I am. Complaining.
Anyone complaining about kudzu?
Anyone complaining about water hyacinth?
Wayne
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I am. Complaining.
Anyone complaining about kudzu?
Anyone complaining about water hyacinth?
Wayne
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Eddie Valiant: "That lame-brain freeway idea could only be cooked up by a toon."
https://wayne-ayearwithbigfootandbubba.blogspot.com
FlickrMyBookTwitSpaceFace
Invasiveness of Kudzu, water hyacinth, Brazilian Peppertree(Schinus terebinthifolius), Cajeput/Paperbark tree(Melaleuca quinquenervia) have all occurred out of the ignorant missteps of humanity. Humanity has to thank themselves for these intentionally introduced non native disasters not something humanity likes to readily admit as much as pridefully patting themselves on the back about how evolved they are.
Poison ivy is another misstep non native invasive introduced and promoted by over eager botanists, ornamental plant collectors, high society, chemists...etc.
I used to have a page from a 19th century Ornamental Plant catalog that sold "interesting" seeds and small plants for sale touting individual plants positive traits on the office wall.
Rhus radicans(botanical name later changed rightly to Rhus toxicodendron or Toxicodendron radicans):
Fast growing self clinging highly ornamental vine, somewhat rare(during the day the perspective existed a large rare plant collection showed high societal status in Europe and the U.S, many aristocrats had greenhouses and large plant collections that often included rare orchid, fruit trees, and palm species, it continues somewhat today ), adaptable, pest and disease free, fruit for birds, makes excellent shading vine for trellis, fall color sunburst orange to brick red
Small 12 cents, Large 17 cents
This is Poison Ivy being sold as a desirable somewhat rare ornamental plant. No mention of any dermatitis, inhaling of smoke, or eating by humans being problematic potentially fatal.
I've seen a few very large climbing vines that had awesome looking flowers and leaf structure. The vines were up 40-50 feet. I was fortunate to be in an Illinois State park that had the 3 varieties of poison ivy close together and identified with signs, take a look:
Another nice invasive is the Purple Loosestrife
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives...ife/index.html
Poison ivy can take on different forms - small bush, sapling like free standing twisting small tree, rampaging ground cover, and vine.
Purple loosestrife is another fine example of human tinkering with Nature that has caused much harm to native bog and wetland plants. Don't blame any of these these plants. BLAME the ignorance of humans.
As a study that I contributed to and submitted for analysis to various state DNR's and to the ornamental landscaping industry we found that supposedly sterile varieties of Purple Loosestrife that supposedly would not set seed indeed did. These three cultivated varieties I haven't recently seen vended. It took some time before existing inventories of these supposedly sterile varieties stopped being vended, even well after this information was available.
I recall poision ivy being native to the new world.
Shipped to collectors back in europe
Exploration of the new world was driven by botanists looking for plants to sell to collectors . People like william bartram were first explorers of the appalachians, looking for plants to sell.
There are at least 5-6 or so subspecies of Toxicodendron radicans coming from N America, Europe I think, and Asia. There are several different related poisonous species as well - poison oak, poison sumac, etc. Some botanists(plant taxonomists) recognize these subspicies as entirely separate species. They didn't all grow in one geographical area such as the New World or on the east or west coast of N America or in Asia. Some subspecies and species were introduced outside their historically native ranges. Regardless, poison ivy was promoted somewhat enthusiastically by plant geeks like Bartram(I'll call him that because it takes one to know one). His plant interests stemmed in good part from seeking medicinal uses from plants but also stemmed from economic development from plants.
The botanists required major money from benefactor royalty to sail expeditions of dozens to hundreds of people across oceans, and spend years exploring, collecting, cataloging, and cultivating clippings numbering in tens of thousands, then transport them back across ocean to be sold. Very much economically oriented. Not unheard of during exploration expeditions for a regime change to have occurred during the elapsed years and the new ruler to not even care, or be willing to pay for things or fund continued work
They also introduced Native American plants that became invasive in their habitat....kinda tit-for-tat
Think about the character of the eras and the land in which plant explorers like Bartram, Fremont, Lewis and Clark, Asa Gray, Douglas, Andre Michaux, etc conducted their explorations.
http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollect...earn/Kress.htm
Here are some photos of the plants inside the campground
DSCF3593.JPGDSCF3594.JPG
Here is another one that is growing in the cool weather of Mississippi 100 feet from cypress swamp. 2 plants were found. Some very large saw palmetto in the area. Plant is 1 foot tall.
DSCF3598.JPGDSCF3599.JPG
When dipping your finger into a jar of peanut butter, remember that the peanut plant probably originated in Peru or Brazil.
Can you find the poison ivy in this photo?
poison ivy.JPG
When my kids were small they learnt
Leaves of 3 ,let it be
And as important
Dont touch hairy vines
Big pi vines
images.jpg
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 05-19-2017 at 06:51.
A vine that thick can produce very large leaves way up high in the tree. I saw a tree have some ivy leaves as big as in this photo:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussi...y-large-leaves
large poison ivy leaf.JPG