Latest Weed Stories
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A fungus scientists have dubbed "Black Fingers of Death" may turn out to be the first long-range weapon in efforts to halt the advance of cheatgrass, a destructive invasive weed, scientists say.Gonzaga University biology professors Julie Beckstead and David L. Boose were recently awarded $247,000 in federal grants for a three-year study on pyrenophora semeniperda, a tiny, naturally occurring soil fungus that attacks the seeds of cheatgrass.Working with...
WASHINGTON -- The parasitic dodder plant doesn't have a nose, but it knows how to sniff out its prey. The dodder attacks such plants as tomatoes, carrots, onions, citrus trees, cranberries, alfalfa and even flowers, and is a problem for farmers because chemicals that kill the pesky weed also damage the crops it feeds on.So discovering how it finds its prey might help lead to a way to block the weed, or for crops to defend themselves, say researchers at Pennsylvania State University.The...
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) - Researchers are looking to horse manure to study the spread of invasive weeds. Dominican University has received a $100,000 National Park Service grant to study how to slow the spread of nonnative plants and weeds in state parks, school officials said. Horse manure might be part of the problem, according to scientists. Researchers began collecting horse manure samples from trails and pastures this summer. They want to test an assumption that seeds can pass through...
By Alistair ThomsonJOHANNESBURG -- Wendy Carstens' wide-brimmed hat ducks into the long grass, a squirt from her spray gun exterminating another alien in her quest for botanical purity."My husband calls me a plant fascist. I call myself a purist," she said of her crusade to rid the Melville Koppies nature reserve in one of Johannesburg's oldest suburbs of alien plants she says could upset the ecological balance."We've got the reserve under control now and I know the big...
St. Paul, Minn. (September 21, 2005) "“ New research just released in the September issue of Plant Disease suggests that weeds commonly found in California's wine country may enable the spread of Pierce's disease of grapes, one of the most destructive plant diseases affecting grapes. Pierce's disease is caused by Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium transmitted by sharpshooters and spittlebugs. In response to outbreaks of Pierce's disease in central California, plant pathologists studied 29 weed...
HELENA -- They infest a portion of Montana the size of Florida and Arkansas combined, and go by names like tansy ragwort, yellow toadflax and houndstongue. One species, knapweed, takes an estimated $42 million economic toll on the state every year. Noxious weeds have invaded about 8.2 million acres of Montana and continue to spread, choking out valuable pasture, wildlife forage and native plants, forcing Montanans to spend about $19 million annually in a losing battle for control. State and...
This essay examines ways in which Catharine Parr Traill's references to plants reveal her personal, philosophical, cultural, social, and moral views, while conveying her own conscious and unconscious feelings about the conflict involved in her position as a colonizing and colonized woman in the Canadian landscape. Traill's references are introduced and contextualized through a discussion of examples of the plants and flowers described and used by the other "bush ladies": Anna Jameson, Susanna...
