development at ttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3405_flower.html.



Fern Frond with Spores

Before flowers, the Earth was covered with green plants like ferns, pines, and the now-extinct seed ferns. Their reproduction was relatively slow and inefficient. Pollination was mostly carried out by the wind. The small brown spots we see on the bottom of a fern frond, for example, are actually the spores waiting to be spread by the wind. They carry nothing to promote successful growth in a new location. 

Cream Violet

 Flowering plants were the first advertisers in the world. They put out beautiful petals and colorful patterns; they put out fragrances, and they gave a reward, such as nectar or pollen, for any insect that would come and visit them. Sometimes they display stripes and special colors directing the pollinators to the sweet spot! And what were they advertising? They were advertising the sexual organs, the female parts and the male parts that were hidden or positioned within the center of this flower. So if they could attract these mobile pollinators to come and mess around, crawl around, feed in this flower, pick up pollen on the legs, pick up pollen on the body, and then fly to another flower some distance away and repeat this process, they could effectively carry their male genetic material in the pollen grain to another flower. The very earliest flowering plant pollen shows up in rocks, which are of cretaceous age, which is about 134 million years ago.


Red Maple Blossom

The variety of flower appearance and structure is absolutely mind boggling!  Compare the spring wildflowers we have been looking at lately with these tree blossoms.  We think of apple and other fruit trees as "flowering", but oaks, cottonwoods and all other trees do too.  We simply don't recognize their flowers for the most part. Grains such as corn, wheat, oats and rice are all flowering plants too, and we rely on the seeds produced by those inconspicuous flowers for our own food. But the important thing is the way these plants make seeds.  A protective covering is created around the part that will grow into a plant, and provided with nourishment to assist that growth, such as the pulp of the apple around apple seeds. This method of reproduction takes a lot of energy on the part of the plant, so it's amazing that plants still make as many seeds as they do.  For example, just consider the maple seeds that will soon cover our yards and driveways! Ah, the things Mother Nature will do to make sure her children survive!

Naturally yours,

~denapple