New York Flora Association Blog

In 2006 a DEC forester was taking his afternoon exercise walk in downtown Albany and noticed this big leafy legume vine smothering a privacy fence.  He took some digital pictures and notified Jerry Carlson, DEC State Plant Pathologist, of the location.  Ken Carnes, State Survey Coordinator from the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets, siezed the opportunity to “test-out” their new Trimble GPS backpacks and documented the location with pin-point accuracy.  Later that winter, Heather Coiner, a graduate student at the University of Toronto who was studying the influence of climate change and the spread of kudzu, called from Canada and requested a kudzu sample to test for winter hardiness.  After Ken and Heather dug up four of the six plants, the property owner expanded his parking lot and destroyed the remaining plants. Its location along a fence line suggested that it had been planted. Fortunately no other kudzu plants have been found in the Capital District area. Heather is in the last stages of completing her PhD at the University of Toronto.

Kudzu Vine in Albany

We recently posted an alert for false brome grass but Marilyn Jordan from TNC Long Island is also concerned about wavy leaf basketgrass showing up in New York.

Oplismenus hirtellus (L.) P. Beauv. ssp. undulatifolius (Ard.) U. Scholz

Reported though the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council listserve. According to USDA plants the subspecies is only found in MD, but postings to the ma-eppc listserv indicate it is also in VA and FL. There
may be taxonomic confusion with the species Oplismenus hirtellus (L.) P. Beauv. Wavy leaf basketgrass is more competitive than Japanese stilt grass, and “An ornamental variegated pink, green and white form, sold as O. hirtellus ‘Variegatus’ for hanging baskets (Fig. 11), has spontaneously reverted to an all-green, wavy-leafed, very aggressive form under greenhouse conditions (Pohl 1981; see MD DNR poster).” The
ssp has been sold in CT according to LIISMA SRC member J. Lehrer. Information and photos of the ssp are available at:
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/download/wlbg_poster011108.pdf  and
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/WLBG/wl_basketgrass_ID.asp

From the Ontario Federation of Anglers & Hunters: It has been taking over fields, roadside signs, fences, trees, and even houses in the United States for years, but now, the kudzu vine (Pueraria montana) has been discovered in Ontario, on the shores of Lake Erie near the town of Leamington. The kudzu vine is a native of Eastern Asia, and was first brought to North America in 1876 for a centennial exhibition. It was later used for erosion control and promoted as a forage crop. Eventually, it took over much of the southern states and despite attempts to stop it, has continued to spread northward.

“We have been watching the kudzu vine move toward Canada for some time now, with great apprehension. Our colleagues in the south have been fighting a tough battle with this invader, so we need to take immediate action in Ontario to stop kudzu in its tracks,” says Rachel Gagnon, Coordinator of the O.I.P.C. (Ontario Invasive Plant Council), a collective of organizations collaborating to address the spread of alien invasive plants in Ontario. “Fortunately, it’s been found early, so unlike previous invaders, such as dog strangling vine, we have the potential to eradicate kudzu and protect Ontario’s biodiversity. Controlling this menace is critical to maintaining our native plants and wildlife habitat. If we let kudzu become established, it will cause untold ecological and economic damage.”

Like all other invasive species, when the vine takes to its new environment it spreads quickly at the expense of native species, including trees, which are girdled by the vine; broken by its weight; or killed by lack of light. The kudzu grows at an astounding rate of 30 centimeters (one foot) per day, and in a single season can grow up 30 meters (90 feet) in length.

Control measures include hand cutting, mowing, controlled burns and herbicide. Grazing animals, such as goats and pigs have also been effective at containing the spread of the vine over the long term.

The O.I.P.C. is a non-profit, multi-agency organization that facilitates a coordinated response to the threat of invasive plants. The council provides leadership, expertise and a forum to educate, motivate and empower organizations and citizens.

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, Ontario’s largest nonprofit, fish and wildlife conservation organization, houses the O.I.P.C. and supports its efforts. Visit www.ofah.org to learn more about the O.F.A.H.

To report a sighting of the kudzu vine or any other invasive species, call the O.F.A.H./M.N.R. Invading Species Hotline at 1-800-563-7711.Visit www.ontarioinvasiveplants.ca to download a fact sheet on the kudzu vine, or to learn more about other invasive plants.

New York Note:  the earliest record for New York State is around 1900 on Staten Island.  It is now well distributed around the NYC and Long Island area.  More info on its distribution around NYC can be found in the 1989 article by Edward Frankel in Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 116(4). 1989. pp. 390-394.

Steve Daniel sent a couple of photos of the invasion in Bergen Swamp.

A solid stand at Bergen.

Drooping spikelets and bright green leaves

From Steve Young: Slender false brome grass (Brachypodium sylvaticum) was recently found in Bergen Swamp in western New York by naturalist Steve Daniel. Until now this invasive grass was only found in Oregon where it has been a serious invader covering tens of thousands of acres, and also recently in Virginia and Northern California. Active attempts at control are underway in these states. This plant can form extremely dense solid stands in a variety of habitats, eliminating native vegetation. It has probably been in New York for some time and been overlooked because it resembles other brome grasses or species of Elymus.

Steve has corresponded and sent several photos and specimens to Tom Kaye, Ph.D., of the Institute for Applied Ecology in Corvallis, Oregon, and Rob Naczi of the New York Botanical Garden and it has been confirmed as Brachypodium sylvaticum. Tom has been a key player in a partnership of The Nature Conservancy, USDA Forest Service, USDI BLM, and other organizations, and they have formed a “False-Brome Working Group” that has been active in outreach and investigating effective means of control. See the websites:

http://www.appliedeco.org/invasive-species-resources/FBWG
http://www.calapooia.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/FB_brochure.pdf

Tom has been extremely helpful in sharing his experience with this species in Oregon. The following note, from Tom, may be helpful moving forward:

“You clearly have a well established population that has fully invaded some habitats and is starting on others. The pattern you have observed is typical of the invasion process we see here. Plants start at trail heads, along trails or roads, then spread along forest edges and into the forest stand. Next and more slowly, but still successfully, they spread into areas with more light, such as your marls. The plants appear to do well in dry sites as well as wetlands.
My recommendation would be to focus on containment of the invasion. Remove plants from trail sides and trail heads/parking areas, and any place people would sit or gather. The species is also spread easily and quickly by deer, which is harder to control. You may want to visit other recreation areas nearby to see if it has already invaded there. For a while, it seemed like I would find this species wherever people from my town traveled. It really gets everywhere, and recreationists are major vectors. Finally, conduct outreach to let people know of this problem. We started a False Brome Working Group to spread the word about this species to agencies, universities, land managers and invasive species coordinators. It worked very well as a group to share control ideas, present research results, and implement new methods. I think the spread of the species was tangibly slowed by this effort. Many thousands of acres in Oregon are covered by this grass, and it would be a shame to see the same happen in New York.”

If you live in Western or Central New York (where it has been seen recently in Tompkins County) please become familiar with this plant and report any sightings to Steve Young at syoung@tnc.org.