Biodiversity survey on 1/4 acre

SwampDonkey · June 22, 2008, 04:45:22 AM

Anyone seen any American groundnut Apios americana in your travels? It grows in NB, but I have never came across it. Prefers good sun and it's a vine in the pea family that produces edible tubers and seeds. When cultivated it can produce up to 5 pounds of tubers over a two year period. I'm trying to source some seeds to germinate from the northeast. They say the slugs are hard on the seedlings and we have a lot of slugs in our woods on rainy days. They crawl on everything.

Furby · July 16, 2008, 10:30:44 AM

I deliver thousands of flats of Vinca Minor each year.
It is faaaaar easier to keep under control than English (and other) Ivy.
It can be kept in check easily by "prunning" with a weed wacker.
It is also a fair replacement for grass and don't need to be mowed.
With gas prices up, more folks are planting ground covers such as this to reduce their lawn space.
Vinca Minor 'Ralph Shugert' Shugert's Variegated Myrtle is one I really like.
Vinca minor 'Blue & Gold'/ 'Blue and Gold' Myrtle is cool as well.

Dodgy Loner · July 16, 2008, 11:49:31 AM

I've been doing some brush clearing and I found have a few more species to add to the list:

Clematis virginiana (Virginia clematis)
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Maclura pomifera (osage-orange)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia-creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison-ivy)

That brings the total to 43 woody species on 1/4 acre.

Now I just need to start identifying the herbaceous stuff.

SwampDonkey · July 16, 2008, 01:13:38 PM

Hey, I have some Virginia Creeper to. I keep cutting and mowing it off. Hopefully will keep it from seeding because birds like to spread that stuff. >:(

I also have some Virgin's Bower I believe it is called. I just call it Clematis. Here it grows in wet places with alder, balm and/or willow. Sometimes it grows in old wet fields or line fences with shrubs like chokecherry, high bush cranberry, dogwoods and hawthorn.

Also have two kinds of honeysuckle, bush and fly. One has red berries, the other has a capsule.

Dodgy Loner · July 16, 2008, 01:19:42 PM

Ironically, all of the plants I listed today got a strong dose of triclopyr and 2,4-D yesterday, so hopefully they will no longer be on the list within a couple weeks ;D

Probably will take more than one application to knock them all out, though.

Lanier_Lurker · July 16, 2008, 02:45:54 PM

What is the best way to eradicate the Toxicodendron radicans?

WDH · July 16, 2008, 02:58:45 PM

Dodgy's mix will surely spell the death knell. I think that full strength roundup mixed as a 3% - 4% solution with water and a splash of dish washing liquid (surfactant) will work as well if you cannot get your hands on triclopyr (garlon, remedy). Triclopyr is probably the best for woody control if you can get it. Maybe Dodgy can shed some light on available versions of triclopyr.

My favorite mix is a 3% solution of roundup and 3% solution of Garlon 4 in the same spray tank. This concotion gets it all, grass, woody stuff, greenbriar, you name it.

Dodgy Loner · July 16, 2008, 04:08:04 PM

Yep, the triclopyr will work well. It's sold in many formulations, but I got a brand called Crossbow that's a mixture of triclopyr and 2,4-D. Look for a concentrated solution- it's sold as Brush-B-Gon, which you can purchase at Wal-Mart or Home Depot, but that stuff is very diluted and very expensive. The more concentrated it is, the cheaper it will be.

I didn't use any Roundup (glyphosate) in my mix because the poison-ivy was encroaching on my yard, and I didn't want to kill the grass. I used 3% Roundup on some poison-ivy earlier this year, and it burnt it back to the ground, but then resprouted a few weeks later. I suspect that 2-3 applications of Roundup would definitely take care of it, but I'm hoping the triclopyr will take care of it the first time around. The leaves were already wilted when I went to work this morning smiley_devilish

beenthere · July 16, 2008, 04:21:30 PM

I've noticed over the 40 years I've been on this acerage, that the Virginia creeper chokes out the poison ivy patches, but don't really know how well one can depend on it happening.

Otherwise, 2,4-D treatments seem to work poorly for some persistent small patches along the edge of some lawn areas. It is in a neighbors field, that is sometimes corn and sometimes alfalfa. Neither like my attempts to rid the area of the poison ivy. :

:

I fight the virginia creeper mainly to keep it out of the hardwood trees, which if left to flourish in the crowns, will kill the trees.

Riles · July 16, 2008, 10:29:38 PM

You can add stinging nettles (Urtica spp.) to my list. Mowed them pretty short and now I've got ten times the problem. They're small, but they took off everywhere. Anyone have any experience with Milestone? This stuff is in the pasture grass that will become my lawn in a few months.

The good news is that it's an indicator species of high soil fertility.

SwampDonkey · July 17, 2008, 05:36:52 AM

Yes it is a good indicator of soil fertility. Usually moist firm soil of alluvial plains.

It is also a good indicator that you walked somewhere you shouldn't have. ;D

I can remember searching for fiddle heads on the Skeena River. I found some all right enough. Just follow the local natives, they know where to pick'm. 8) But, in my search I walked through head high nettles and used my hands to part the way. My hands stung for 3 days like needle pricks and I had almost no feeling in my fingers. :

Dodgy Loner · July 17, 2008, 11:07:09 AM

I have one more woody plant to add to the list:

Smilax rotundifolia (Common greenbriar)

And last night I started documenting the herbaceous plants on my property. Here's the list so far. I figure I'm about 5% done, and these were just the easy ones :

I'm not 100% sure about all of the species, but I know all the genera are correct.

1. Achillea millefolium (common yarrow)
2. Duchesnea indica (mock-strawberry)
3. Erigon annuus (eastern daisy fleabane)
4. Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry)
5. Lepidium virginicum (poorman's-pepper)
6. Lespedeza virginica (slender lespedeza)
7. Lespedeza bicolor (bicolor lespedeza)
8. Lycopodium obscurum (groundpine)
9. Oxalis stricta (slender yellow woodsorrel)
10. Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
11. Plantago lanceolata (narrowleaf plantain)
12. Polygonum pennsylvanicum (Pennsylvania smartweed)
13. Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)
14. Rudbeckia hirta (blackeyed susan)
15. Trifolium repens (white clover)
16. Viola sororia (common blue violet)

WDH · July 17, 2008, 10:46:53 PM

Post some herbaceous pics so that we all can bone up on our herbaceousness ;D.

SwampDonkey · July 18, 2008, 06:10:06 AM

Yes we have a lot of those here. We have wood sorrel, Oxalis montana instead of O. stricta though. Don't eat too much of the stuff in your salad though. Might effect your speech. ;D

bah, rah, ah, erm :X

Dodgy Loner · July 20, 2008, 07:44:20 PM

My camera took an unfortunate tumble down a hill when I visited Providence Canyon in June and is not currently functional :-\. I will try to borrow a camera to take a few pics, especially of the plants I can't ID.