Thank you for visiting Invasive Plants Cape Breton

This is currently an effort to develop a site for Cape Bretoners as a "one-stop" spot where you can find information about the threats that invasives pose to our health, our way of life, our property values, our economy, our natural areas, and our ability to grow food plant/s.  We want you to be able to identify the plants you are fighting and know how to eradicate them.  Our Facebook page is where the active discussion is going on, so please check that out too.  Go to facebook and type invasiveplantscapebreton).  There are serveral Pinterest boards to help you as well: http://www.pinterest.com/marianwhit/invasive-plants-of-cape-breton/, http://www.pinterest.com/marianwhit/weeds-common-and-annoying/, and http://www.pinterest.com/marianwhit/native-plants-cape-breton-nova-scotia/ (so you know some of the garden-worthy things to replant once you have pulled out the invaders.  This is a very part time project.  Thank you for your understanding.  

Please join us at the Baddeck Library 8/14/14 6:30pm for a talk on the interaction between Japanese Barberry and its connection to Lyme Disease. This plant has more than 200 varieties available in the nursery trade and is widely planted in Cape Breton as an ornamental shrub.  This is an invasive species that is emerging and one you can do something about.  

There will be a follow-up field presentation offered on Sunday 8/16/14 at 10am -12pm at 21 Old Big Harbour Road.  This is a walk and talk and a caravan to nearby "hot spots."  Depending upon time and interest, it may involve some demonstration of cutting techniques.  Please RSVP at belfry.marian@gmail.com or call 902-295-2861 SPACE IS LIMITED.

Dress is weather-appropriate (definitely long pants and long sleeved shirt with sturdy shoes).  If you want to do hands-on work, bring a machete, some black plastic bags, heavy (preferably leather) gloves, eye protection, something to drink, and bug repellant.  I or the land owners who are generous enough to allow us to visit will NOT be responsible if you injure yourself.  

Distribution Maps Please add your sightings!

We are attempting to map the infestations of various invasive plants.  Here are the links:

Anyone can add a record of an infestation.  Each map has three layers.  Use the check boxes on the left of the legend in each map to show or hide each.  

Distribution map 1

Angelica, Japanese Knotweed, and Loosestrife

Distribution map 2

Japanese barberry, Bishop's weed, Moneywort

Distribution map 3
Giant Hogweed, Poison Ivy, Goutweed

Distribution map 4 

Sweet clover, Multiflora rose, Rugosa rose

Please help!  This is a collaborative effort.  Add your sightings. We want to get at least the date, the size of the infestation, and any attempts to do anything about it or comments on how it started or changes it is making on other plant communities.


Descriptors: 
Colonizer- 1 plant on its own, no seedlings beneath it
Clump-big enough to create shade underneath
Linear-plants are arranged along a line, such as a ditch
Diffuse-there are no definable edges to the patch
Clear-the patch is clearly localized

Small-an area less than 3 metres across
Medium-an area less than 10 metres across
Large-larger than 10 meters

For removal methods, use percentages for each method, ie:
30% pulled, 30% cut to ground, 20% left standing, 20% flowers removed.

It would be good to note the ages of seedlings as well.  First year (1Y):  

Young plants (YP): 

Next year (NY):  Two or more mature leaves
This year bud (TYB): Bloom stalk forming
This year flowering (TYF): In bloom 
Pollinated (TYP): 

Mature seeds (TYS): Tan and falling off the plant

Commencing the Battle

Angelica Battle

An update to this battle, 8/22/2014:  This was an afternoon of work by a few people.  We expected this year to be worse.  What happened is we appear to have slowed down and in some areas stop the spread.  However, new areas are appearing, and it appears that as long as the source of seeds along the bay is not eliminated it will be difficult to stay ahead of it.  

We have learned that some plants re-sprout in multiple stems, but realize that by removing the flowers and seeds we have prevented another generation of plants.  This year we are trying to smash any stems we cut to the ground in hopes it will be harder to heal and introduce fungi.  

The good news is that eliminating plants at the colonizer stage (one plant alone in a new area) is VERY effective.  Working the outside edges of an infection to the inside is the most effective way to go.

This year we are using limited trials of 10% acetic acid, which is double strength vinegar diluted 50/50 with 20% agricultural acetic acid (obtained at the Farmer's CO-OP in North Sydney.  We take a small bottle that emits a fine spray.  We try to pull the plants when possible, and when not we cut the flowers from the stem as close to the flowers as possible(to keep the seeds from forming and maturing, cut the stem off at about 10" and immediately spray the cut stems, trying to keep the acid off other plants and ourselves (it stings).  Slugs really hate this stuff, so it should be used carefully.  We applied some to foliage also to study the effects.

We are also being more careful to collect and pile plants when they have roasted in the sun for a few days so that the contaminated material is in the smallest area possible.  This is workable for small to medium sized infections. 

