Tansy Typhoon!

This year has brought us a particularly health crop of tansy ragwort. What do these plants look like? A sea of yellow along our roadways and in many fields. The stems are stout, branched and have a hint of purple at the base. Often, groups of stems arise from the plant crown. Its leaves are dark green on top, whitish-green underneath, and have deeply cut, blunt-toothed lobes with a ragged/ruffled appearance. Flower clusters develop on stout, leafy elongated stems that grow up to 6 feet tall; each flower cluster is composed of many bright-yellow flowers with (usually) 13 petals. This plant is a biennial plant that will set 150,000 seeds (per plant), which may lie dormant in the soil for as long as 15 years. Have you seen this plant in your neighborhood? Did you know that just by pulling one plant (bagging it and putting it in the trash) you can help drastically slow the spread of this invader? In Whatcom County one large road side site was completely controlled in 3 years just through pulling! You also have a friend in the fight to control tansy, the cinnabar moth larva. This yellow and black little larva eats the plant weakening it so that it will produce fewer seeds. Watch for it as you pull tansy in your area. If you see it, leave the plant stem but still take the seed heads with you.

Happy weeding!

Cinnabar Moth

Larva Eating Tansy

Poison Hemlock

Poison hemlock(Conium maculate) is rapidly becoming a problem here in Kitsap County. This dainty weed almost goes unnoticed if it were not for its numerous flowers and tall gangly stocks. Slowly but surly this plant is gaining ground by the millions every year. This plant has a history of destruction, not only of ecological destruction but it can also destroy lives. In fact this is the plant that Socrates had to ingest for his death sentence and still today it holds its potent abilities to kill.

POISON HEMLOCK is a biennial herb growing 3 to 8 feet tall and has a smooth purple-spotted stem and triangular, finely divided leaves with bases that sheathe the stem. Fresh leaves and roots have a parsnip-like odor. The small but attractive white flowers, arranged in umbrella-like clusters, open in early summer. The fruit is tiny, flattened, and ridged. Underground is a fleshy, unbranched white taproot. Unlike wild carrot (Daucus carota, parsnip family), there are no hairs on the stems or leaves of poison-hemlock and no branching, feathery bracts beneath the flower clusters. These plants are commonly found along roadsides, edges of cultivated fields, railroad tracks, irrigation ditches, stream banks, and in waste areas.
Be on the look out for this weed as it spreads like wildfire. Take action and cut down this plant, put it in a trash bag and send it to the landfill. You can make a difference just by cutting down one plant with thousands of seeds. Do your part, don’t let this weed start to spread.