Weeds Are Us

Well, that's what Michael Pollan, author of Botany of Desire, says. He makes a compelling case.

He points out that plants we call weeds are those plants that tend to do well in areas that have been disturbed by humans - farm fields, urban areas, any suburban lawn, for example...

Add to that the fact that people have moved plants around the planet for pretty much as long as humans have been moving themselves, and one can see that weeds and people are inextricably linked.

In some cases, we have even planted the future noxious weeds ourselves. This is the case with both multiflora rose and reed canary grass, which were promoted for planting by the federal government as recently as the 1960s! Today, there is not a natural area manager around who does not curse those plants on a regular basis.

Multiflora rose, with its thorns and long, twining vines, has ripped clothes, snagged skin, and made many walks through the woods unpleasant for decades now. Cutting it and treating the cut stalks with herbicide is about the only way to get rid of it. And that is tedious, unpleasant work!

Reed canary grass (rcg), which was recommended to farmers as a forage plant for low-lying areas, has now moved on to invade nearly any wetland area. Too many wetlands that were dominated by native plants just a decade ago are now dominated by reed canary grass. Rodeo (R) is an herbicide that will kill the grass, but because rcg produces so many seeds, it can take years just to exhaust the seed bank. And, if the area has any water draining into it, there is always the likelihood that seed will flow in from infested areas upstream.

It's daunting, isn't it?

So, what can one person do?

Well, the best thing to do it to plant only native species. Red Buffalo Nursery in Hebron has a nice feature on its website that allows one to get a list of native plants that fit certain criteria (amount of sun, soil conditions, and type of plant -- grass, forb, etc)

The second best thing to do is plant only species that are not invasive. The Chicago Botanic Garden has a nice feature available to help people choose plants that are not invasive - weedy - for most every situation.

Making different choices about what we plant will help stop the increase in invasive plants crowding out our local natural areas.

If you'd like to do more, you can volunteer to help at a restoration work day!