Time To Pull Invasive Weeds

They’re pretty blue flowers that have filled disturbed areas with color – but these traveling plants are on the prohibited noxious weed list and needed to be pulled before they go to seed.

An invasive, harmful weed, Bird Vetch (Vicia cracca) spreads rapidly by seed and underground roots. It covers native vegetation, climbing over other flowers, grasses, and shrubs, and up fences and small trees.

UAF Cooperative Extension Service IPM/Research Technician Janice Chumley: “If it is climbing up something, whatever that thing is that it is climbing up doesn’t get the sunlight that it needs or the water resources so all of a sudden it is doing poorly and the bird vetch is doing fine.”

 Chumley advises that after a while the bird vetch can change a habitat, making less forage for moose populations and other local wildlife that depend on local plants whose nutrients are customized for Alaskan nutritional needs.

The small 3/4 to 1″ purple-red, pea-like flowers grow in a dense, one-sided cluster of 20-50 flowers. The leaves have 10-20 leaflets which are very narrow, and have climbing tendrils.

UAF Cooperative Extension Service is asking us to mow or hand pull bird vetch before it produces seeds, put it in a sturdy plastic bag, tie it securely and put in the trash. Fortunately, it is easy to pull and the flowers do not go to seed like dandelions after being pulled.

Janice Chumley

UAF Cooperative Extension Service IPM/Research Technician Janice Chumley:”Fortunately, here on the Kenai Peninsula, we have a few small patches of bird vetch that we have been working for years to try to eradicate. In Anchorage, and further north going up towards Fairbanks, bird vetch is a huge problem.  Here on the Kenai Peninsula we have worked very hard to keep it contained and are slowly trying to get rid of it all together.”

The weed-infested sites can be smothered with a thick grass clippings after pulling the plants.  The seeds will continue to germinate for the next six years, so the plants have to be pulled every few weeks.

Do not confuse the invasive perennial Bird Vetch with the native Beach Pea, which has much larger flowers.  Peas do not grow in dense clusters, and their leaflets are much wider. Beach peas grow in a low mounds, never climb, and are a edible.

A member of the mint family, Hemp Nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit) is also considered an invasive noxious weed.  It can be identified by its white or purple small flowers, bristly square stems, and opposite leaves. Use gloves to protect against the plant’s prickly stems and seed pods. Alaskans are asked to yank this easy to pull weed as soon as they see it, the earlier the better, before it produces seeds.

There is more information contact the UAF Cooperative Extension Service.

Story as aired on KSRM News:

http://www.radiokenai.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Dorene-on-time-to-pull-invasive.mp3