Noxious Weeds/Nice Plants

The county government sent someone up to tell us about noxious weeds last month. They gave out a brochure with lots of pictures in it of plants that they wish you would not buy at the nursery and plant in your yard because they are ‘noxious.’ Well, that’s a highly judgmental word and, I expect, may be a matter of opinion.

I say this partly because two of the plants the speaker designated as noxious and undesirable are growing happily in my yard and I like them there. One is Japanese Knot Weed, which is something that looks like bamboo but is not and has lovely blossom sprays in the fall. I have a little patch of it outside my door (maybe 4’x4’, 10-12 canes) and it has stayed that size for the past 16 years, so it would appear that it is not impossible to keep it from spreading. In fact, it does spread: in the spring, maybe a dozen new plants appear around the outer circle. Treatment requires you to reach down with your fingers and break these sprouts off. They do not reappear, although the following spring you will have another dozen of these sprouts, and they will require the same low level of activity to keep them in check.

However, I am prepared to cut the bureaucrats some slack on this because, up on the Sunshine Coast, Japanese Knot Weed has propagated down the ditches and it is everywhere in great quantity. If not noxious, it is certainly prepared to give broom a run for its money. Broom is that yellow bush that blooms in April, usually, and is also an undesired and noxious plant. In fact, it is just as noxious as Knot Weed because both are Class B Noxious weeds, which means that the county can try to get rid of it but what it should really do is keep it from getting to areas where it doesn’t already thrive. The bottom line is, if you have Japanese Knot Weed, don’t plant it near running water and pinch off its new shoots in the spring. If you have broom, dig it out. It looks great, but it is a real spreader, as one can tell by the solid yellow roadsides in Point Roberts and elsewhere in Washington and B.C.. Of course, maybe you feel about your broom the way I feel about my Knotweed. That is the problem, of course.

The other noxious plant I have is Vinca, a ground cover with shiny dark green leaves and bright lavender flowers. A perfectly nice plant and other than they don’t like it, I can’t think of much wrong with it. It grows easily and it spreads, but you can cut it back. It doesn’t spread as much as Ajuga, say, and nobody thinks that’s a noxious anything. So they need to work harder to convince me that Vinca is a problem and shouldn’t be purchased as a yard plant. If they really don’t want us to buy it, if it’s really such a problem, maybe they ought to tell the plant nursery people to stop selling it?? In fact, Vinca isn’t even listed as a Class A, B, or C noxious weed, but it featured prominently in the brochure they handed out. So I guess it may fall into the category of ‘Some Other Things We Aren’t Too Crazy About.’

Washington has a nice site about all their noxious weeds (Classes A, B, and C), and I imagine your state has a similar list. Good jobs for botanists, I expect.