State-wide Garlic Mustard PULL Challenge!

[netmouse]

Garlic Mustard is an invasive plant from Europe that threatens the native wildflowers and other plants in Michigan. Brian and I participated in a stewardship day at the local parks a couple weeks ago as part of the Natural Area Preservation program (see their latest newsletter here) and stewardshipnetwork.org has the details of the 2008 Garlic Mustard Challenge.

Notes in a related report explain:

The goal of management is to prevent garlic mustard from producing new seeds.

Most first year seedlings and rosettes will die naturally, so management efforts should be focused on second year plants. Second year plants are easy to distinguish from first year rosettes in late spring once their stems elongate in May and they begin producing white flowers. First year rosettes will not have long stems or flowers and lay close to the ground. In summary, small infestations can be managed with vigilant pulling of second year plants every year prior to seed production or with careful application of glyphosate (e.g. Roundup) during the late fall or winter when most native species are dormant.

We now know that viable seeds can develop on any garlic mustard plants that have already flowered, even after the plants have been pulled. For this reason, we no longer recommend burying pulled plants. Plants should be bagged in plastic, tied up, and removed.

So check out what it looks like and PULL it out (including the roots) wherever you see second-year Garlic Mustard plants!


Other events to look forward to include The Green Fair on June 13 and Huron River Day on July 13 and other workdays. See the newsletter for details.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

markgritter considers garlic mustard to be his personal nemesis. Whenever we went hiking, when I was still up for hiking, he would pounce on it and yank it up, making fierce noises. I will send him the link to this post.

[elizilla]

That's really interesting. I knew about the invasive purple loosestrife, and kudzu, and multiflora rose, but I had never known about garlic mustard.

I wonder what else is invasive? I have this ground cover in my garden, that my mother gave me, that sure acts invasive. The stuff spreads like mad and pulls down the other plants in the bed. It jumps over the borders and out into the lawn. I've liked it, it's got shiny deep green leaves and little purple flowers, and it comes up even through the snow. And it doesn't seem to seed, instead it's just spreading from where it's planted. But if it's something that could be washing seeds into the storm sewers and pushing out on a riverbank somewhere, maybe I should try to eradicate it from my garden.

[flinx.livejournal.com]

There are three other invasive species that the Natural Area Preservation (division of Parks and Rec) focuses on in Ann Arbor parks and surrounds:

"exotic" honeysuckles (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/exotichoneysuckles.html)
common buckthorn (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.html)
Russian Olive (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/russianolive.html)

[knightlygoddess.livejournal.com]

We had an invasive fucking wild rose pull down and kill the tree that was once in our front yard. :(

sounds like vinca

[(Anonymous)]

vinca aka myrtle aka periwinkle
really invasive in the woods around the midwest
good luck!
~Jason Frenzel
Natural Area Preservation
City of Ann Arbor

Rounding up those illegal aliens

[chowbok.livejournal.com]

So I guess this makes you guys the Minutemen of plants?

[thefile.livejournal.com]

Can someone post pictures of what to look for?

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

If you click through to the Garlic Mustard Challenge site it has lots of pictures. Here's one:

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the nudge though. I went back and put in a link to the MSU Garlic Mustard Photo gallery (http://www.ipm.msu.edu/garlicm/gallery/index.htm), which has images of the plant in all stages of life.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

[knightlygoddess.livejournal.com]

Remind me, on 4th of July - to show me if we have any of this around the lake. I'm sure we do, but I just don't make the connection between the photos and what I have in my yard.