We collect any flowers that have hard green seeds forming, bag in black bags, leave in the hot sun for a few weeks, and then take to the dump.

Please, please, please report any findings, discoveries, victories, and failures on the Facebook Page Cape Breton Invasive Plants.


On 8/14/2013 seventeen members of the Bell family and their friends became concerned enough about the angelica spreading on the Beinn Bhreagh road. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We gleefully decapitated the flowers from the plants before pulling or cutting them to keep the dying plants from finishing the maturing of any pollinated seeds. 

It was generally agreed that a swing of the machete to lop off the flowers, then a firm rocking pull with the other hand to remove the plant with the most roots was effective.  However, not all plants come easily, though most do.  If it resists, the machete comes down as low as possible, into the ground, if muddy to sever as much as possible.  

Soil on root balls should be knocked off, and if not possible the plant should be hung off the ground in other vegetation, preferably upside down.    

Then we made an appalling mess by scattering the plants in the hot sun to die quickly.  This also dessicates the water from them greatly reducing the volume.  They shrivel into nothing in a few days, but people who had other things to do that day found them unsightly. I thought it was a wonderful sight!  

The discouraging thing is that there is so much of it, and the Berberis thunbergii, the Japanese Barberry, is a "thornier problem" and widespread on the mountain.
Here is an area we cleared of angelica only to find it backed by barberry, which likes the drier land on the forest floor and suppresses forest regrowth.

Once people see this the angelica, it is an undeniable reality that it is crowding everything out, marching well up into forests.  I hope that word will spread, and we all will become active and regular predators of this plant.  It will take the more adventurous of us to get the ravines and unstable shore slopes, as the plant really likes disturbed land and is salt tolerant.  So this is a challenge to the more athletic folks to help with this.

Hats off to Dana, Jackson, Graham, and Lee who were the last people I found on the road at five PM that day. Dana had said that morning, "we only have an hour."  

Introduction and Welcome

INVASIVE PLANTS CAPE BRETON

Welcome

Our most immediate needs are air, water, food, and warmth.  The humble plant kingdom is directly needed for air, food, and warmth, so it is not a bad idea to pay attention to what is going on at our feet and in our backyards.  In Canada, the cost of controlling invasive plants for our food crops is 2.2 billion a year (1).  In the US, it is 138 billion (2).  These costs are rising.  

This blog is meant to be a reference place for those concerned about the biological pollution created by the introduction of invasive plants in Cape Breton.  All higher forms of life depend on plants, so the replacement of a native plant by a non-native one can have far reaching consequences for all living creatures including us.  

There are non-native and invasive plants.  Many non-natives have naturalized here in ways that add to our enjoyment of Cape Breton, such as Queen Anne's Lace (Ammi majus) (originally from the Nile), Chicory (Cichorium intybus) (Europe), and Lupines (Lupinus sp.).  Others are thugs.  They threaten the very fabric of an ecosystem.  

We hope to help people in Cape Breton understand those that are the worst in hopes that people will see the threat and engage in their removal as a healthful form of exercise that will do some long range good and keep this Island from becoming a place that looks like so many others where people did not care.  

WANTED:  DEAD

In all cases below, the goal is to prevent spread.  The most effective strategy from my experience is to start by killing any isolated plants found along roads, streamside, or windy areas as the first priority is to prevent new infestations.  Try to prevent reproduction in all cases.  Remove plants by the roots if possible after rainy weather, and if not, strike down flowers before they make seeds.  

The top invasives in Cape Breton (focusing on the Baddeck area, because that is where we live) and their status:

Angelica  
This is number one because of the speed it is moving, but we believe it is possible to fight it.  This can only be done if new areas are not colonized, so everyone needs to recognize it and attack it RIGHT NOW.  

We noticed its first appearance in the Baddeck area six years ago....  Being a plantaholic, I notice pretty or unusual plants like a bloodhound.  But it was not until we took this photo at Isle Madame, and visiting Louisbourg, where it completely dominates many areas that we started watching closely....

Angelica in seed, having overwhelmed a field c. MB Whitcomb 2013

It moved the entire length of the Bay Road to Baddeck in three years, and infested the opposite side of the bay in a year.  While we were living in Marble Mountain, we watched it advance far faster than the purple loosestrife (which limits itself to wetlands). 

Marble Mountain 2012 c. MB Whitcomb 2013

This year we are frantically pulling it out of the garden, the banks of our stream, the ditches, the fiddlehead fern beds, and every place we can imagine.  

I woke up this morning at four realizing that the things I cherish in Cape Breton could disappear.  I hope I am wrong about this, but if I didn't share my observations and do my best to get people to try to stop it, I would not be able to look the next generation of children in the eyes and try to describe picking raspberries, or the beauty of a fringed orchid.

It is consuming yards, fields, streams, ditches, and coastal habitats at a rate that keeps me awake at night with worry.  Can anyone else see this?   

I believe it can be eliminated in areas like Baddeck where it is tightening its grip. 

It is the fastest moving invasive we have, spreading along roads and watercourses.  It is poorly documented by the media and people think it is "pretty" often mowing around it, or they confuse it with giant Hogweed and people are afraid to touch it. 

Fortunately for me, the good people in New Brunswick are paying attention, so that those who only believe what is on the internet and not what the person in front of them is saying:  http://www.nbisc.ca/species/angelicasylvestris.html

OUR ASSESSMENT AND APPROACH

Fact Sheets: http://www.weedinfo.ca/en/weed-index/view/id/ANKAT  

http://tcpermaculture.blogspot.ca/2012/04/permaculture-plants-wild-angelica.html


http://nativeplants.evergreen.ca/search/view-plant.php?ID=06212

Angelica sp. c. MB Whitcomb 2013

Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii): Consumes forestlands.  A dense thorny shrub with red berries.  A broken twig appears yellow inside.  Very tough to remove.  At the very least pull young plants. Hedge clippers will take off the leafy thorny growth, and then loppers will take it to the ground.  Heavy leather gloves are an absolute necessity.

Fact sheets:  http://www.restoringthelandscape.com/2010/11/thats-invasive-japanese-barberry.html

Berberis thunbergii c. MB Whitcomb 2013

Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria): Eats wetlands, eliminating frog and fish nursery habitat by forming tightly laced networks of roots.   
It takes longer to spread here than other places.  The major issue is that, like many of these thugs "It's pretty."  I cannot tell you how many people carefully mow around it thinking it is a wildflower.

Lythrum salicaria c. MB Whitcomb 2013

Fact Sheets: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Portals/idnr/uploads/fish/files/PL%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

FAQ: http://www.purpleloosestrife.org/faq/


Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum): Locally called "elephant ears," this is the most difficult to remove once it starts growing. Pulling after a rain and taking it to the ground after cutting any flower heads from the stem will keep it from spreading.  Britain has had a terrible time with this one.

Polygonum cuspidatum c. MB Whitcomb 2013

Fact sheets:
http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/daff/japaneseknotweedfactsheetjuly06.pdf



Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia): Invades stream sides and kills everything else growing near it. 

Lysimachia nummularia c. MB Whitcomb 2013

Fact sheets:  http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_010246.pdf

Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum):  Not widespread yet.  So far, I know of only two places where it grows in the Baddeck area, and those are marked on the interactive map on this site.  Perceived to be the biggest immediate threat to humans, from scary media coverage.  It does spread, but slowly.  Very difficult to eradicate once established, as it is a sturdy perennial.   

Heracleum mantegazzianum c. MB Whitcomb 2013

Fact Sheets:  
http://novascotia.ca/natr/wildlife/biodiversity/pdf/hogweedfacts.pdf

http://www.seagrant.sunysb.edu/ais/pdfs/GiantHogweedFactsheet.pdf 

Scientific papers:  http://www.ontarioweeds.com/media/pdf/page_biology_canada_weeds.pdf

I have been unable to find any toxicological data on the probability of getting a reaction to the hogweed, which is very annoying, given the media coverage. Every scientific paper I have found says that one "may" or "can" react to it.  

While I do not recommend this to others, I wanted to know what might happen if I tried working with it, so, in front of a witness, I rubbed myself with a small amount of its sap on the back of my hand and the underside of my wrist when I was hot and sweaty and then exposed it to sunlight for a few hours.  There was no reaction whatsoever, except a slight tingling within an hour after exposure.  I am not very reactive to poison ivy either, so this is not an invitation to "try this at home," especially if you have been reactive to plant substances in the past (poison ivy or oak, that sort of thing).  

Minor or Localized Thugs

Oregano (Oreganum vulgare) Yes, I love it too.  But it should never be allowed to flower because it reseeds, then puts down deep roots, crowds out other plants, and then escapes across fields.  This is poorly documented except by gardeners.  It is on this blog as a minor thug because I have personal experience with it and am 5 years into trying to control it on a property where it was let go.

Removal is a several year process.  I cover it with heavy carpet or old plywood for a few months during hot weather.  Then fork up soil and remove the major clumps of wiry black roots.  Pull out sprouts for the rest of your life.  


Bishop's Weed 
No fact sheets yet, but this discussion should convince you: http://dangergarden.blogspot.ca/2011/01/bishops-weeddeclaring-war-or-giving-up.html
Ajuga reptans
Common name is bugle-weed.  Gorgeous plant. Don't let it suck you in.  The least invasive one is this the variety "Burgundy Glow," but even that must be monitored constantly to prevent escape.  

Fact sheets:
http://www.invasiveplantatlas.org/subject.html?sub=10094

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/b200/ajuga-reptans.aspx











(1) http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/cfia-acia/2011-09-21/www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/invenv/techrpt/summrese.shtml#a3
(2)http://www.grida.no/geo/GEO/Geo-2-084.htm